"Wild Ones, Observing City Critters" is off to the printers

Wild Ones, Observing City Critters goes to press this week. I'll miss illustrating Scooter's adventuresome day in the city chasing after a squirrel. It was fun adding little glimpses of animals we see and a lot of times miss in our daily lives who live amongst us. Next time we see Scooter he'll be running through bookstores Spring 2016.

Wild Ones, Observing City Critters by Carol Malnor, published by Dawn Publications and illustrated by me, Cathy Morrison. Click on the image for a bigger and better view.

Thanks for taking a look!

Fort Collins Magazine, Celebrating Life in Northern Colorado

Fort Collins is a great place to live and we're fortunate to have Fort Collins Magazine supporting and celebrating local artists.

Fort Collins Magazine, Fall 2015

Below is an interview with Rachael Coon about being a children's book illustrator.

Natural Wonder, News and Notes

Here's a photo of my grandson, Konnor and Crowley, our big brown dog who pop up here and there in illustrated form in several of my picture books. Konnor posed for If You Love Honey, Nature's Connections. They're both in The Prairie That Nature Built.

Konnor and Crowley

And I have to give a shout out to Laura Pritchett in the same fall edition. I met Laura at a holiday party last year and just finished her book, Stars Go Blue. I can't wait to pick up her latest book, Red Lightning.

5 Minutes with Laura Pritchett

Thanks so much to Cara McDonald, the editor of Fort Collins Magazine and Rachael Coon who did a great job with the interview.

Sneak peek at Spring 2016 Titles

Over on the Farm cover

So they galloped in a field where the corn plants thrive.

"Waddle, " said the mother.

"Roll," said the mother.  "We roll," said the ten.

 It's always fun to get the first look at pdfs from a book I illustrated after the designer has finessed the layout with type and design. It's also fun to work on a book for very little kids that rhymes, can be sung, is a counting book and has a surprise rooster ending. This will be the fourth book Marianne Berkes and I have done together and my fourth book for Dawn Publishing as well. Over on the Farm comes out spring 2016.

I'm working on a second book that will come out the exact same day, so here's a few images from that book as well. The working title is Wild Ones: Critters in the City. The author, Carol Malnor has several nature books for kids and I love her story about animals living among us.  I'll post more details in a bit.

He darts off to investigate.

Always curious about what he might discover, Scooter follows the bird.

Meanwhile, while Scooter is discovering city critters, his family is looking for him.

He wanders over to check it out.

Please click on the images for a larger view. And as always, thanks for taking a look!

Westword Magazine

I've always been a big fan of Westword, Denver's weekly magazine. Here's an interview by Jamie Siebrase about illustrating children's books based in nature and science.

Thanks so much, Jamie!

Plein Air Painting at Soapstone Prairie

Gary Raham, artist, writer, scientist and educator

 Gary Raham says Friday is a good day to play hooky and do some plein air painting. Just to make sure it's OK and I don't feel totally guilty, it's sponsored by the City of Fort Collins, it's a real event, an Artists' Day in the Field, so I'm outta here. 

Artists' Day in the Field at Soapstone Prairie

Fort Collins is very supportive of its artists, writers, scientists, and their over all population, young and old. They sponsor a lot of free events to get us out and about so we get to enjoy life and meet like minded people.

Free Range Traffic Jam

I had never been to Soapstone Prairie and didn't realize how far away it is. I ran into a couple of free range traffic jams. Growing up with a family ranch in Texas where we kept our cattle safely contained in fenced pastures, I don't totally get this free range concept, although I've run into it several times.

Pronghorn traffic jam

And another traffic jam, Pronghorn this time, free range all the time, but this I get.

Soapstone Prairie

OK, we're finally here, hike in a ways and it's a wonderful day of painting. I meet several accomplished artists, all great people and realize playing hooky once in awhile is good for the soul.

Blooming Cactus

Me, Laura Young and Christine Torrez

We had beautiful skies, amazing landscape, enjoyed Gary's expertise and talk about the Lindenmeier Archaeological Site and expedition artist, Edwin Grey Cassedy and it was a wonderful day.

Thank you Gary and Fort Collins!
Now back to work for me.

Over on the Farm

Over on the Farm, by Marianne Berkes, illustrated by me, published by Dawn Publications

Here's the working cover for Over on the Farm which comes out in the spring. I love illustrating Marianne Berke's stories and this will be our fourth book together. It's about farm animals and counting, what more could a little kid want? I'll post more show-and-tell when there's more to post.

Since this is the first of two books I'm working on with Dawn Publishing for an early 2016 release I need to keep drawing.

Thank you for taking a look!