Delights of Creation, fine art inspired by nature and life experiences

Early Morning Gripe, and brrr-cold

2012-01-20T08:44:00.000-08:00

I have been perusing a variety of sewing, mixed media and photo blogs lately and notice that many people place their logo right smack dab in the middle of the image instead of near a corner or at the base. I know when I started out I also put a watermark across images of my paintings till I realized how ugly it looked. Not quite what I want, after all should not art be presented in the best manner possible. I know theres the general discussion that someone may steal the image; solution, post it low res so that if viewed on computer its a good image but if its printed out it would be low quality with lots of pixillation. Personally I quickly pass over sites that put watermark name as priority across the center of an image as I find it annoying. And as for borrowing, if someone really wants one of my photos they could email and request a higher res image, after all isn't sharing is good for the soul.

The songs of early morning Finches squabbling for priority at the seed feeder sends a charming chinkling chitter to break the solitude of the deepfreeze we are presently experiencing. When its darn cold out I hibernate so the view through my frosty window gives much delight.

Hubby now only puts out black-oil sunflower seeds as through experience we found the birds that frequent the feeder prefer the black-oil seeds to the regular so there is far less waste to sweep up.

A Redbreasted Nuthatch keeping out of the wind-chill by snuggling up to the suet feeder. We bought expensive suet pellets that drop down inside the feeder to the trough where Nutty is sitting and cheap cheap suet which came in a ball which we flattened to fit the wire cage. Well through this we learned that none of our birds like the expensive stuff. We were hoping the flicker would come back and that is why we bought suet pellets, alas, sigh, have not seen him again.

Sporting a frosty shawl a male finch puffed-out on the lee side of the tree.

Enjoy the day and give blessings for small treasures and stay warm, and if you can't stay warm, think warm thoughts.

Hugs.

Who will hear the last bird sing? project in process

2012-01-15T20:38:00.000-08:00

I have been as busy as a bird during nesting season; gathering, weaving, stitching, tying, pasting and all in all having fun. I am working on a series of nests. Just as birds gather grasses, twigs, threads and paper to build their parlours I too am using a mixture of media as paper, raffia, a grapevine wreath that I disassembled for its branches, grasses, wool, and just about anything that inspires me.

I have given myself one rule, and that is to use items I find, collect, have on hand or items bought at second hand stores, no new stuff allowed.

The first two were created using "nest" literally. The top one is hand woven with shredded paper strips, raffia and thread ends entwined to hold its shape. Completing the nest gave me a great sense of admiration for birds that weave intricate nests, wow, it was a challenge with ten digits yet birds do it with beak and toes.
The nest below was made from disasembled straw angels stitched with threads pulled from burlap and the angels fine hair. I cheated a little on this one by using a needle to hold the angel threads to more easily stitch around clumps of straw. Ok, now this really got me thinking - how the heck do weaver birds manage to build those fabulous hanging nests. Admiration triples.

Now I got a bit more creative and wove using a childs loom that was gifted when I was about ten years old. A very long time ago I had given it to my daughter who recently gave it back to me rather than donating it to Goodwill. I must say I'm quite pleased she gave it back otherwise I may never have attempted to create the above hanging nest complete with Larch cones and wood beads.

The following nest is made of dried Lily leaves. My husband bought me a bouquet of burgundy colored Lilies for Christmas, and being the type who sees beauty in the evolution from fresh to translucent dry crinkle I waited to toss them till the petals fell to the table. Sweeping the last two flowers into hand spurred the inspiration for another nest. The petals were laid over a chicken eggshell but as most had already reached the dry state they did not stick together very well so I made a mash of paper and water and pressed the wet mash around the outside to hold the petals in place. Once the mash was dry I broke out the eggshell and Voila, the Lily Nest.

Now one may wonder why would I want to appropriate from the birds, well, it a statement really. I have painted beautiful birds art but does it get anyone thinking? I am not sure, but nests, well maybe they will and I hope once they are titled and presented with mini story descriptions of reality disguised as fantasy, then I hope they will make people think. To think about our environment and how we live in it and relate to it, and of course to think about that which is absent from these nests.

Happy New Years to All

2012-01-02T13:20:00.000-08:00

Birding Jan 1st. Spotted four Snowy Owls in all, but this was the only one close enough to photograph. (this is a highly cropped photo) I figured I was getting pretty good at spotting them though have to chuckle cause a few times once images were downloaded and enlarged on the computer we find an owl we did not notice while out in the field. Guess there is more than one reason they are called the ghosts of the north.

I love seeing coyote almost as much as birds, though city folk tend to be afeared of them and some plea for eradication within the city limits. For me its a joy to know that there are some animals that do adapt somewhat to our sprawling characteristics. Mostly around here the coyote is skittish and has been difficult to photograph as they take to a run pretty quick. This ones curiosity got the better of him which enabled me to get a shot off when he briefly stopped.

A cool looking church window. The glass is blues and greens.

And here is a photo of my most recent completed project, our grandsons moccasins I made for Christmas. complete with polar fleece liners and a puppy button stitched on each one. They are made from traditional smoke-taned hide, sure smelt good working with it. I made them a bit too big so it may be a while before he fits them.

Happy New Year, may blessings of love, peace, brotherhood and sisterhood fill each and every heart. Hugs!

Deep Dark Woods

2011-12-25T18:01:00.000-08:00

We went for a walk in the woods today

down in the deep dark woods

where the snow underfoot crunches

sending mice a scuttling amongst abandoned fall leaves

and what should we spy sporting a flash of Christmas red

a female Pileated Woodpecker

we went for a walk in the woods today

down in the deep dark woods

and the gifts of life gave another splash of red

a male Pileated Woodpecker

We went for a drive today

out across the barren prairie

out across the stubble catching snow

who should we meet

a Snowy Owl

we went for a drive today

and the presents kept piling up

as the sun receded the earth began to glow

such a beautiful day

spectacular

Blessings to one and all

2011-12-24T14:26:00.000-08:00

Its been a busy non-stop day till now. Homemade cranberry sauce is chilling and the turkey stuffed with home-made bread stuffing is now in the oven cooking. Mmmm, yummy. Two of ours will be here this afternoon and three who cannot be present will be sorely missed though will be held warmly in our hearts and thoughts.

Peace! May hearts be filled with peace.

May every child the world-round be kindly and joyously loved.

May angels watch over you.

May your eyes seek with awe the beauty of Creation.

May you rest in goodness of heart.

Blessings

and

Nativity's five

2011-12-21T12:05:00.001-08:00

One more post of Nativity's

Simplicity of shape is wonderful, isn't it amazing how one subject can be translated in such variety of media by artists across the world.

In a hatbox?

Birds! Yay, Birds! Gotta love birds.

Hugs!

Nativity's 4

2011-12-21T12:04:00.001-08:00

I decided to keep posting nativity's as some people maybe don't get the opportunity to view so many as we are able to all in one place. Please may you enjoy the creativity and workmanship displayed no matter what your spiritual beliefs are.

Colorful salt dough depictions; the wee flowers accents are charming and delightful. Poor Mary though has lost part of her head.

This one reminds me of the one we would see years ago in churches.

Someones knitting needles were kept busy here.

Starched draped fabric; I also saw many like this years ago when it was all the rage to construct draped figure art.

I was able to capture the reflecting prisms in these small ornaments though not as well as I had hoped to.

Precious Memories snow globe and a tiny hinged nativity.

To Love is the answer!

Handmade clay vessel from Cuba.

Color to make your heart sing.

Three wall quilts.

I almost missed this one as it was tucked beneath the rim of a large bowl.

A painting by Daniel Vanheyst, an instructor at Kings University College.

Please be considerate of copyright, please enjoy but please and do not copy this image in any way. Thank you.

The following pieces are all really small nativity's that were behind glass windows. I am amazed I was able to capture decent enough images considering glass reflects everything.

May your day be blessed and your heart sing a joyous song, hugs!

3rd nativity's post for 2011

2011-12-21T12:02:00.000-08:00

I perused the nativity images I posted in 2009 to see if I was doing repeats and am happy to note that most are different ones. These nativity's have been collected from all over the world.

Carved in stone.

The detail achieved in minuscule pieces is absolutely amazing. The above clay flower was about two to three inches tall

and these figures were maybe three inches tall in total. Don't you just love the halo depiction? The angel reminds me of a butterfly.

I love depictions that herald a counties traditional attire.

Tiny figures placed inside of a hinged gourd.

Another set of nesting figures though with much simpler painted detail than the set posted previous.

A children's play nativity from our great white north.

Pop-up!

A nativity from the South, love the bright polychrome colors.

The Story,

and not a creature was stirring; well maybe the mice.

Clever bamboo nativity.

Monochromatic with a touch of gold.

Glass.

One of the quilts displayed.

Made of straw and opens like a note book.

Candle frontispiece.

Sweet, complete with alpaca. Once again individual detailed faces that continue to amaze and delight.

Sculpture flowing like a wave that gently rocks the babe.

I do hope you enjoy viewing the variety that depicts the artistic abilities of artisans across the lands of near and far.

Big hugs!

Nativity's 2

2011-12-19T23:58:00.000-08:00

Teeny tiny whimsical candle.

A chip off the olde block.

The character of the people are beautifully painted. This one is dear.

Exotic wood carving.

Cast in three pieces but my photo only captured the main one well as I think I was getting pretty tired by the time I saw this one.

A close up of Mary. I like the pose and how the lights glow by her ear, and yes, I was being artsy when I could.

