Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas

Wishing a very merry Christmas to all.
May your Health be good 
May your heart flow with Joy 
May Peace and Love be the centre of your life.

digital painting by Tess

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Precious visitors

Glistening hoar frost delights captured on a frosty, frosty, down right nasty its a darn cold out day.   
Precious visitors to warm the heart on cold blustery days have brought extra joy and excitement into my heart which helps offset the doldrums of the severe -21 temps. Joy shared is joy amplified so on that note I share these delightful images with you.
With the deep-freeze cold we have had extra visitors. This female Downey woodpecker has been coming on the coldest days to the suet feeder. The male has been to the stump out back pecking out native bee progeny but has yet to find the suet.

 Redpolls, were dining on the seeds from the birch this week. There have been reported sightings all over the city, it seems once the snow gets deep and the cold hits hard they converge in search of feed. Alas other than our birch tree we don't have the kind of seed they prefer so they moved on after a couple days. One foot on a step-stool and one on the toilet lid to view out the bathroom window was a feat of technical balancing and breath holding to get the shot as I was using pin-point manual focus to shoot between branches and freeze-dried leaves while at the same time trying not to fog up the window with my breath. And to boot they feed hanging downwards so I had to attempt to hold the camera stable long enough to get the bird with its head up; so about 200 shots later I got a few descent ones and the satisfaction of an afternoon well spent enjoying natures beauty right outside my window.

 A extra wonderful big surprise was a Brown Creeper. I once saw a creeper down in the ravine near the river but have never seen one on our trees, wow, what a precious gift. They feed by walking up the tree trunk searching the cracks and crevice for bugs and eggs, yum.

House Finch male, below female. These are our regulars. About twenty show up as a group throughout the day though when its real cold their numbers multiply emptying the feeders enforce.

 This sweet Blue Jay has been coming once in a while, though I believe its to pry the peanuts out of the suet.
 Love the varied blues to soft gray.
 An the best capture is a Yellow-shafted Flicker. He finally stayed long enough for me to get his photo. I recently purchased a good tripod and set it up by the window and for three days in a row I missed the shot as this fella is flighty. Any movement I made inside or if a dog walker or car pass by off he would go. Well perseverance paid off. I figured where he was likely to land before attempting to acquire the suet then set up the camera enabling minimal movement for when he showed up again, then kept vigilant while I sat in the recliner reading.
 We went for a saturday drive and took in the beauty of the thick hoar frost.

  This lone tall tree reminds me of an Emily Carr painting.


 Country Crew on break. We stopped to photograph deer who curiously looked up, they didn't seem to mind our presence till a truck pulled alongside to see if we needed help and then they took leave.

Another regular that comes for suet and black-oil sunflower seeds is the Red-breasted Nuthatch. Usually they come in two's but this fella has been coming alone the last few days.
 Female House Sparrow, an introduced species. A few come by but the Finches control the feeding station so the sparrows have to pick fallen seed of the ground.

 Black-capped Chickadee is another regular for both seeds and suet.

One more of the precious flicker.
Hope you have enjoyed the beauty.
Hugs!

Thursday, November 29, 2012

On the road again; sing it Willie

View from the road looking away from the coulee, a whole different landscape. As we were leaving we met a photographer waiting for the full moon to rise, oh how I wanted to stay longer but our tummies were growling and we needed to find a camp for the night.

 Forthy five min later we see the moon the photographer was waiting for, and was it ever grand.

 See the smoky haze? It seems no one knew where it was coming from, most just said heat haze but to us it looked like fire smoke haze. Were the sweetgrass hills to the south on fire in late august?
 Down gravel roads that put city pavement to shame, holy cows, we were doing 60k and the hawk was travelling parallel to us. I managed three shots shooting straight out past my sweeties face and the steering wheel then the hawk left us in the dust.
See the reddish glow, well out the opposite window...
was this burning sunset.
Enjoy!

Red Rock, Red Lichens

Late august we meandered south letting randomness decide where we would camp and what we would see though we had set a destination point of Cyprus Hills as I had not been there yet. But thats another post as for years I've wanted to see the following wonder.
 Beautiful round boulder formations in southern Alberta that are covered with equally beautiful patterns of lichens. A magical and mysterious place that calls to me.

A touch of green overshadowed by the red-ochre cast of its surrounding environment.
 A variety of birds flitted amongst the rocks and low shrubs.
 Horned Lark
 Two views of the landscape. When we get a chance to go back I would love to walk this canyon to view the carved hoodoos. One elderly fella whom we met said its gorgeous with subtle coloration's and shapes that one does not see until amidst it. I was not able to walk that distance due heat and recouping from a bee sting the night before.
 Looks like the giant marbles spilled across the land.
 Many of the concentric were halved by weather or man exposing the boulders to be layers of flat circles one upon the other...
 though some as in image below look like radiating spokes. 

