A Bittersweet Gift from Nature

This past week, I received a bittersweet gift. In the winter months, Meeko and I walk almost every day on the little forest path not far from our house. At this point in the winter, the scenery is quite familiar and predictable: snow, tree trunks and shadows. I love it but there aren't many dramatic changes from day to day. We know what we are going to see at each curve of the pathway. One day last week, Meeko hesitated beside one snow bank and it made me glance over. Scattered over the snow were the most beautiful spotted feathers.

It didn't take too long to figure out that what we were witnessing was the aftermath of the tragic end of a woodpecker, most likely a Downy Woodpecker, although all that was left were feathers. I am squeamish about injury and death and hate to know that any creature has perished.

I need to tell you a story. One day a couple of years ago, I looked outside into our backyard and saw a hawk sitting in one of our trees. Our trees are still relatively small so it was a pretty impressive sight. He had a sparrow in its beak. I have been known to walk out into the backyard and announce to the birds (I'm usually talking to the blue jays in springtime) that there will be no murders in my backyard. I was horrified in this case to see that I was too late to do anything. I have to say that my reaction moved from horror to respect over the course of the very long time that he was there. This was not sport. There was no waste. This was his food.

So this week on the forest path, I respected the fact that most likely another hawk had had its lunch and I had ended up with the most beautiful subjects for a new painting. Meeko was very patient as I trudged through the snow trying to gather as many as I could. Do you look at nature sometimes and think 'How could this be so beautiful?' Me too. The markings on these feathers are exquisite. It's the first time I've seen woodpecker feathers up close.

I created a composition with sixteen feathers. Midway through working on my painting, I thought that maybe I should have included less feathers as it would have been so much less work but I like that there are so many shapes and variations of feathers included. The photos show my work still in progress but I am happy with how it is coming along.

While working on it, I learned that painting while breathing is complicated. My delicate subjects were flying all over the place. (Trying to paint without breathing is even more complicated!) I finally placed my reference feathers under a cello sleeve so they would stay in one place and I could still see them. Much better!

I am thankful to the hungry hawk and my scout Meeko for the gift of these beautiful feathers.

"Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift." Albert Einstein

A Birdie Sort of Giveaway (Closed)

It's a dark and gloomy day here. For some reason, it feels like a giveaway day. :) Leave a comment here and I will choose one name on Tuesday morning to win one of my new Blue Feather prints. There are more photos and details about the print here.

And because it is so very dark and gloomy, I'm going to add one of my new Chickadee note cards that are printed on real watercolour paper.

So the winner will receive one print and one note card (with envelope). Anyone can enter. Good luck!

Thanks everyone for the lovely comments. I appreciate your kind words so much. I will continue to accept comments up until 9:00 a.m. (EDT) on Tuesday, October 2nd. I'll announce the winner sometime during the morning.

Fall Frenzy

If you've ever wondered if I do a lot of tests before finalizing my prints. Yes, I do...about a million of them. (Well, it feels that way sometimes.) It can be tricky to get the printed result to look like my original painting, especially when what I see on my screen tends to be lighter than my printed output.

I've learned with time that I can squish several 'tries' on one piece of paper by reducing and repositioning the image just before printing.  That has been a big paper saver. The image at the right is my final version. The late afternoon light is making them look a little darker and less sharp than they actually are.  I hope to have the print in my Etsy shop in the next day or so.

The gorgeous feather is from an Australian Ringneck parrot. It was part of the beautiful collection of feathers and shells sent to me by my friend Cindy. The colours in it are amazing. I showed you the original painting before.

I am in an intense preparation period. I'm two weeks away from delivering prints and cards to an arts and crafts show that I have been doing for over 18 years now. You would think that with all that experience, I would be very good at having my materials ready well ahead of time. No, not really. This time of year, I don't sleep so well (my brain won't stop), family dinners don't always make it to the table and everything else has to wait for my show delivery to be over.  So, of course, because I really shouldn't be painting, it's what I want to do the most! But instead, I will work on doing more prints and making some new cards as well as framing and packaging what I have already.  And, because I am distracted these days, Meeko seems to be trying harder to get my attention--not necessarily through the best behaviour.

The past week has been an interesting dependency test. We had a 'boil water advisory' for two days. It's the first time it has happened to us. (A pipe in a neighbouring municipality broke.) Then, our cable company announced that there would be interrupted service over a period of 72 business hours (depending on how many hours they count in a business day, that's potentially a lot of days!). We had no internet for half of the day yesterday. It's back today--for how long I don't know. Do you want to know something? I found it easier to boil water than I did to be without the internet. Fingers crossed that our street is fine now and they are off working somewhere else.