Babe in a hammock. To me these look like wind chimes.

It really amazes me that even though some look similar pretty much there were nary a repeat.

Ah, so much talent and skills presented and depicted.

Such novelty expressing individual ideas and artistry.

Cast glass form.

There were a variety of glass and crystal nativities which I will not post as I cannot make head or tails of the images due too much reflection from all the lights and busyness of the surrounding nativity's.

I love the little donkeys, don't they look like deer ?

Nesting eggs. Quite beautiful painting on these.

Small star about 2 inches tall.

the depiction of halos remind me of butterfly antennae.

Isn't this one sweet, I remember making a shoe box Nativity years ago similar to this but we used toilet paper rolls for the body and drew a face on it and I am sure the background was most likely christmas wrap with a tinfoil star.

Rugged individual sculpted faces which I find quite intriguing.

The lighting was quite a mix so at times I could not get clear photos as when I used flash it made the colours garish. I hope you enjoyed the second segment, I shall do one more posting of nativity's before Christmas. Big warm hugs to chase away the winters chill.

Nativities 2011

2011-12-18T21:31:00.000-08:00

Each Christmas there is a Nativity collections display held for three days. It has become ritual for us to attend as not only am I amazed at the variety of Nativity's presented yet also the range of media they have been made from. There were books and carvings of stone and wood as well as some sculpted of clay. Some quilted Nativity's and some knitted, others built of Lego blocks or cardboard. Some are handmade by skilled craftsmen, other are made by children. Some are simplified to basic forms and others factory mass produced. Some are serious and some are humorous.

Children's Pop-up book, the mule is so cute.

Tables were set out in the church foyer, which due to construction alterations was a much smaller space this year resulting in only a few hundred or so Nativity's being presented rather than the over four hundred presented last year with nary a repeat. It still took me the full two hours to go through and photograph about 100 of them.

This one was made by a young child.

These were quite small, it could fit the palm of my hand.

There were a few Nativity's built inside a gourd.

Stained glass. This one kinda confused me as I thought the babe was by the figure on the right but now I realize the babe is the larger white shape, the halo gave it away.

Folded crinkle paper. I have a beautiful angel whom is placed under the tree this year that was made this way by a dear friend. Under the tree? Yes, my collection of angels and teddy-angels are displayed under the tree as we do not abide the commercialization of the season so the angels are "present".b

Petit point.

Adoration, a mothers love.

Cast or sculpted metal, which was very, very tiny.

I find this one interesting as the main group is all joined together and the babe apart from.

I love the bird and seal, and look at the gift presented, a fish, how cool is that.

Notepads

and hangers.

Sculpture adhered to glass which gives the the effect of floating.

Cut from tin and brightly coloured.

This one is specially endearing, just look at that wee bare bottom sticking up.

Amazing stitching, so colourful, so skilled, this one is a definite "wow"

Simplification

and even simpler.

I hope you enjoyed the show. Hopefully I will have time to post more tomorrow, till then big hugs and keep warm with loving thoughts.

Moose times three plus one

2011-12-09T16:19:00.000-08:00

We went out for a bit today hoping snowy owls would gift us with their presence, but alas none did. We did find these three moose though. They stood without moving for the longest time, kinda like when we were kid's and played the "stare down" game. The moose won!
Down the road a bit we came across...

one more moose.

Images were a bit soft last outing so I bumped the definition up a notch and should not have as they came out unnatural looking without adding any definition to details, which was what I was going for. In top shot I underexpose the landscape to attempt to gain detail in the the moose so they would not be dark shadowy blobs. I'm still not happy with the outcome of today's images as details still are sorely lacking which to me says focus is still not correct, so next week I shall make those calls. One to the insurance company and to Canon to see what can be done to turn me back into a happy customer.

We saw huge flocks of geese east of Fort Saskatchewan today; now that's pretty wacky as they should all be further south by now.

Have a wonderful weekend. Hugs!

Snowy Day Snowy Owl

2011-12-03T21:43:00.000-08:00

It was mildly snowy today so my sweetie suggested we to go look for Snowy Owls and as my fantastic Canon D50 is once again back from repairs for the third time I figured yes, I should go capture some winter birds. The fine snow fall beheld a wonderful soft grayish tone which subdued the landscape with a gentle haze.

No sooner had we got off the main highway and headed down a range road when we beheld this wondrous sight. (click on image to enlarge)

Snowy Owl, either a female or young male.

Snowy kindly posed for a few shots then flew off across the field; and did I capture the flight, no, it seems the camera still does not auto focus clearly. The above shot was manual focus.

Some manual shots came out ok, others as in auto are really, really bad.

We will go out to a local park tomorrow if its nice and I will see if there is any improvement in the focus.

About an hour later the sky briefly lightened and a raven cawed into the shot, so cool.

We found Hoary Redpoles whom were hard to photograph as they hardly paused and with a flap and much twitter were flight skipping across the fields looking for seeds. The male has a rosy breast. These birds are so beautiful I do wish the image was clearer.

Bohemian Waxwings were sharing berries amongst themselves and serenading the wind. By now the light had a strange cast making it difficult to get good shots. These images are cropped and I lightened them on the computer.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a woodpecker fly past, fast. Follow that woodpecker sir Gerald, and he did and this gorgeous gal obliged by landing close to the road. Pileated woodpecker.

And finally as we headed home I spotted a harem of deer, so I requested a photo-opp. Well, where we stopped Gerald noticed the deer he was looking at were behind a tall fence and had ear tags. I on the other hand realized we passed wild deer that were on the opposite side of the fence so I started back down the road on foot as I could see the deer still by the roadside, a little wary but still there. Well my sweetie saw the fence and figured who wants shots of tame deer so he proceeded to hoot and whoo and up went tails and other than this shot all I saw was white flags going over a hill. Oh and of course the tame-game deer did not run off so I took a photo of them to show my sweetie the difference between wild and no ear tags, and kept deer with ear tags. I've got to rub it in a little you know, ah its so much fun.

Good night and big hugs!

Old and New

2011-11-30T10:16:00.000-08:00

A mini-view of our gallery (front sitting room). Gerald made these wonderful gallery tracks from re-cycle items both from home and the Habitat for Humanity Re-store. The water-colour paintings are quite large, framed they are 38x18 inches.

Out of the darkness; Black-capped Night Heron

8x8, acrylic

I'm not sure if its complete; a part of me wants to go in and add more detail though I believe that would defeat the idea of coming out of the dark shadow of early dawn. Early morning has such strange light, I know most photographers say they prefer that soft early light, not me, I'm not an early bird so most photos are taken mid-afternoon till dusk. I do see the sun rise sometimes when we are camping, other than then, the suns usually half way across the skies before I view it. Needless to say improvising a morning landscape has been a challenge.

Have a great day, Hugs!

Frosty Update

2011-11-18T10:01:00.000-08:00

Black and white morning.

As promised yesterday I've taken the time to photograph the New improved Frosty.

Retro Frosty

and

Frosty Colorfully Updated

Frosty is an ambassador for Peace

I like how eyebrows add expression.

A peacock to keep him company and a flowered brim to remind us spring is but hiding for now.

We will place Frosty in the front yard so that children can see him on their way to school in the mornings. Not sure if we will keep the light bulb in him though it would be nice at night to see his cheery glow.

We will have to securely stake Frosty down so the north winds don't steal him away.

Have a colourful day and a Hug!

Finally slapping the paint around

2011-11-17T18:46:00.000-08:00

Its been a wonderful long fall, but alas the snows have come so its time for me to get back to some serious work.

Image of the mountains sporting fresh snow a few weeks ago taken east of Calgary.

We had a water mishap mid-june where we had to scramble to remove matts, art, frames etc to safe dry ground. The matts were stored in very thick plastic bags which I presumed kept the water out, after all they seemed dry at the time. Well as it stands the bags had let water in that stayed in. I went to pull out matts to do framing and UGH! What a mess of mould. Out the door they went. I had to toss almost all my mat board stack, so sad to see such waste of supplies and $ float away.

That was about two weeks back and since then I have been busy removing stored items from my studio and settling them back where they belong. Today I moved folders that hold etchings and...oh no... the folder was damp, agggh. Our floors are now wall to wall in etchings. I believe they are alright but will have really scrutinize them to be sure once they have air-dried.
On the good note my studio is once again tidy and available to work in, so today I also splashed about some paint and worked on two paintings started previous to June.

I rescued retro frosty from a fellow who intended to... gasp, trash him. I pleaded Frosty's fate and it was agreed I could take Frosty if I also took the Santa. Well I am not a Santa kind a gal but I was willing if only to spare Frosty the degradation of being squashed, crunched and compacted by a garbage truck.
To revive Frosty and add a little sparkle to his life I gave him a paint touch-up, but you have to wait to see the "new man-o-snow" as I realized I forgot to photograph him after his touch up.

As the north winds white wash the land, I delve in color memories.

Enjoy and share.

Hugs!

Remember those who fought for Peace

2011-11-10T11:15:00.000-08:00

At this time of year I take time to remember the sacrifice of my father and uncles. They sacrificed their lives. Those who returned alive, returned to an altered life concept that would forever wreak havoc on their souls. Yes some returned physically, yet they never really returned. How can one reconcile themselves with creating death. Peace is not won by causing harm and death to others. Peace is not won by wars. Peace is won by those who refuse to terrorize and kill their brothers, women and children. Peace is won by those who work to create betterment for all. Peace is made with loving helping hands, not with instruments of destruction.

