After finishing three Beaver Island commissions before Christmas as well as a three-week trip to Florida, I’m busy finishing a sequel to What’s On the Beach, another easy intro book to Great Lakes nature for kids (and clueless adults) called What’s In the Woods. I’ve finished most of the art and am now writing and doing layouts. With luck and a little less procrastination, I’ll have it ready by June.

The Florida trip got me started on another book idea: What’s on the Beach in Florida! I’m hoping to get that finished by Christmas. But I may have to postpone that project if I end up doing a third poster in my Lake Effects series this summer (Lake Effects I and II cover fall, winter, and spring, but not summer).

I have been sending out a few flyers to folks interested in those 36-views-from-the-same-window posters to see if someone with a good Lake Michigan view would be willing to extend me access to summer digs and a weatherproof window workplace in exchange for the 36 original watercolors that will become Lake Effects III, the last poster in the series. I’ve gotten an interesting response recently, so my artist-in-residency may dominate my summer.

Meanwhile, if you want to know what’s happening with me from the tight focus of a breast cancer survivor, pop onto my blog at HealthCentral. I’ll keep up better with this one too—a lot of art is happening that hasn’t yet been uploaded.

The painting (click on it to enlarge it) is an acrylic on paper, done for Ray and Nina Cole, owners and operators of the Beaver Island Lodge and Nina’s Restaurant on Beaver Island, Michigan.