What Is In the Works.

 Spring is here in the Flathead Valley! I will tell you what, spring in NW Montana is wonderful in and of itself but it is even more wonderful after months of winter. But spring is also the time of year to get things done and preparing for the coming year. That means that quality time with the computer and therefore with my blog becomes limited, between work and getting things prepared at home (spring cleaning anyone?). We are hoping to be raising a variety of poultry; we have 5 turkey already and some chickens possibly on their way.
It has been too long since I last wrote for this blog but I am slowly preparing future posts. One will be about one the most important figures in dinosaur paleontology and another will be about an armored
fish that had one of the most powerful bites in the animal kingdom.

A future post will be about this guy...

So, in short, I have not abandoned this blog and will be writing in the future. Thank you for your patience.

and this guy.

Artist Highlight: Douglas Henderson

It has been a while since I have written. I have been out of town for a while and the internet on my wonderful computer has been working flawlessly so I have been bottled necked from any constant writing but know that I do have a couple of posts in the works including one on the sharks of Illinios. So stay tuned. For now I thought that I would write a quick post highlighting an inspirational artist.
    The artist that I am mentioning is a fellow by the name of Douglas Henderson. He lives in Whitehall, Mt. which is right in between Bozeman and Anaconda. It would be neat if we lived closer to there. He has been around a while and his art is used for many paleo-illustrations. He illustrated a very good children's book on the Ghost Ranch find of the South-West. Some of my favorite paleo-art pieces ever are his Coelophysis illustrations in that book.
    His work seems to be influenced by early landscape artists such as Thomas Moran, Frederick Church, and Albert Beirsdadt who were 18th and 19th century landscape artists. I like such influences in paleo-art, as much paleo-art often just isn't as fine as more main-line art may be. Often times paleo-artist seems to tend to be a little fantastic in their art and many paleo-artist are starting to heavily use digital media for their art which just isn't a good substitute for traditional media, in my opinion.
   His artwork seem to incorporate much landscape and his art is somewhat earthy which is something that I also like. Also, I would say that he is reminiscent of Charles Knight and Zdenek Burian except his dinosaurs have better anatomical accuracy.  
    His work isn't perfect and I must admit that I have seen better tyrannosaurs. Some of the best tyrannosaurs that I think I've seen would have to be from Raul Martin and possibly Gregory Paul.
     You can see his work and read more about him at his website and you can read an interview with him at the blog Archosaur Musing. Enjoy.