Those who create wars, yes they are created they just don't happen, well those who create wars do not step onto the battleground to fight, no they convince others that death is necessary to obtain peace. Now is that messed up thinking or what? War-mongers who instigate war and send millions to die for the sake of a foothold in another Nations territory have no conscience, no morals.

So I ask, is the Crown an entity for Peace?

Does Canada stand for Peace?

Do we love those different from ourselves?

Do we help or hinder?

My father fought for Peace in WW2. I know he carried the scars and trauma his whole life and because of it we grew up in an unstable home environment. My Mother informed me that for the first five years after my father returned from overseas he awoke screaming every night. I look at old pre-war photos, my Dad was happy, playful, full of life. That joyful spirit was cut down by war.

For many years my father lived with his demons, never speaking of them, though in later years he did express to me some of the horror of being a soldier.

My father cried, tears streaming down his face every time he watched world news on TV of war and destruction. He had believed in Peace. He had believed the war he fought in was to end all wars.

My father believed in Peace.

We are all the same, we are all brothers and sisters, do we not all look the same in the dark?

Do we not all bleed the same colour blood?

Do we not all have dreams of Peace.

Peace be with You!

web image, sorry I cannot say who created this image as where I obtained it from gave no credit.

Thank you to its creator whoever you be.

butterflies and deer mounts

2011-11-08T22:43:00.000-08:00

I must say at times I do get to be in interesting exhibitions. Donalda Gallery for the Arts held a taxidermy exhibit this fall and amongst critters, artists works were displayed.

This way to the show!

This painting done by Susan Dahl with a Whitetail deer mount.

My watercolor nuthatch paintings.

My water-colour paintings and a Mule deer mount.

Two more of my works.

Atypical White-tail deer; Alberta record holder. A magnificent rack.

Cross White-tail-Mule deer.

Now I know there are those who are against hunting, but in all reality hunters wholly support conservation measures to ensure wildlife for all to enjoy.

For those who love to see wildlife in its natural habitat here is a very live momma Moose and young-un that we saw on our way to retrieve my paintings. Personally I find seeing and photographing wildlife thrilling.

I now take leave with a dusky view of Donalda's large lantern with rising moon. Photo taken in Oct from Donalda Gallery for the Arts landing.

Duck Pile

2011-10-30T18:26:00.000-07:00

Hybrid Mallard

Duck-pile

Crock-o-goose

Orchid show at the Muttart

2011-10-23T16:46:00.000-07:00

Sweetie and I went to view the orchids at the Muttart last saturday. It took him 5 minutes and me an hour. I'm glad they put benches for people to sit and enjoy the orchid display, though Gerald almost fell asleep waiting. He so endearing.

I cannot tell you orchids names and as they are all greenhouse grown I shall not be looking them up, enjoy their beauty!

Stripes, dots and color galore.

The one above and the one below are huge plants, tall enough that the large blossoms loom over head.

This white orchid is placed in front of the water wall so I attempted to capture the water movement behind the blossoms, this is the closest to what I was aiming for.

Stunning displays set with props and stories.

The skull would be great for halloween.

A floral arrangement.

Quite a lot of thought and work have gone into setting up these displays, packing so much into a rather small space.

Artsy fartsy shot using the building structure as part of the composition. I rather like the contrasts and tone of the blue sky and green wall setting off the soft yellow orchids.

After two years of emails and phone calls requesting to be on the list of invited artists for the orchid art display in the atrium and being told I would be on the mailing list, sadly my petition fell through the cracks again, sigh. It says its a juried show though I highly doubt it as they did not put out a call for artists. I have a few beautiful paintings that I wanted to exhibit, oh well, maybe next year.

Hope you enjoyed the orchids, I sure did. Hugs!

So many ideas, so many alternative creating adventures.

2011-10-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

I took a break from painting this summer. I could use the excuse it was due all the yard work that needed to be done even though I mostly held supervisor position rather than the worker per say. Truth be told, creativity ever continues as my brain generates many ideas for projects, paintings, mixed media work and I would drive me absolutely stark raving mad were I not creating in some manner. So here are a few items I have created these past few months.

Reuse, Recycle, Repurpose. Every artist needs to make a piece of kitch art in their life time, so here is mine.

Garden art, "Mary Mary Quite Contrary how does your garden grow".

Sea shells, marbles, buttons, etc and Mary placed under an upside-down fishbowl.

Two blue plastic fish I bought off sweet little six and seven year old gals at their garage sale. The fish were originally for another piece I am working on but they work rather well teasing at the skirt of Mary.

The pearl flower was my grandmothers clip-on earring.

Oh, look at Mary's bow!

From the top down, marbles glued with weld bond glue to an antiquish jar I have had since youth, cheap mardi-gras beads adhered to lip, small glass container, flat glass bead drops glued upon an upside down fish bowl encasing Mary watering her sea garden, all of which sits atop a sandy looking ceramic canister.
It is meant to be a garden piece though I am a bit afraid it may break outdoors in the elements. It may have to go in a sheltered shop.

Our dear ones came for an early thanksgiving and sleep-over. It was wonderful to spend time with our grandchild and our families. As our floors are all stripped to bare cement to ease morning cold foot syndrome I made a rag rug to place by the bedside in the guest room. It took two full days to complete, I have renewed admiration for the work that goes into the Hutterite rugs I see at the farmers market, I now know they are well worth the 60-80 dollars they charge.

My rug is pretty lumpy, bumpy and rustic, though feels good on the feet. I was near completed before I figured out how to slip the pieced strips together with less bulk. Its a three braid rug stitched together with strips of sheeting. I broke the needle three quarters of the way through the project but thank goodness there was enough body left in it to complete the job.

I love going to garage sales to chat, laugh and enjoy rummaging through other peoples lives. The tiger panel was garnered at such a sale for a mere quarter, wow! Bargain! Ya, and it was brand new to boot. I used it to recover a cushion for extra flop-down sprawl across the floor seating in the front relaxing room. It took me 5 whole hours to design, cut and stitch the cover. How time flys when I get focused, I forgot to eat lunch I was so occupied.

Another flea market find, this weird shaped piece of wood was in a freebie bin, of course I figured I could use it to create????

With two large circles cut into it it reminded me of an owl, so yesterday I spent all day designing an stylized owl. I used the photos I took at the Medicine River Wildlife Recovery Center as reference, how lucky was I that the owl had fluffed his wings and hissed, just perfect for the cut wood shape.

I'm having trouble with this silly blog "correcting" as I type which is frustrating to the extreme as it keeps changing to words not of my choosing. I need to figure out how to prevent automatized word changing crap otherwise I become too frustrated with blogging. I am slow at writing but this is making the process even slower as I continually have to keep changing words back to what I was trying to type in, grrr, damn technology is getting summer. And to detail expressly what I mean... in the previous sentence I wrote "dumber" and the system changed the word to "summer" grrrr!

Sadness is

2011-09-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

We went to collect my exhibition at Kerry Woods Nature Centre in Red Deer on saturday. It felt sad to take down the show, though it was wonderful to briefly visit friends as they came to retrieve their butterfly paintings. Initially the exhibition was up for the month of July though wonderfully was extended till last friday so many people were able to enjoy my take on Nature. One young woman complimented my art by saying she was happy to see wildlife art that is "vibrant and Not boring" I am glad to have brought some colour and joy into peoples lives. As usual we did a small walk to the duck blind where dragonflies were abundant and a few ducks and coots still present.

Muskrat swam by, don't you just love those sunlit ripples.

Dragonfly

Autumns golden pathway.

Dragonfly or Darner?

Two honking geese flew overhead.

Beautiful Coot, these birds are crazy and endearing I must really do a portrait of one soon.

Gorgeous spot of red, a delightful ladybug.

I love the Kerry Woods Nature Centre and Sanctuary. Its a wonderful stop point when we travel to Calgary. Tables out front by the parking lot make it a great place to picnic before taking a stroll around the lakes, though I must admit I have never made it all the way around the two lakes yet.

We decided to check out Bower Ponds in Red Deer as we've been informed it was a beautiful place.

There are a few neat sculptures of beaver that look to be carved from red brick, how cool is that.

Water trees dancing ripples.

Fall flowers in bloom.

Bleached Blossoms, these did not seem to be attracting the bees,

Though these ones continually had bees on them.

Pesky photographer disturbing our nap, sheesh wheres a duck go for privacy these days!.

Fountains contrast nicely with the yellowing leaves.

Canada goos enjoying the pond amidst colourful reflections.

Three Amigos.

Above the pond leaves exchange coats of green for sporty fall color.

Blue grass and blossoms, such a delightful park, hope you enjoyed the stroll.

Big hugs and Joy to you all!

Edmonton Naturalists Garden Delights

2011-09-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

The Edmonton Naturalists garden beheld delights of Goldfinches feeding,

Chipping Sparrows basking in the warm sun,

and a flash of orange.

There was also a variety of bugs, this one is sporting a funky stripped jacket and

this butterfly attire has become tattered.

Above us a hawk surveying the garden and at

my feet a Teeny tiny Tree Frog, what a delightful surprise.

Gorgeous color of asters and seed heads.

Seedpod patterns to delight the eye.

False dandelion.

Paintbrush

and a splash of aster blossom and seeds.

Native Alberta Plants Garden

2011-09-13T10:53:00.000-07:00

Here is the Alberta native plants garden my sweetie has made. As the yard needed to be re-graded he moved the sidewalk off to the right to build the garden between the evergreens where it gets more light. So much nicer having stepping blocks rather than a solid sidewalk straight up to the house and rather than striving for perfection on placement of stones we chose not to cut out evergreen roots that were near the surface and went around them instead. Grass has been planted between the stepping blocks which is now coming up.

