2023 Earth & Sky Exhibit at Matthaei Botanical Gardens

My media painting titled Rising Comet with Morning Star was selected for inclusion in the 2023 Earth & Sky Exhibit at University of Michigan’s Matthaei Botanical Gardens. The exhibition will be on display Friday, November 24th through Saturday, December 30th. The reception is Sunday, December 17th from 2:00 to 4:00pm at Matthaei Botanical Gardens which is located at 1800 N. Dixboro Rd in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Matthaei is my alma mater's botanical garden where I took botany courses and fell in love with the orchids, cacti and succulents I grow in profusion.  

I’m quoting myself here from a previous blog post about the piece:

“This mixed media painting was inspired by my sighting of C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) while in Avalon, California looking toward the mainland before sunrise. As always, I packed my DSLR, lenses and binoculars, but no tripod because I can be an idiot at times. I carried a sturdy chair from the hotel room to a high spot around 4AM accepting that I was being overly optimistic thinking it and a towel under my camera might reduce shutter shake enough for some long-ish exposures. I captured the green dot in focus once there was sufficient light in the sky to shoot handheld at f/2.8 with a high ISO. Still, the comet was there above the smog, more or less in the presence of ear-tipped feral cats and me before the din of golf carts and boat motors drowned out the lapping waves.”

Robin Street-Morris. Rising Comet with Morning Star. Transparent watercolor and soft pastel on 300lb cold press paper. 14” x 21” (36 x 53cm)

A new piece and an exhibition announcement

My latest mixed media painting.

Empyreal Mist. 2021. Transparent watercolor and powdered soft pastel on 300lb hot press paper. 14" x 21" (36 x 53cm).

Juror Paul Glenshaw of the Smithsonian Institution selected two of my landscape paintings for inclusion in the 2021 Art on Paper exhibition at Maryland Federation of Art’s Circle Gallery in Annapolis, Maryland. This was one of those times when I found myself admiring every piece included in the show as I scrolled through the gallery of accepted work.

As is typically the case, the paintings I’ll be carefully matting and framing to send across the country were inspired by personal moments in nature.

Passage XI (Comet with Venus). 2020. Transparent watercolor and powdered soft pastel on 300lb cold press paper. 15" x 20" (38 x 51cm).

Sea of Fog with Green Flash. 2020. Transparent watercolor and powdered soft pastel on 300lb rough press paper. 14" x 19" (36 x 48cm).

Comic-Con Art Show 2020 and Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)

The Comic-Con Art Show began online today via Tumblr and you can check it out here. Typically this is the day we head downtown to hang my work after I’ve framed it myself with archival materials. That was understandably not in the cards this year to avoid potentially spreading the plague. The silver lining is that the powers that be have made it possible for us to come together this week to enjoy each other’s work, attend panels and visit booths virtually. This is a great year to enjoy all there is to online in respect to said event. As per usual, my mantra is “support living artists” and that always includes my colleagues. Supporting artists can come in the form of purchasing a piece or print, or simply sharing and showing general appreciation of what we do.

My latest piece was inspired by seeing comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) in the Laguna Mountains an hour east of here. Our coastal fog had cloaked it for days and I realized we had to head eastward in order to make sure we saw it. It’s the closest it’s going to be to our planet today until roughly another 6,800 years.

Robin Street-Morris. Passage XI (Comet with Venus). 2020. Transparent watercolor and powdered soft pastel on 300lb cold press paper. 15" x 20" (38 x 51cm).

Musing over birds

Occasionally, I make paintings in response to memorable encounters I’ve had with particular birds while spending time in nature. My goal is to capture the essence of these moments in my art rather than document them.

Some of these pieces are available; please contact me if you’re interested. Prints of any of them may be purchased after clicking on an image. Thanks for supporting living artists.

—Robin Street-Morris

Barred Owl Moon. Transparent watercolor on 300lb cold press paper. 13" x 21" (33 x 53cm).

Qui Vive. Transparent watercolor and soft pastel on incised 300lb cold press paper. 9" x 14" (23 x 36cm).

Torrey Pine Remains with Raven. Transparent watercolor on 300lb cold press paper. 12" x 17" (31 x 43cm).

Little Owl. Transparent watercolor and powdered soft pastel on 300lb incised hot press paper. 9" x 14" (23 x 36cm).

Reclamation (Santa Cruz Island Ravens). Transparent watercolor and powdered soft pastel on 300lb hot press paper. 13" x 19" (33 x 48cm).

Crows Above Basilica. Transparent watercolor and soft pastel on 300lb hot press paper. 15" x 20" (38.10 x 50.80cm).

Oration. Transparent watercolor and soft pastel on 140lb cold press paper. 10" x 15" (25 x 38cm).

Los Peñasquitos Canyon VIII (the Swallows Return). Transparent watercolor and soft pastel on 300lb cold press paper. 13" x 19" (33 x 48cm).

Raven Pair with Diurnal Moon. 2015. Transparent watercolor and soft pastel on 300lb cold press paper. 13" x 19" (33 x 48cm).

Ocean of Glass with Seabirds. Transparent watercolor and soft pastel on 300lb hot press paper. 13" x 20" (33 x 51cm).

Raven with Torrey Pine Branch and Cold Moon. Transparent watercolor on 300lb cold press paper. 14" x 19" (36 x 48cm).

Unbounded (Crow Over Tijuana Estuary). Transparent watercolor with metallic gouache and soft pastel on 300lb cold press paper. 12" x 19" (30 x 48cm).

Canyon Denizen II (Great Horned Owl with Eucalyptus Branch). Transparent watercolor and soft pastel with iridescent medium on 300lb cold press paper. 12" x 18" (30 x 48cm).

Departure (Crows at Dawn). Transparent watercolor and soft pastel on 140lb cold press paper. 13" x 19" (33 x 48cm).

Nesting Great Horned Owl. Transparent watercolor on 300lb cold press paper. 12" x 21" (30 x 53cm).

Sentinel (Great Horned Owl in Cottonwood Tree). Transparent watercolor on 300lb cold press paper. 16" x 21" (41 x 53cm).

Pueo Encounter (at Haleakalā National Park). Transparent watercolor and soft pastel on 300lb hot press paper. 14" x 20" (36 x 51cm).

Three Birds and Evening Star. Transparent watercolor and soft pastel on 300lb hot press paper. 14" x 19" (36 x 48cm).

Hunting Moon I (Great Horned Owl). Transparent watercolor and soft pastel on 140lb hot press paper. 8" x 13" (20 x 33cm)

Hunting Moon II. Transparent watercolor and soft pastel on 140lb hot press paper. 9" x 13" (23 x 33cm)

Hunting Moon III (Great Horned Owl). Transparent watercolor and soft pastel on 300lb cold press paper. 9" x 14" (23 x 36cm).

Hunting Moon IV (Great Horned Owl). Transparent watercolor and soft pastel on 300lb hot press paper. 13" x 19" (33 x 48cm).

Hunting Moon V (Great Horned Owl). Transparent watercolor on 300lb cold press paper. 13.5" x 20" (34 x 51cm).

Walking Among Barn Owls. Transparent watercolor and soft pastel on 300lb cold press paper. 14" x 20" (36 x 48cm).