Resident Chipmunk
"Resident Chipmunk" (oil on birch panel 6 x 6 in.) On 14 March 2020 our resident Chipmunk was out - sitting pertly on the mossy hump of carpet that marks our dry well just outside the kitchen window. He didn't stay long, but scampered up past the Red Currant bushes and popped into a small round hole just below our Asparagus patch. This was probably its home burrow for the winter, and had me wondering whether Chipmunks eat the roots of Asparagus! 19 March finds me painting the scene, sitting against the house wall, all wrapped up and settled on cushions, my first plein air of the year. As soon as I have the underpainting done, a rough sketch scratched into it with the tail end of my brush, and the mossy green hump of carpet laid in with its halo of red sporophytes, I refer to the photo of the Chipmunk on my phone, and paint in the Chipmunk. A flock of 40 Canada Geese just flew over the village, clamouring - their V much longer on the west side than the east. A...