The view from our steps towards the street.

To build me this garden my sweetie went out and invested volunteer weeding time with the Edmonton Naturalization Group. As I cannot bend and weed I helped gather seeds and took hundreds of photos out at the garden. Now comes the work of sorting through the photos and putting the better ones onto disc for the group to use as they see fit. I enjoy going out to the garden where they grow natural Alberta plants. Its refreshing, and as a bonus the goldfinches are abundant.

Flowers at the Edmonton Naturalization Group Nursery Garden. There are goldfinches in these flowers though hard to spot as they blend right in.

A gift at our feet in the garden.

Alberta Wild Rye, we planted a small tuft of this in our natural garden by the stones that are outside the garden perimeter. The seed head colour is lovely.

We planted Prairie Blazing Star. I sure hope ours take as isn't it lovely. The resident jackrabbit ate one though thankfully left me with two plants. The White Prairie Asters are a different story though, he ate all of those yet left the yellow ones alone, and my Tall Wild Sunflowers, all gone. Ole Jack better watch out or he may become rabbit stew, just kidding; we will encircle the next bunch we get with wire to protect them.

There are quite a variety of wild asters , I cannot remember if we planted these type which are quite showy as a group.

Prairie Clover blossom.

Goldfinch on Wild Sunflower, this type is a southern Alberta flower.

Joe Pye Weed in foreground and Common Tall Sunflower behind, a sunflower that likes wet areas though I am told its pretty hardy and will acclimatize to gardens. These sunflowers are about 6 feet tall.

White Prairie Aster growing amidst Sweetgrass.

Garden Dragons.

Asters, the soft colour behind is Sage.

Bee and Gaillardia Aristata blossom.

Giant Anise Hyssop, a member of the Mint family that can be used as a tea that heralds a liquorice flavour.

Hopefully my garden will be sporting many of these wild blossoms next year.

Big Hugs, hope you enjoyed the mini-garden tour.

Fell off the Edge

2011-08-24T09:16:00.000-07:00

We have been really busy with house, yard and volunteer work this past month. We had intended to go camping again but the Rain Gods decided we needed to stay home and sent torrential rains the day after we got back from camping in Jasper. Gerald went downstairs to do a load of laundry and all I could hear was "Oh my God, Oh my God"over and over.

I hurriedly investigated to find him standing in a puddle, yuk! Old carpet sure stinks bad when wet and had to be removed right away. And as I have been wanting them out Gerald says I need be careful what I ask for as it does not always come in the best of manner. Good thing is we were home and the problem is being remedied.

More to come as we have nature-scaped our front yard. There is still yard work that needs done and though I cannot do the manual labor I can supervise with the best of them, lol. I will post yard images later as I cannot find them right now.
Big Hugs, lots of laughter and a sunny smile.

The Jasper totem story may be posted next month as its become an long essay which I presently don't have time to finish.
Ok, so the title really had nothing to do with my tale other than I have been absent for the last month.

Bloggers meet at art exhibition.

2011-07-24T21:29:00.000-07:00

The exhibition at Marjorie Wood Gallery in Red Deer was a blast. My show apparently had two openings, one on friday eve and one where I was present on sat July 9th. Wonderfully olde friends came to view and bought two beautiful butterfly paintings; thank you so much dear ones. May the butterflies forever brighten each day.

I excitedly met the kind blogger who suggested I apply at the Kerry Wood Nature Centre, I say excitedly as staff informed me they heard me squeal when we met. Thank you Keith, I appreciate your taking the time to attend.

Here we are, two Alberta bloggers posing for my delightful daughter whom kindly snapped photos. Of course I am the one dressed in brown. My children drove a couple hours to be present and give generous support, thank you to my son and daughter.

Many viewed the paintings with intensity and left with a smile. For some memories were triggered, for others inspiration surfaced. Some people came specifically to view the show and meet the artist and others who had come to the Centre to walk the grounds were surprised to find fifty paintings on display.

Each one who attended made the day extra special.

The staff at Kerry Woods are all so wonderful, and I must say a great job was done in the arranging of all the work, whew, what a job. I used to be employed by Galleries and know that it takes a fair amount of work and a good eye to hang an exhibition, especially one of this size.

It has been a busy time. The following day we went to Medicine River Wildlife Centre to take behind the scene photos of injured birds. Then once home we packed our camping gear and headed west to Jasper, oh how I love being in the mountains. One week and over 4000 images to sort through, I am definitely trigger happy. Next post will be on the Nations of Jasper camp and totem raising.

May your days be filled with the warmth and brightness of a hug.

Hugs!

Chickadee x2

2011-07-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

Blackcap Chickadee

Acrylic on canvas 8"x10"

Ball-o-Fluff, Boreal Chickadee

Acrylic on canvas 8"x8"

These two chickadee paintings were finished just before the Red Deer exhibition. I have been posting a lot of photos lately, though aside from the last few weeks I have been painting. This is the time of year when I take a lot more reference photos as withe warmer weather its much easier for me to get out for walks. We went for a wonderful stroll tonight and what did I see?

Shadow play with daisies.

Shadow play with young Magpie; poor thing was panting in the heat. I would guess that its not old enough to know to seek out a shady spot, though its sibling figured it out so hopefully this one followed.

Remnants of Canada Day, or should that be Kanata Day.

Baby Bluejays, ooo, they are so sweet. They were under a tree waiting patiently for the parent to bring yummy bugs for dinner. Its really amazing how parent birds keep track of juveniles once they start hopping about going different directions; these ones are pretty young and stayed put.

And on another happy note I have been invited to submit a painting for an upcoming group exhibition in Sept at Kings University in Edmonton. So fab, I am looking forward to that. Its wonderfully delightful to have my work appreciated.

Big Hugs!

Rainbow Story Teepee

2011-07-03T19:02:00.000-07:00

Guard pug on watch duty at the rainbow story teepee Gerald and I made for our grandsons birthday.

Of course I never seem to be able to keep anything simple so this took eleven full days of cutting stitching and appliqué to create. Suppers were late, lunch got missed altogether some days, ahh the price of a creative rambling mind. Thank goodness I have a wonderful supportive spouse who honours my creativity by helping where he can and vacuuming up my mess of bits, threads and fabric dust.

I designed an applique pug and min-pin to be on permanent guard duty.

The stars and circles are a sheer material to let the light in.

Gerald took a few photos outside before loading the Teepee for our trip to the party. The poles are seven feet tall.

The door flaps are held open by way of buttons.

Looking up the smoke hole, see how I made sleeves for the poles to keep them in place. I also stitched the bottom of the pole sleeve shut so the poles would not scratch floors. Gerald drilled holes in each pole near the top and run a shoelace through the holes which make it easier to set up and fold in for storing when not in use. I do believe we need to get some small wooden beads to place between each pole at the top as we found that the string twisted a bit and I had to untie it and retie it so the sides would flare out.

its been a full crazily busy few weeks but I am sure it will give many hours of playtime fun.

Hugs!

When up to your eyeballs in baby-spit

2011-07-01T09:37:00.000-07:00

These images taken tuesday night through a dirty window after a heavy evening rainstorm in waning light.

Two babies who had earned their flight wings momentarily landed, then another parent landed and took off with the two babies in tow. This baby robin couldn't fly and stayed right close with its parent. Yesterday I noticed this one acquiring some wing flapping lift, enough to get it into the low branches to climb higher in the trees, so by today I figure it should be flying.

Hugs, and have a wonderful day!

Wagner Natural Area

2011-06-26T23:17:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of June Gerald and I ventured to Wagner Marl Ponds to look for wild orchids. Now I don't know much about orchids yet figured I would take photos of any flowers in bloom then attempt identity later. I had expected the bugs to be bad but didn't fret, I knew that our natural mosquito repellant was in the vehicle and we could squirt some on our clothes upon arrival to the bog, but the repellant was not where it should be. The mosquitoes were abundant and voracious so it ended up being a speed walk with most of the images blurred due aggravated body jerks as the little beggars needled my hands and buzzed my face. Anyhow, today Gerald suggested we check out the Marl ponds again, but we got smart and stopped by the fabric store for noseeum mesh and I quickly stitched up bags for our heads, I wore my rain coat and leather gloves, but my goodness was I hot, too hot, but I wasn't bothered by mosquito swarms. The mesh made seeing clearly difficult so I put my camera on auto focus even though its not as good as manual focus I did get some okay images of wild orchids.

Saline Shooting Stars

labrador Tea

Field of Saline Shooting Stars by the board walk.

Marsh Marigold. These top four photos were taken beginning of June. The rest were taken today.

A tattered Blue flitted about my feet on the path.

Still have some flowers to identify, such as these pretties.
Common Fleabane

Prickly Blue.

Lady Slipper Orchids were abundant early in the month and many in bloom now.

Not sure but these may be orchids.
Thanks to David I now know this is an orchid past flowering, these are pods of the Early Coralroot

Tall Bluebell

Dwarf Raspberry

Round Leaf Orchid, these tiny beauties are what I was after, the individual flowers are tinier than my baby finger nail, delicate and o-so-charming. There is a call out for orchid images for an exhibition in Oct so intend to paint wild orchids delicately in watercolor.

Bunchberry are in full bloom, these are very white. The camera doesn't capture white detail well on auto focus but theres no way I was going to lift my protective netting to clearly see to use manual focus.