 High-jumping Jack flees over the ridge.
 Sparrows
Beautiful golden light from plant blossoms.
Alberta holds many areas of natural beauty that is fast disappearing under commercialism and the monetary illusion of gain, I fear the beauty we see today will be wiped off the map, leaving only a trace of memory.


Monday, October 15, 2012

For Red

Thanks for pointing that out to me Red, here is "Paul's Trophy Trout" for your viewing pleasure.
I did post the painting on my art blog but somehow missed putting the large version here. So thank you

Paul's Trophy Trout

Paul's Trophy Trout painting is completed.
My sweetie suggested a pose with the trout painting by the fence I painted this summer, kinda like a double advertisement.
 what do you think?
does it work?

I'm pleased to note Paul exclaimed that the fish seems to come right out from the picture plane, I have to admit I've outdone myself on this one as he is right, it does project forward. I am so happy to have accomplished this. This painting was a real pleasure to work on. Paul gave me a photo of his mounted trophy fish to work from, then twice I watched Paul's fishing video at http://www.wee-hours.com  After that I viewed online underwater photography of fish to figure out movement and lighting, then researched Alberta lake plants and roughed out a sketch for approval. Once the task of painting started I went through it all again to refresh my concept and topping it off, a wee bit was learned about fish and freshwater aquatic plants during the process.
While painting I thought about the pleasant times spent in a canoe fishing Alberta lakes many years ago, and of times sitting on the wharf in BC listening to the waves lap the pilings as fisher-persons, heron and kingfishers brought in their catch.
Thanks Paul for bringing pleasant memories alive with your request to paint your Trophy Trout.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

textiles art furniture

It rained all night and is snowing all day. I need to photograph a painting just completed but the tripod attachment was left in the car and the car is not here so I will have to wait till tomorrow to do that so instead I decided to snap a few images of one of my recent projects; refurbishing a rocking-chair.
For awhile I was collecting scraps of heavy material with the objective to create some pillow shams till  an alternative idea caught my eye. Cruising online I came across two designers, Hoda Baroudi and  Maria Hibri who created "Bokja Design"  these two very talented ladies created a line of refurbished furniture using varied textiles in patchwork designs to give a fresh new look to cast off furniture.

 On the left is what the original chair looks like, as we have two I need to start collecting more heavy fabric scraps to cover it as well.
 Gerald had to bring the chair downstairs so that I could cut and sew to fit, otherwise I would have not been able to create this art chair.
 I don't follow patterns when I create a large project as this. I just pin, assess, cut, stitch, cut, alter, pin,  re-assess continually till the piece takes shape. Decisions on randomness of color and fabrics are made off-the-cuff so to speak. Its all double stitched and top-stitched for durability. In all it took four full long days to complete, whew, what a process. And through it all I only had to rip out stitching twice, now thats amazing.
Initially I was going to sew the textiles to the chair but then decided for ease of cleaning to make it as a very fitted cover, so its actually two sections that can be removed plus the seat cover.
I like eclectic furnishings, art and ideas that bring out ones creativity in varied areas. 
Enjoy your day, hugs!

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Jasper

I will be bouncing around a wee bit with my summer postings depending on where the images are presently stored. Our Jasper camping was a mix of wonderful and dreadful. The days were a might hot in the mountain meadows and lake shorelines, though if one were to seek the coolness in shade under the trees needle-stabbing blood-seeking mosquitoes pounced their prey. Ouch!  Mornings and dusk into the night mosquitoes were deadly; settling into bed was a nightly slap-fest, and I am not talking spousal abuse here, our poor wee van was a mess of bloody bug carcass. So during the days we took advantage of the respite from being needled and did much slow wandering scouting birds, but before I get to the birds I thought you might enjoy to see images of the event we went to Jasper to attend.

These photos are from The Nations of Jasper mini powwow in august, though this is at a public event most  shots are taken from behind to preserve the dancers privacy, especially young dancers.
 This beaded buckskin dress cape is a beautiful work of art which must entail hundreds of hours work. I know it would take me years to do that much beading. The dancer said she made a good trade, a car for the dress. That amount of beads are quite heavy, such a strong stately dancer.
Men's Fancy dancer

 Fancy Shawl dancers remind me of butterflies flitting across flower filled meadows.

 Jingle Dress dancers.
I was once told that a person may gift a jingle dress dancer and ask them to dance a prayer to help someone who needs healing.

 Traditional Women's dancing

Dancing the flags and staffs out of the arbor concluded the powwow. I have no photos of the dance-in as we had been invited to dance-in with one of our elders.

The setting sun giving one last blessing for the day.
I love how the sun's last kiss adds blush to the mountain tops.
I hope you enjoyed this tiny visual of a portion of our summer adventures. Hugs!