Top to bottom tree frogs, and my first New Mexico rattler...

After I posted some out door 'tree frogs on a vine' close ups (but no complete top to bottom single images since I was going to do them inside),  Deborah Paris commented...

'the natural light makes them look fantastic. Anyway you can photograph the whole thing that way in a natural environment? It would look super!'

So I thought I'd do both!
The 'no distractions' way (might as well take advantage of how dark it gets here at night!), and around a pond.
Good job I got around to it quickly too. The inferno of color from the leaves was gone the very next day after a severe frost, and it even snowed last night.

This pond has bullfrogs in it (too cold to find any now though!)

2 different patinas

So thanks Deborah, great idea and right in the nick of time!

I still have to tidy up the indoor pics I just took (lots of dust on the table surface etc).

A couple of days before halloween I ran into my first rattlesnake since moving to Santa Fe five years ago.
I'd encountered a couple in California out walking about on some hiking trails (I wouldn't call myself a hiker: I start crying, sit on the floor, thrash about while turning purple and refuse to walk any further after about an hour and a half).

This time we were driving home and I saw a snake in the road.
As per usual I pulled over and jumped out, as I've often done before to encourage with my feet what is usually a bullsnake to get out of the road.

This time it was a rattler.
It had some blood on it, wasn't moving, but looked alive in a normal snakey pose (plus it wasn't flat yet!).
I noticed it was a very pale sandy color with very distinct markings, and some black and white bands by its rattle (which was up, but wasn't rattling).

My guess is it was hit once, maybe just dead, maybe nearly dead.
Anyhow, caution being the better part of valor where I'm concerned, I didn't attempt to usher it to safety since I didn't have a broom or anything on me.

A bit later we drove past the same spot where it was a barely noticeable ring of snake jerky on the road, and the next day there was no sign of it at all.

Eager to identify it, I googled some descriptions, home ranges and pics of various New Mexico rattlers and in the process saw some rather gruesome photos of hands that had been bitten.
They looked like rather gory balloon animals or over cooked sausages that had burst on the grill.
Chilling, to say the least!
Anyhow, I reckon it was a Western Diamondback, and it was right at the entrance to the community college which is right near a lot of houses.
So I didn't feel too bad that I couldn't save it!

And if you really want to give yourself a scare, do a google image search for 'rattlesnake bite'!

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Toxic relationships and dangerous liasons...Is YOUR best friend a snake?

There's a 16 foot long snake in our art supply store.
Her name is Delilah, and she's scary big. The store is called Artisan.
Ron, the big cheese of the store, keeps other snakes too.
Like Bala, a ball python who made friends with a mouse that was supposed to be dinner.

Lucky the mouse and Bala took a shine to each other. They'd nuzzle and seemed to actually enjoy each other's company.
Ron was perplexed.
In all his years of snake keeping he'd never seen anything quite like this before.

Was it the two tone color of the mouse, or its sex being different from the others, that kept the snake from seeing it as food?
Ron tried other mice of similar hues, and alternating sexes.

Each time, the snake would eagerly pounce on the new introduction, and leave Lucky alone.
Lucky would apparently seem a little perturbed for a short while, before resuming an affectionate relationship with Bala.

They were really hitting it off together.

Recently a new mouse was put in with Bala, and as usual the snake went into active hunt mode.
At that moment Lucky hopped up to greet the snake and was promptly eaten by mistake.
Realizing the error of its ways, and wanting to remove the bitter taste of regret from its mouth, the python quickly put things right by gobbling up the other mouse for dessert.

I could hardly believe Ron's strange-but-true tale, and please, feel free to suggest the moral of that story!

Dreama Tolle Perry sent me a pic of Sprightly meeting her cat Eddie, although I think Sprightly will fare better than Lucky.

Click HERE to see her blog.
Dreama recently interviewed another tip top painter Carol Marine on her radio blog which you can listen to HERE. I really enjoyed it.



Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Snakes alive (and snakes dead), people's choice and bright shiny things.

People.
Gotta love 'em.
Thanks folks, for voting my Sumo Wrestling Toads the 'People's Choice' during their stay at Brookgreen Gardens as part of the National Sculpture Society's annual show (which is over now).
I am stupendously happy to have got your votes. I think that's a pretty big deal.
Yeah!

Twice in the space of a week I've had to jump out of my car to shoo a coachwhip snake off the road.
On one occasion I was in an awful hurry to get home due to certain biological emergencies that result from a fondness for green chiles on everything, washed down with copious amounts of strong coffee.
I'd been driving us home like a vampire hurtling to his coffin against the quickly rising sun, only with the prospect of a much messier outcome should I lose my race against time.

Almost home... rounding the last corner... what's that across the driveway?
Right in my way, a 4 foot long coachwhip snake dammit! And a beautiful shade of raw salmon pink to boot.

Beeping the horn won't help, they're deaf to airborne sounds.

And for some odd reason, they aren't scared of cars.
But when you hop out and they detect your human form they flail away like a mad thing.
Much like my attempts to get the keys in the door.

Then a few days later I saw another one across the road laying there without a care in the world about a block or two away.
So I hopped out and pranced around it, to see what it would do.
First they try to make a mad dash for the edge of the road, but they thrash so hard against the smooth asphalt that they slip and slide about instead of moving forwards.

So I danced past it and it turned at me and raised it's head with its mouth wide open.
Just until it figured it could zip past me and off through some rabbit bush and away.

Then I spied our 'pet' bull snake in the garden while I was looking for our weed spraying bottle.
He was patrolling among some large flower pots near the bbq grill.

I noticed he had particularly rich reddish brown blotches. Must have recently shed his skin.

He casually nosed around, and took up residence inside the bottom of the grill.


Besides that, I saw another Coachwhip snake right on the road outside our house one evening when we drove home from somewhere or other.
I hopped out, but sadly it was dead.

I was wondering if one of our neighbors might have killed it by running it over. There's only 5 other houses on our cul-de-sac, so it couldn't be too hard to narrow it down.
But it was kind of right on the road where we'd be after we've backed out of the driveway.
So now I'm plagued with the thought that I in-advertantly killed it, after saving it a couple of times.
Could have been some one else, but then again, could have been me.

Will I ever sleep again?

Probably.

Other than that I'm pondering just how super bright and shiny to do the patina on my tree frogs when they get cast.
I fancy taking a leap into the super bright arena for a change, since I think the subject matter could handle it.

No news regarding progress of my pieces, it's all a bit out of my hands for a little while 'till they come back from the foundry for finishing and patina.
But I think I'll be bugging Lee for a progress report this week...

My website, and Etsy store.