Bunchberry carpet.

Twinflower carpet.

Twinflower

Marl Pond natural springs though the forest.

Bog violet?
David has informed me this is Common Butterwort which is a carnivorous plant, how cool is that. Now I am excited to have the chance to return for a closer look.

Shooting Stars were few today, most have gone to seed already. You can see the dampness reflecting off the ground cover behind the pretty stars. I like how they face opposite directions.

Northern Green Orchid
I may have to send these images to someone in the know as I am finding it difficult to identify with conflicting names attached to it on the web.

The flower close up, I'm not sure if its quite in full bloom yet.
confirmed, Northern Green Bog Orchid.

The Marl Pond is a natural mineral spring fed pond. We are really quite lucky this area has survived as I have read that this is home to sixteen wild orchids species, of course I only found a few though am sure if we go out at different times we may see others as one lady told us that there were many more in bloom last weekend than now.

The path is flooded with Toad tadpoles swimming about, we had to cross carefully.

Pink Elephants Head ?

Our handy bug nets, they worked well. We heard various bird song throughout the muskeg forest though they were elusive.

Starry False Solomon's Seal blossom sporting a fly.

Wild Rose complimented by a white spider sporting matching pink side stripes.

Clouds brought in wind gusts and a wee bit-o-rain. Looking back at the path as we headed for the van.

Tiny butterflies hid amongst the shrubbery to avoid the raindrops.

Star Grass

Talbot Lake Leduc

2011-06-24T15:22:00.000-07:00

As promised here are images taken at Talbot Lake along the nature trail boardwalk.

Grackle scratch. Ohhh, feels so good!

Now this is interesting as when we first walked the boardwalk I spotted Momma and eggs that are precariously close to tumbling into the lake. When we walked the board walk a second time...

we see what seems to be two nests, one back a bit in the reeds, and where is Momma?

Here she is, nestled amongst reeds slightly to the left of all these eggs. Now I am wondering if all these eggs is what they call a dump nest of non-viable eggs?

What a lucky duck to have this glorious view!

This is the water in front of where momma duck is sitting, gives alternative meaning to "dump nest".

And back to glimpses of nature. This beauty posed on the railing for me. Love the colors.

Wet, wet wet weeds.

As this dark cloud was rolling back in we scurried back to the van racing the raindrops.

Hugs!

And a little sun to balance out the rain.

Rain, Ruddy Ducks and Red Deer

2011-06-21T18:07:00.000-07:00

Whirlwind trip, we drove to Calgary friday arriving later in the day than intended to collect my paintings that were displayed at The House Coffee Sanctuary. Presently an Emmaus Art Group exhibition "Town and Country" is hanging in which I have two paintings, an llama and a rooster and as Gerald was invited to show he has two archival pigment printed photos displayed. One image is the peaked roof portion of an old barn, and the other of an abandoned chair inside a derelict house. My favourites the old chair as many stories could be wrought out of that image.

We happily spent what was left of the afternoon visiting our sweet little grandson. In the evening we briefly took in a group art exhibition with a dear friend, enjoyable company and wonderful art and artists present but I could not stay as the incense burning gave me a raging sore throat, ouch! a salt water gargle fixed that all up and by saturday my throat was fine. Once again there was not enough time to meet up with old friends as I've been planing on; hopefully third trip be the charm.

Early saturday we headed north through pouring rain that at times obliterated vision into greyness beyond twenty feet to deliver paintings to Kerry Wood Nature Centre in Red Deer. As a note of interest the Centre now has Alberta Museums designation, how cool is that, my first exhibition in a museum art gallery. The exhibition runs from friday June 24th to August 1st. Artist in attendance July 9th 2-4pm.

Surprisingly though mosquitoes didn't seem to mind the downpours, to our amazement when we opened the vehicle window to photograph a Ruddy duck just north of Red Deer we got swarmed.

Purple Finch, male.

Wet little finches enduring the rain perch near the seed feeders at Kerry Wood Nature Centre.

Purple Finch, female.

In the wildflower garden at Kerry Wood, I took a quick snap of orchids amid rain drops, they are so beautiful.

Dandy Mr Ruddy duck was doing the head pumping be-bop-bob water-strut with his tail straight up to entice the female, ooh-la-la, isn't he magnificent with the bright baby blue bill.

The female scurried past fast and into the reeds. Look at those rain drop splashes.

Venturing Northward finally the sun broke through so we detoured to Talbot Lake, Leduc to take advantage of the rays and check out birds along the boardwalk. Timing was perfect, we got in a small walk and some fab photos before storm clouds chased us on our way.

I will post Talbot Lake images in a few days.

Hugs; the gift of giving and receiving thats plentiful and ageless.

St Albert Art Walk

2011-06-14T10:18:00.000-07:00

My paintings displayed in the window of the Art Gallery of St Albert extension studio for the month. The Art Gallery of St Albert is a wonderful public gallery run by the most amazing friendly and informative people who really rock.
I was excited to be invited to take part in the galleries art walk event this month, sadly I was ill and not able to attend and paint on location as planned; the good thing is though I was absent my art was displayed in the studio and the paintings were a big hit with viewers. Four of my paintings are on display until July.

Its a wonderfully busy month. The Calgary exhibition was extended one week and the Red Deer exhibition begins next week so transporting art from one venue to the next is the main theme of this upcoming weekend. I am grateful for my hubby for all the art transporting he does for me. The exhibition in the Marjorie Wood Gallery at Kerry Wood Nature Centre opens on June 24th and goes till aug 1st.

Big Hugs, a hug shared is a hug received!

Even birds grieve.

2011-06-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I heard raucous Magpie voices echo and crash amongst themselves to such an extent my curiosity was piked. I ventured to the doorstep to survey the commotion and seeing the tree full of Magpies I decided to make use of the opportunity and snap a few images.

There were Magpies on the ground, under the tree, bouncing from limb to limb and constantly flying in and out of the area. I am sure there were at least twenty total at a time. As I've been ill with laryngitis over the last week I did not venture out past the stoop to investigate.

The ruckus continued the following day and upon second look I noted that birds were returning over and over to mourn winged remains. For days Magpies returned, at first as groups then by the last day singly, verbally noisily crying while walking amid the feather strewn grass.

A few years ago in southern Alberta we came upon a couple hawks standing on the roadway. These hawks did not lift as our vehicle approached. We stopped to avoid hitting them and still they did not take to wing which I thought to be very strange behaviour indeed. Not until Gerald walked towards the Hawks did they lift off enabling us to realize the reason for their behaviour. They were mourning a juvenile Hawk, dead at the edge of the road. We feared the young hawk maybe had been struck by a vehicle and to avoid the others meeting the same fate the dead one was moved further from the road. That was my first instance of realizing that birds grieve a loss of family or community member just as we do. One can learn so much from nature, animals and birds. The more we as a society and individuals become cyber connected the more important it is to keep our feet and hearts connected to the earth, to good old fashioned dirt and the ways of the real world.

Hugs, they are for sharing!

Art Gallery of St Albert, A good fit!

2011-05-26T15:12:00.000-07:00

I delivered these three paintings last weekend to the St Albert Art Gallery and am pleased the beautiful waxwing painting sold right away, thank you.

I had a friend relay that my paintings look better in real life than what a computer can display. It is true something of the spirit, texture and impact of color are lost having to delete pixels for fast uploads, regardless it is a good tool to display what I accomplish.

Bohemian Waxwing "SOLD"

Raven Speak

Acrylic on canvas, 8x8, $269-

Savannah Sparrow

Acrylic on canvas 12x12, $379-

To purchase paintings contact the Art Gallery of St Albert 780-460-4310

On June 2nd I will be a profiled Art Walk artist in the Art Gallery of St Albert's satellite studio which is located a few doors down from the main public gallery in St Albert. Eight paintings will be displayed; two are fresh off the easel and have not been posted on the web yet. It will be a fun event as I will be working on a painting during the evening and get to meet wonderful art admirers and share my inspiration and joy of life around me.

May you have a wonderful huggable weekend!

Hugs are warm and worth sharing.

New Gallery

2011-05-24T18:51:00.000-07:00

We delivered a few paintings to the Art Gallery of St Albert on the weekend and I was invited to be a participating artist in their satellite studio gallery for art walk June 2nd. Of course I readily agreed as its good publicity and will be a fun venture I am sure. I get to paint on location for 3 hrs and have 3 to 5 paintings on display for people to view. Still trying to decide which ones to take as they will then display them for a month in the satellite studio window, something colorful for sure, thats a given.
Today I have been busy working up a couple of bright Raven paintings. Kinda got stuck for a tad bit so I photographed them and put the images in photoshop elements to play around with ideas. I quite like using the computer as a designing tool now that I have learned how to use it to my benefit.

We finally have trees loaded full of blossoms, they are so stunning in bloom.

Its time to get back to the easel so big hugs till later.

Rainy day parade

2011-05-23T16:10:00.000-07:00

We went to visit aunty and uncle yesterday and a parade happened by their house.

An antique black an white.

Bare-foot in the rain.

Rainy day parade.

Aunty wanted me to get a picture of this turbaned constable and he obliged.

Yes we are Canadian.

Prayer chants or recitation of texts?

It sounded pretty.

Unsheathed blades. Spiritual symbol of faith.

Rainbow color amid the drizzle.

I like what this states.

Language is inherent to culture. Sadly too many of our native languages and writings have been lost and destroyed throughout Canada; newcomers are vocal about keeping theirs alive within the Canadian system.