Marvelous Mail

It was a 'good mail' week. I received the lovely 2013 calendar I ordered from Arounna at Bookhou. It is full of Arounna's beautiful brushwork and very happy colours.  And then, a day later, I received a crocheted stone from Margie at Resurrection Fern that I won in a lovely giveaway she held a while back on her blog. It is wrapped so prettily that I haven't had the heart to open it fully yet. A bit like Christmas, don't you think?  A beautifully wrapped present with the promise of its contents and a calendar that I can't use until 2013. Waiting can sometimes be delicious.

Don't they look like they belong together?

An Aussie Feather

My first Australian feather study.  So many beautiful colours in one feather. I'm going to try to walk away from it and leave it loose, without too much detail. Someone might need to tie my hands. :)

Across the World

When I began my blog nine months ago, I'm not sure that I knew what to expect. I was in the midst of resuming my painting career and I felt it was a way of making a public commitment to that. I knew I liked to write. I was an English major in university (not a surprise I suppose that I like to write). What I didn't expect was the friends I have made. Lovely friends in all parts of the world.

Last week, I receive some mail. Good mail. Really good mail.

One of my blogging friends sent me a collection of shells, sea glass and feathers from Australia. Thank you, Cindy. I hope you understand the thrill and joy I felt in receiving and opening your beautiful package. Aside from being a blogger, Cindy Lane is a wonderful artist, amazing photographer and an art teacher. She lives in Perth, Australia.

I visited Australia many years ago.  What an absolutely beautiful country.  Sadly, I didn't get to Perth. We did visit Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Alice Springs, Cairns and Brisbane though. It was an amazing trip.

When I received my wonderful package from Australia, it felt good in so many ways. It was a beautiful gesture from a blogging friend and fellow artist. It was a collection of gorgeous natural objects from a country I love, not to mention that someone took the time to walk on a beach thinking about me. Pretty special.

This past week, I visited an art supply store--one of my happy places. I bought some new watercolour paper.  I have almost always painted on 140 lb. cold press Arches paper. I have painted occasionally on Arches 300 lb. cold press paper, Saunders 140 lb. cold press and, most recently, on Saint-Armand handmade paper. Having Cindy's beautiful shells as inspiration allowed me to test out some of my new papers. Here are three quick little shell studies (ACEO size) on Arches 300 lb. hot pressed paper, Arches 140 lb. hot pressed paper and BFK Rives 280 gsm paper.

Most every happy story has a tragic underside (English major bias I guess). Well, here is the one that belongs to this one. When I was photographing Cindy's shells for my blog, I was juggling more than one thing.  I had the camera around my neck. I had a blank stretched canvas propped at the side (and steadied with my knee) to reflect the light, as it was a dim day. I was using a tripod that was not quite at the right angle for my photo, so I was tipping it forward. As I was manipulating all of these things, the canvas slipped and fell. Do you ever have something happen in front of you and you feel that it is occurring in slow motion? This was. As it happened, I yelled 'Nooooooooooo' and it just might have been heard in Perth.  When I lifted the fallen canvas, everything was fine except for the two beautiful sea urchins that were smashed into many pieces. I am not a gazelle but I have a pretty good track record for looking after delicate things. These lovely objects had made it across the world intact and within 24 hours I had broken some of them. I cannot tell you how terribly sorry I was. Tears may have been involved.

My sea collection with two pieces from the smashed sea urchins at the top

Thanks again, Cindy, for sending me these gorgeous treasures from the other side of the world. What a beautiful place we live in.

A Nature Collection with a French Twist

I just completed a painting this afternoon and I have already added the print to my Etsy shop.  I am so happy with how it turned out. (I hope it doesn't sound like bragging to say that.  It's not every day that I finish a painting and it just feels right.)

I did the painting of a collection of small and precious objects:  beach stones (one with a heart shape), tiny shells, green and amber sea glass--all from a past holiday in Maine.  I also included a sparrow's feather, a bud from a tree in my backyard and a couple of pieces of garden twine.  Then I did something quite different for me.  I added text to my painting and I decided to write the words in French.

Most of you know this by now. I live in a bilingual household.  I am anglophone. My husband is francophone.  Sometimes the French words are prettier than the English ones and, in this case, they even rhyme!  'La terre' is the earth, 'la mer' is the ocean or sea and l'air is...well I think you have that one figured out.

The photo above is of the painting in progress before I had thought of adding the feather, twine and twig. I'm not a sketchbook person although I admire those who are. My paintings develop as I work on them.

Thanks to everyone who left the lovely comments about Chloé's photography in the last post.  She was proud and happy to read them. :)

Progress and a Feather

I decided to reward myself for the progress I've made in cleaning my studio. I allowed myself a little painting time. I did another study of the little sparrow feather.  This time I used Saunders Waterford watercolour paper and embossed a rectangular area for my painting using Arounna's cool trick (her February 8th post). I used a mat opening as my shape.  I think I'll be doing this again.

5½ x 7½ inches - Saunders Waterford 140 lb. paper