The landing…

In this weeks newsletter, we celebrate a milestone with a retrospective featuring all 22 dragon covers Michael painted in his career: theartofmichaelwhelan.substack.com/p/a-legacy-o...

Puffins in flight. Goodnight Blue Sky

PASSAGE: VERGE (1989) 
Acrylic on Canvas - 48" X 36"

 There are other, more metaphysical meanings to be derived from this painting, but at the time I was doing it I had decided to "step off the brink," professionally speaking. 1/2 #art

“… my back was hinting at a future without your breath tickling my neck …” from “Last Carry,” Matthew Stewart @roguestrands.bsky.social

Black-capped Donacobius South and Central America 20–25 cm length Insectivores Male/female, nearly identical, monogamous, mating for life Famous for its synchronized”anti-phonic duets.

A stitch in time saves nine or so … 🙂

This little wren makes sure everyone in the neighborhood know that he's got the most awesome house. #Bird #NaturePhotography #VT365 #Bloomscrolling #Flowers

“Ignorant beauty still takes pains Although the world is cruel, and getting crueller. And if the moon gets fuller Like a tick with blood, it also wanes.” —“Auguries” by @aestallings.bsky.social app.lrb.co.uk/2026/06/26/a...

David Hammons, Pray for America, 1969 www.moma.org/collection/w...

The American Kestrel—North America's smallest falcon—is famous for its ability to "wind-hover". By angling its body into the wind, rapidly flapping its wings, and making subtle tail adjustments, the bird stays completely stationary in midair to spot and ambush prey like insects and small rodents.

DOORWAY TO THE WEST (2006)
 Acrylic on Panel - 12” x 9” 

Another search for the light. Creating the illusion of texture in paint, the process of actually painting it, can be an act of meditation. 1/2

The sound is fantastic, but look at those tiny feathers! 🥰 TT: @coppervinefeeders Ruby-throated hummingbird Dubuque, Iowa

‘I know the stars by heart, the armies of the night, and there in the lead the ones that bring us snow or the crops of summer, bring us all we have-- our great blazing kings of the sky, I know them, when they rise and when the fall…’ ~ Aeschylus, Agamemnon. #BookWormSat 🖼️ Falling stars, Franz Stuck

Not knowing when the Dawn will come I open every door. —Emily Dickinson

Teach me half the gladness That thy brain must know, Such harmonious madness From my lips would flow The world should listen then—as I am listening now. —Shelley, “To a Skylark” pilgrimdreams.com/2016/06/22/b...

A closer look at Indigo Bunting. They are a common and widespread species in eastern North America, often found in brushy fields, woodland edges.

Large skipper on the toadflax

“The topmost branches, bare in all their glory, turning radiant with welcome and the one tree farther, a farm away, lit up above the scrublands as if chosen, as we are, for a blessing we don’t deserve.” —Linda Gregerson, “On Form”

Genevieve May (American, b.1990) "Departed," 2023 Oil on panel 24 x 36 in #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

Deborah Sandidge Photography "A family of spoonbills enjoy the warmth of the late afternoon sun in the heart of the wetlands. The young chicks bob their heads in anticipation of being fed. Four chicks in the nest is such a treat to see! Filmed with my Nikon Z9, NIKKOR Z 600mm f/4 TC VR lens."

Grey-Headed Bulbul endemic to the Western Ghats of India 📷: Suresh Kamath #birds

this swallow I see that sees me we were meant to meet like the sea on the strand like the stranger walking past ships in the night in flight #BirdScratchBySirrah

I’d say this is as good a review as you can possibly get.

We are still at the crossroads, are we not? Familiar sounds from @chaya-czernowin.bsky.social youtu.be/FsRp1ZYi98A

birds— sing to the unseen Other— —carnivalize Being— teach us meaning in motion— a movement of sparrow in the soul’s marrow— a genuflection— a recognition— in concentric order (like a rock thrown into a lake) high-pitched and raucous rebounding from and to— her Creator. #BirdScratchBySirrah

Deborah Sandidge Photography "A Great Blue Heron reaches toward the sky in a display that’s part of an ancient mesmerizing ritual to attract a mate. The deep bow and skyward stretch is a beautiful hypnotic gesture that I look forward to filming each year."

"Danse macabre" (2023), acrylic painting created by the Iranian artist Bahman Pezeshkzad.

🔥 A black heron using its wings like an umbrella, creating shade to attract fish, a behavior known as canopy feeding.

A male Baltimore Oriole perches on the branch that is holding the hanging nest with his nestlings.

“I am a brother of jackals, and a companion of owls.” – Job 30:29

“I met a traveller from an antique land” — from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias”

What’s the first line of a poem you love? #poetry

Can’t wait to see the first tulips of Spring. Oh, and a dandelion or two.

Another theory, however, is that Brontë was using Heathcliff to comment on prejudices against the Irish, since her father was from Ireland and she was writing at the start of the potato famine there. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/m...

Election worker: “Emily Mandel. Isn’t that a writer’s name?” Me: “I’m a writer.” Election worker: “Oh, I was thinking Hilary Mantel, never mind”

This is Frankie. Due to the devastating impacts of climate change and not having taken a nap for an entire two hours, she is melting. 13/10 (IG: frankiethepotato)