"Riding shotgun"

Words of wisdom "we feign goodness through talk by actions we are worse"

These ladies stopped and posed though it is this shot as they went on down the street and the young one looked back over Mom's shoulder thats my favourite of the day.

All smiles, the rain has stopped and the sun peaks through.

The outside of the Sikh temple is decorated with these scalloping arches.

After the parade of people went past we walked over to the temple with aunty and became separated so Gerald and I took a peek into the temple and were invited to take off our shoes and enter. A kind elder took his time to explain to us that by siting on the floor all are equal, but as I cannot get up and down without help and the men sit to the right and the women to the left we did not enter the temple itself but stayed in the foyer. There were some musicians at the far end playing instruments and chanting, I believe they were reciting their holy texts or prayers. Also at the far end was an elder sitting below a decorative canopy, he held a long whisk that was flicked back and forth I believe above their texts? I did have a bit of trouble hearing some of what was told us. He informed that within his religion women are revered.

I did not want to impose to ask to take photos inside the temple as within many cultures some holy things are not to be photographed.

These men were busy making sugared candy floss and handing it out to everyone whom wished some. Along the streets tents were set out in front of homes where food, pop and sugared treats were offered.

Saturday's country excursion

2011-05-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

Saturday beheld delights of Creation, a day filled with inspiration and a camera card filled with 1400 images, here I go again, so much fun. Gerald drove me out to Donalda to deliver paintings for the Art Society summer season. I love the Donalda Gallery, its neat to show in a heritage building. Presently they were hanging a quilt show and a few of my butterfly paintings will be hung amidst the quilts. I have been asked to bring my bird exhibition there for September as a compliment to a taxidermy show. Oh so much fun!

Yes my 50 D camera is back in my hands and happily I've not missed spring migration. The manager and staff that played with my camera previously when they were supposed to send it to Canon though didn't as they figured I was the problem, were wrong! I was not the problem! The camera was faulty; the shutter, mirror and something else had to be replaced. The day we retrieved the camera the manager was absent, go figure.

I'm happy my camera is finally back (after 2 months) and fixed yet sad that my experience at Vistek has lost me as a future client. When I find a business I like, I go all the way with it, I have been a customer since 2002, but piss me off, treat me like a brainless boob and well, you've just lost my business, which by the way has lost them more than one client as another family member recently purchased a lot of camera equipment; they shopped elsewhere. Presently I am in the market for a good sturdy tripod, hello Don's Photo.

O.K. on with migration!

Beautiful Pin-tail male, the female is on the shore to the left.

Horned Grebes. Brilliant red eyes glow. I find it interesting that many birds have bright red eyes.

On another pond a bit further north this Pied-billed Grebe surfaced close to the road. The pond was cut in two by a busy farm road that saw a lot of equipment hauling to and from the fields yet it was abundant with birds. Tiny and precious this little Grebe is our smallest and although not brightly colored as the other Grebes its subtle charm is captivating.

Eared Grebes in evenings golden sunlight.

I've not had the experience of seeing so may Eared Grebes in one location before, or so close. This small pond was a delightful spectacle filled with grebes and a few ducks, a nice way to end the evenings shoot as the sun receded beyond the horizon. the clumps of brush in the water to the right were harbouring many Grebes. Maybe they were searching out a safe haven for the night.

Earlier in the day we encountered many American Coots, they are one crazy bird during mating season.

Cliff Swallows are busy re-building under bridges. Didn't see any barn swallows yet which usually nest in a farm yard further north along the road.

I was busy watching this Killdeer when Gerald says "look at the moose" and as many times he will call birds "moose" just to be silly I ignored him. Then he again says "look at the moose crossing the field" I respond "yes dear I see the Killdeer" "No! Look at the Moose! To funny, here a real moose was jauntily crossing the field. Gave us a good laugh. I must say my fella keeps me on my toes, I never know what to expect aside from a lot of laughter. ah, its all fun!

Moose on the loose.

My first spotting of a horned lark ever, even though people state they are common here.

Marbled Godwit, the closest I've been to one, this fella came within 15 feet of the car and its mate was hunkered down in the tall grass about 40 feet away. I used the vehicle as a blind as the winds were ripping along at a good clip making it difficult to hold the camera steady, even so in spite of the wind I got good shots; oh its so nice to have a camera work as it should.

After leaving Donalda we visited a dear friend out in Heisler. This female Merlin was about. She is quite small, smaller than the Merlin we see in our neighbourhood. I thought it was a Kestral when it first flew by due its tiny size.

Well my gesso should be dry so its time to go coat a few more canvas for some special paintings I have planned for the exhibition in Red Deer.

Big Hugs and enjoy.

Mothers Day Delights

2011-05-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I got up early to spend time with my beautiful grand before we had to get the wheels rolling. When he was told Gramma had to leave he made a sad sound and crawled quickly across the floor to me, aww, I sure didn't want to leave then.

The rainy road home.

We decided to adventure on the way home and take in the Medicine River Wildlife Recovery Centre. Due my notes of approach from the south I got us a wee bit lost, not the first time and hopefully not the last as we tend to see things we never would if we stayed on the right track. Thanks to my most excellent sweetie he figured out my notes and got us there; its nice having a partner in life who "gets me".

At the centre Carol put on a ten min video about the rehabilitative and fostering work they accomplish, I had seen the video previous on-line though it was good to see it again as Gerald had not. We then chatted with Carol, asked a few questions and got to photograph these beautiful babies.

These two baby Great Horned owls were removed from their nest at a busy airport for safety and are being fostered by unreleasable resident adults that can be seen in the background. Fostering is something that the Centre advocates so that animals can be released back to nature with wild senses intact. There were three owlets, one was happily placed in an active nest. These owlets were produced earlier than many active nests presently on the go making it difficult for staff to find age appropriate nests to place them.

Looking up and enjoying the rain that is filtering down. This young lady put on quite the show for us.

Don't you just love the baggy MC Hammer pantaloons.

Quite a bit of color difference between the two youngsters, so beautiful.

I feel privileged watching these two owlets flexing and strutting under the rain drops while the foster parents stayed under shelter.

Tired out after all that exercise. Cuddle time!

Even owlets need hugs from time to time.

This is Otis, he is a well traveled mascot who goes into schools and teaches youth about caring for and about wildlife.

Female Grackle with injured wing.

We were informed that Porcupine like to cuddle as well, ouch.

Male Pintail duck.

"High 5 turtle"

Two hours later upon leaving the centre we made tomato sandwich in the car as it was still raining. then got the wheels rolling and at the cross road, I squealed, poor Gerald's ears putting up with an excitable adventurer.

Moose on the loose.

Hope you all have a wonderful day, big Hugs!

we all need them!

P.S. more paintings are posted on teresa stieben art, click on link in the right panel to view them out.

Wonderful exhibition opening

2011-05-09T10:57:00.000-07:00

This was the best opening ever. Christopher Barran came and sang for me and to me; he is the type of singer who sings directly to everyone in the audience imparting everyone to feel special and loved. Thank you my dear sweet friend, you made my day and everyone else's.

As the show was being hung friday morning people were coming in off the street wanting to meet the artist and were ecstatic about the work. Wow! Fantastic! It thrilled me to the core.
On saturday the place was busy, many people coming and going. We arrived a little after one and people were already coming through to view the paintings so I was busy from then till almost 6 pm. I loved it. In the past I have been wiped out after openings but this was so different and so refreshing I was tired and hungry yet still strong after. The most wonderful and amazing is that people of all ages were enjoying the artwork, commenting that they were full of life and movement. I feel so confirmed and pleased that what I was working towards is being achieved. All those hundreds of hours on the road in pursuit of birds, watching, studying and photographing them is paying off. Wow!

Wonderful fantastic musician Christopher Barran who sings with heart and soul.

He's my Muse!

The painting behind him to the left is three by four feet. The largest I have ever painted and now I'm working on ideas for doing another large painting. I hope to have at least one more this size for the exhibition at Kerry Wood Nature Center which goes up June 24th.

Wonderful fantastic art supporters and friends.

Sharon is drawing Christopher while he sings, she is amazing and fast, she completed two portraits of him while he sang.

Dear friends whom I don't get to see often enough. If I could smile any larger I would have swallowed my head, I am so happy with how the whole event turned out. Thank you all who came and supported my art and Christopher's song. I love you all.

Tommorrow the show goes up

2011-05-05T08:23:00.000-07:00

Been busy all week preparing, getting my statement and CV updated. I also made a little book with information about my work and process. I am ecstatic that my dear friend Christopher will be singing at the saturday opening. The 3x4 foot painting is ready to go, I am pretty excited to hang that one as its a breakthrough piece for me in working larger. Now to go wire it for hanging.

One more textile piece for the show. "Seek Peace Meditation Prayer"

Hugs!

Good Friends and Lovely Song

2011-04-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

http://ChristopherNatasha.com

Christopher, a dear friend will be singing at my opening "On Wings & a Prayer" exhibition on May 7th at The House, Calgary AB. The opening is 2-4pm.
I am so excited and bubbling with Joy.

This morning I completed the 3x4 foot painting which I have been working on though will not be posting a photo till after the show opening.

The Night Shift; Black-crowned Night Heron

acrylic on canvas 16x24

Big Hugs to all!

Share the Love. share the Joy, share a Hug, enjoy!

Flying Solo in Calgary

2011-04-26T19:27:00.000-07:00

Migration Beauty

2011-04-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

Okay I admit mourning cloaks do not migrate, they overwinter in a cosy spot and sleep the winter away and come warm days they emerge from deep sleep and flutter about looking for love.

