Humans Co-creating with Nature

Tamarack 4/24/18 I love it that what early settlers took for primeval forest here in America was, in fact, a garden. When Native Americans traveled they would gather seeds from trees and edible or useful plants and carry them back to their home territory where they would plant them. Fires were used to keep down

Weaving of Colors

When I saw this stand of fresh-faced spiderwort growing at Illinois Beach State Park this spring, I thought, oooh, a pattern of color! I used a background of orange behind the colors to make them pop, with a bit of yellow washed over here and there.

A Rare Little Gem

Imagine that you’re standing at the edge of a vast stand of cattails, about to plunge in. If, like me, you’ve done such a thing, you know what a claustrophobia-inducing experience this can be, with the added excitement of treacherous footing. That you can’t see, because  cattails are in your face. And if, like me,

Western Sunflower

Melissa Blue Fine Art Have I told you my Swink & Wilhelm story? It begins in a wonderful little bookstore in a nature center in Peoria. This was the gathering place for all of us volunteers embarking on a new venture~habitat restoration! Professional ecologists had their offices upstairs, and they would come down to mingle

Pickerel Weed

Melissa Blue Fine Art  Pickerel Weed is such a wonderful plant, standing tall right at the edge of water where I like to hang out. Frogs lurk here, snakes sometimes slither, herons stalk while dragonflies hang in the air taunting us mud-bound creatures. For years I have been playing it safe with my paintings. The

The Butterfly Monitors

The Butterfly Monitors My grand opening was this past Saturday. It was attended by my family and a few close friends~what a special day and thank you to all of you who came! When the dust was settled we looked at each other with wild eyes:”Did YOU take pictures???” Nope. None of us did. Ah,

Chicago Botanic Garden Irises

Here is a happy splash of color to celebrate spring. I’ve been wanting to push myself past a merely narrative style with my work, and make it more playful. Also, I have been inspired by the wonderful photographs you all share. I’ve been struck by color combinations that I wanted to try out. For this

Light Catcher

In the back corner of my garden there lives an old apple tree. There isn’t much left of it and a wet snow this winter took down another big section of it. Still, I love that tree and enjoy the woodpeckers  who like to visit it now.  One afternoon last summer I came across this

Choosing Joy

melissabluefineart.com Today when I ventured out to my favorite little coffee shop I was surprised to find the TV on there, tuned to news. It seems another police officer has been shot, this time in a little town near my home. They have pretty much shut down the entire area while they hunt for the

Butterflies and Turtles

“Baltimore Checkerspot and Turtlehead” Click here to visit my website This is my debut with my new smartphone.  The Samsung S6 takes amazing photos, but will they translate on the internet?  Fingers crossed… Many beautiful moons ago when I got drawn into prairie restoration and butterfly monitoring, I learned of efforts to rescue the Baltimore