Frogs were migrating across the paths at Beaverhills heading for Lister Lake. It has warmed up enough that they are now digging out of hibernation. By late afternoon the lakeside chorus was full croak. At first we thought it was a flock of raucous birds they were so loud.

Frosty the snow frog, not very good camouflage here where Icy snow lingers on parts of the terrain.

We had to be careful where we stepped as they blend right in with the old dry grasses.

All the following photos are greatly cropped to show you the birds better. We keep distance so as not to unjustly distub them

Beautiful sky-lit Poppa Blue Bird.

A dusky brown Momma Blue Bird with a slight wash of blue on her side below her wing and sky blue uppertail coverts.
I'm glad we walked the mile or so to view these two beauties as I want to do another bluebird painting and previously not captured quality shots of a female.

If I had my 50D I would have a clearer capture but for now this will have to suffice. Oh, yes on such a lovely day I so cursed the camera store manager each time that my antique rebel could not capture shots that his ears may be ringing into next week. Its the second year in a row the 50D is in for repairs during spring migration, grr, when the problem should have been dealt with previous when I took it in.
I do actually have a wonderful tired smile on, sparkly eyes and rosy cheeks as a day like today is a joy to cherish. Being out experiencing natures throes of passion, the warm smiley sun and my sweet Gerald holding my arm enabling me to continue the mile hike even though my knee painfully shifted apart twice. He says "lean on me" and wonderfully I can.

Having left the lake we leisurely drove through Toefield with the warm washing thought the open windows when I heard a familiar sound so we stopped to investigate.

At the edge of a busy intersection amidst the trashy lifestyle of Albertans was a killdeer ruffling, looking for love in the wrong place as Killdeer # 2 did not seem to show interest and casually wandered off.
I don't know if they play hard to get as part of the ritual, or whether she was thinking "no way buddy this place is a dump".
In Alberta when snow recedes, trash of all sorts sprouts with renewed vigor giving tattered color to the landscape. I cropped most of the garbage out of the images. It is really appalling here in spring as the city and countryside looks like a major landfill site. I question Why must it be so. I would think that anyone who witnesses spring thaw here would think twice before tossing garbage and that garbage transporters would make sure loads are securely tarped and tied down. Okay back to natural color splash in spring, birding!

This was amazing to watch as the killdeer (whom I am assuming is the male, re research of rituals on the Cornell birdsite) would toss rocks aside drop his breast into the shallow pit and upend kicking with his feet and vibrate chittering. He kept doing this then when the female came close as in the upper shot he stood flaring tailfeathers out in a beautiful display. Killdeer #2 wandered off unimpressed with the nesting site choice, I don't blame her.
Killdeer are one bird that does well due its ability to put up with us and nest in yards, gravel roadsides, near water or not, basically wherever they so choose.

Mr and Mrs Mallard, they are a classy pair now are they not.
I love the glossy sheen that vibrates from green to purple depending how the males head deflects the light, or does it absorb light? More research needed to answer that one.

Madame and Monsieur Goldeneye found an ice free spot on a prairie pothole pond. Most ponds are still slusshy ice-covered though some are breaking up; come next week they should all be open.
Share the Joy, share hugs, big hugs to all!

Hoppy Easter

2011-04-23T19:49:00.000-07:00

What color did you say those jellybeans were?

Rebel Birds

2011-04-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

In all reality the birds are not really the rebels, I am shooting with my old standby 6pix the original Canon Rebel that has to have been the best camera Canon made, being the first camera out in the Rebel line this one has been steadfast and true. It does need a cleaning as dust spots are showing in the images, but I am not going to test fate and the dust spots can stay for now for who knows how long it would be in-shop-for. Maybe I should go get a blower and attempt the cleaning myself.

Gerald took grumpy woman to the feeders in Hawrelec park on Sunday and patiently froze while crazy grumpy one got her bird photo pleasure and donned a beautiful, though slightly frozen smile. As you see the gulls are back and blend beautifully with the snow.

The geese are asserting their dominance, either that or they are just complaining about the cold, ice an snow.

Two other photographers were at the feeders and said I had just missed American tree sparrows, so we hung around and they did come back as this handsome bird shows.

Chickadees are hard to photograph right now as they are busy playing chickadee dee tag.

Male Downy woodpecker was coming in for suet as was the female below. A Hairy was present though I did not capture his portrait.

Redpoles, male above and female below. Nice to get them so close up.

Big smiles and warm hugs to all, spread warmth and joy through out the day.

Slacking Not, Camera issue reruns!

2011-04-16T08:40:00.000-07:00

Busy as a bee. My front room is looking like a gallery storehouse as the work piles up in preparation for my two upcoming Solo shows. I have not posted the latest paintings as my magnificent camera is back in the shop.

Renegade camera has been gone for four weeks and I've only this week received word that extended warranty okayed the job and granted Canon approval to now start repairs. There is a catch to it all, for if said camera requires more work than initially estimated then the frigging process of getting an okay to work on it starts all over again. If I knew when I bought my camera that the insurance company Vistek deals with was so slow I would have bought elsewhere. I will buy elsewhere for major camera essentials from now on as this is the third time I have taken the camera in; the second time the manager arrogantly suggested the problem was me and not the camera and he didn't send it in, he gave it to all the employee's to try out instead, is this proper protocol? Hence as it worked fine for them they concluded me as the fault, not withstanding that I had said it was an intermittent problem, that when it worked it was great, but not reliable as its tendency to jam and record, nothing, or a black screen. Then I would have to turn camera off and on or pop battery out and then back in and try again, meanwhile the bird I was photographing has now flown the vicinity, grrr!

I searched on-line to see if others had this same problem of the 50D jamming in use and found recorded issues of problems I stated. One person bless them stated to take down and record the error number that comes up when the camera faults. Now why did I have to search online for this information, why did not the people at Vistek tell me to record the error number? So back camera went to Vistek with the error code noted. I saved for a year to buy what I expected to be a good camera and expect it to work and if there are problems because I paid extra for warranty coverage I expect faults to be remedied in due time, not months later. This has become a major aggravation I would rather not have. Of course my daughter says "should have stayed with Nikon" and hastily adds I am not getting my old Nikon back that I gave her. Smart woman!

Successful Opening

2011-04-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

Here is my textile piece that is now being shown at Alberta Craft council in Edmonton Alberta.

The opening reception yesterday was wonderful with many artists present. My dear friend Mary came up from Calgary as she also has a piece in the exhibition. The thought and diversity that have gone into the works that were juried in is amazing to say the least, I am thoroughly impressed and pleased to be showing in this historic exhibition. This is one show that is well worth seeing and hopefully it will be able to be shown in other places as a movement of artists visually expressing reverberations from government arts funds slashing.

Thanks to my sweetie for being a wonderful cameraman and capturing the moment so that I could mingle, meet other artists and the staff of the art gallery who by the way have done a wonderful job on this exhibition.

The previous night Gerald and I went to see the Forest show at the Mcmullen Gallery juried by the ASA. At that show thought they are quality works I found myself disappointed by the lack of diversity. I had expected the show to behold a forceful environmental theme that would make people really think, but aside from one piece which held a tree shaped air freshener which by the way is an outstanding piece wonderfully thought out and presented, the rest were just a bunch of "nice" forest paintings.

Roadside Conversation

2011-03-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

Finally getting around to posting the piece I submitted for "The Road to Emmaus" Exhibition presently showing at The House in Calgary. I definately have fun and enjoy the challenge of creating images on themes presented by various shows.

This is the Emmaus Fine Arts yearly group show which travels to requesting churches for the rest of the year.

Media: Textile fabric collage, photo pigment printed on cotton, acrylic paint, embellished with machine stitching, antique buttons, ribbons, brass bells and a brass heart.

Dimensions: 33” x 12.5”

$229.99

Roadside Conversation

Two buddies trudge along the roadside, the receding sun enveloping into twilight the dark events that took place only a few days before. A stranger overtaking them intercedes their conversation, questioning, prying their torn hearts, interloping on their grief. Out of courtesy do they speak, telling the stranger of hope of rescue crucified with their prophet. The stranger reiterates prophesies of scripture, moreover, reprimands them of faltering faith and their lack of acknowledging the women who spoke of the empty tomb. Was it not foretold, he asks.

In The Red Alberta Craft Council Exhibition

2011-03-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to announce that I have a textile piece in this juried exhibition coming up at the Alberta Craft Council in Edmonton. I am so looking forward to the opening on April 2. We have friends coming up from Calgary for the event which will make for an extra special weekend.

Gerald drove me to Calgary for the opening of "The Road to Emmaus" an exhibition in which two of my textile pieces are now showing at The House in Kensington. It was a wonderful time in which we got to reacquaint with friends and meet new ones.

I bought Diane Knight's book "Alive & Well; Discovering God's Presence in the Midst of Everyday Life" which she had available at the opening.

And to continue the good vibes of the weekend I happily sold the first two textile butterfly hangings which are on the Feb 21 post.

Thank you sweet wonderful persons who bought the butterflies, may they give great joy for many years.

The Road to Emmaus

2011-03-10T20:53:00.000-08:00

The Emmaus Fine Art Group

is proud to present our big show of the year

“The Road to Emmaus”

at The House, 126 10^th Street NW

Calgary, Alberta

403-283-7879

March 9 to early May, 2011

hours: 9:00 am to 10:00 pm daily

except Tuesdays 10:00 am to 10:00 pm

All Welcome to an Official Opening

Saturday Afternoon, March 12, 2011 2:00 – 4:00 pm

Artists in attendance Snacks served

There will also be a book signing by Diane Knight of her new book “Alive and Well”

I have two textile pieces in this show. I will be posting the images next week.

Hugs!

Sharing, the gift of Cranes

2011-03-02T18:52:00.000-08:00

African Crowned Crane

I was wanting to paint an African Crane for my up-coming Calgary show as the Calgary Zoo contains some of these strikingly elegant birds. Well wouldn't you know I dug through my photo files and found all but the image I was looking for. About 5 years back when I was dating my sweetie I would pack my work back and forth between my place and his and sketch or read while he was at work. At one point I had sketched an African Crane from zoo photos taken when film was king, problem is details are not as good as I need to translate into a detailed painting, sigh, so the search was on for the images which I know are lurking somewhere in a spot of disorganization since my move and will surface in due time. Otherwise I would have to visit the zoo for more reference photos and with the blizzards we are receiving this winter its not going to be any time soon.

While puttzing cyberspace researching info on Sandhill Cranes I somehow ended up on wikipedia (which I never quote by the way as I have found incorrect info there at times, ok I'm off track now) anyhoo there I found a beautiful photo of, yes, Cranes and also African Cranes. I was delighted. So I decided to contact the photographer. Well in no time at all wonderful Luc Viatour granted permission for me to use his photo for reference. Well at that point I realized the sweetness life grants by sharing with one another.

Check his work out, there are some of the most beautiful images I have ever seen. http://www.lucnix.be/main.php

I normally work only from my own photos yet this time I made an exception. With the photos I had found I would have had to image the crane loosely as a background element but by the generosity of Luc I was able to focus on a Crane portrait. Thank you so much Luc

And on the topic of sharing a few weeks back Carol painted a wonderful watercolor of a finch from one of my photos, please check out Carols blog

http://limitedspaceartstudio.blogspot.com/

scroll back to Feb 7 post to see the lovely finch.

So in essence as the world goes round and the sharing goes round it makes for a more beautiful day.

Hugs to all!

Another Exhibition coming up

2011-02-27T09:01:00.000-08:00

As mentioned previous I did not get the commission for the Children's Festival and am anxious to see what did get accepted, though I'm told they are keeping it under wraps till the official announcements later on in march.

On a wonderful note I owe a big thank you to Red of Hiawatha house http://hiawathahouse.blogspot.com
for giving me the heads up about applying to show at the Kerry Wood Nature Centre. I will be showing there this summer, wahoo! I decide to check a online dictionary and what do I find, as well being an exclamation of excitement wahoo is a north american burning bush, I'm hot now!

Or maybe cool as a blue mackerel?
wa•hoo
any of various American shrubs or small trees, as the winged elm, Ulmus alata, or a linden, Tilia heterophyl
wa•hoo
a shrub or small tree, Euonymus atropurpurea, of North America, having finely serrated, elliptical leaves and pendulous capsules that in opening reveal the bright-scarlet arils of the seeds. Also called burning bush.
wa•hoo
a large, swift mackerel, Acanthocybium solanderi, widespread in warm seas, of a steel blue to greenish blue above and silver below, often leaping from the water and occasionally schooling in great numbers: valued as a food and game fish. Also called peto.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc.
Read more: wahoo: meaning and definitions — Infoplease.com http://dictionary.infoplease.com/wahoo#ixzz1FAm4vc2m

This gargoyle sits on the clock tower in St Albert. I have been wanting to photograph them for quite some time and yesterday as we were in St Albert dropping off another art proposal we took a few moments to admire them. It was COLD and Windy and Chilly so only snapped a few and jumped back into the warm vehicle.

It was quite a filled day as next we went to the farmers market to get Holden Colony chickens and eggs. I've found that using store bought chickens does not make for quality soup, the broth doesn't gel and is dull on the palate, Hutterite chickens on the other hand are wonderful, just like Mom used to raise. The boiled bones broth gels as it should and is very flavourful for soups. The eggs have hard shells as eggs should. Have you noticed that store bought egg shells shatter easily and end up a mess of bits when breaking them?
So it makes me wonder what have major producers done to reduce the quality of chickens and eggs so noticeably? Is it drugged feed full of antibiotics and grow-fast-crap and unnatural feed used in the industry to garner greater wealth over providing quality products?

These cuties were sitting outside the farmers market, again quick snapped shots as next we stop home to grab a slice of toast and jam and head out to the opening of the Terwilliger Sports Plex. Gerald needed to attend as bones of his ancestors dug out of Rosedale Flats aboriginal graveyard were dumped in the landfill that the sports-plex sits on, sad but true.
I wandered while he listened to the speeches and then discoursed with MLAs. Someone asked me what my first impression was of the sports-plex. Well.... it was oh my hell, this is like a mall, coffee shops on each corner complete with hotdog sellers and junk food vending machines. Kinda an oxymoron isn't it!

Then my sweetie took me to Hawrelac park to check out the bird feeders I had a pressure headache and wanted to get a bit of air before going home.

Sweet little downey woodpecker posed nicely in the burst of strong light that appears at waning of day, gotta love it.

Big Hugs!

Bikes and Art

2011-02-22T21:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Gerald drove me to drop off my submission for the Bike Art Auction, I completed a couple of digital paintings which I pigment printed then framed simply. This event sounds like its going to be fun, I hope we can attend. We talked briefly with a fella at the shop, I asked if they make special bikes for people with disabilities and he said they have and would be willing to see what they could do to assemble one for me; a trike maybe?
I sure do miss bike riding and it would be wonderful to be able to wheel around the block again. I am seriously considering going in for a discussion about the possibilities. I gave away a beautiful old bike a few years back as I had not the strength left in my knees to ride a standard bike and every spring I wistfully dream about it.

Summer Dream
To dream, to fly, to ride the winds with spokes whirling, leaves dancing in my wake
Dream, dream to remember, to smile at simpler joys past gone
Dream is the key to hold fast to the heart
The joins are weak, unreliable
So I dream
the wind on my face
Tess

first rejection letter of 2011

2011-02-21T21:12:00.000-08:00

My creativity level was hampered a little this week as traipsing after owls through deep snow last weekend took me a bit to recover from. Sometimes it sucks to be a gimp, but the reality in life is everyone has something to deal with and in my case its not such a big deal. I am grateful to be able to walk even though I may need technical assistance and I do know my limits, but I choose to push them at times, especially to get such wonderful images as I did. So after dislocations and pain this week do I still feel it was worth it, Darn Right! An artist must create despite all odds.

Today I received the official rejection letter from the submission I sent to create pieces in conjunction with the Children's Festival. Its alright as the pay offered was really lousy and if I had gotten the commission they would have gotten way more than their monies worth. As it is I can now share my submission with you. In photoshop I altered butterfly photographs so they look more textile like. I then pigment printed each image onto quilters fabric and 24 hours later coated each image with acrylic gel to set the pigment to the cotton. Then I cut and sewed and in general had fun creating each as a individual hanging. The finish touch was to sew on antique buttons. The triangle hanger is recycled coat hangers. Wouldn't one of these look great hanging near the front door advertising the joy of spring/summer. I love the beauty and diversity in creation and I love diversity in creating. I am sure I will find a place where they would be happy to sell these for me. Each hanging is about 8 x 21 inches.

SOLD

Spring is on its way, hugs and enjoy your day.

Oh ya, I also have good news of being accepted for a exhibition, which I will tell about that later.

Chickadee Paint

2011-02-18T09:31:00.000-08:00

Chickadee Paint
image 10x8 inches

I had fun creating this pixel painting based on two separate photos that Gary posted on his wildlife art challenge blog. Of course its interpreted with bold color background as most of my bird paintings are. This image would make for a cute carry bag, I will have to see how it prints out onto fabric, maybe it may end up as one of my textile fabric hangings. Birds are such fun. Have a great day, big Hugs.

Gary Keimig Wildlife Art Challenge.
http://wildernessartchallenge.blogspot.com/

hawk owl and red fox

2011-02-13T19:23:00.000-08:00

Wonderful sunny day today for a country winter picnic. We drive around the back roads looking for birds. Today we came across a Northern Hawk Owl (my first) and luck would have it that others had been previously to view it as a trail of footprints led in through the pasture closer to where it perched. So there I am a gimp with leather wrist braces which enable me to hold the camera up and the necessary leg braces holding both knees together attempting to step into large sinkhole footsteps that come up to the knees and deeper in places. I was determined though and half way there as my legs got heavier I thought, what if I fall, so I glance back at the car and thankfully Gerald was following behind me, he is such a sweetheart.
Now I am sitting in my recliner all achy and sore and really really tired; so was it worth it, you betcha.

All these photos are cropped to enable you to see the owl better. The first two images were taken at the end of the sinkhole path and the last two were taken from the road way. We glanced up when we got back to the car and there he was posing. I believe he spotted some small birds and was thinking about flight, or else he was just stretching a wing. The last shot I washed out the exposure of the sky as I was shooting towards the sun, it worked as the owl is clear, yahoo.

This beautiful fox was racing along the tree line, it stopped, looked, then turned tail. We went up the next road and saw a farmer ploughing his equipment yard so the tractor most likely frightened the fox as we again spotted it, this time on the roadway ahead of us. Then once again it spun round and headed back to the farm. I have been wanting to see a fox up close, this is the closest I have gotten. Both these images are cropped to show the fox better.

I was shooting out of the car window and hoped for a good shot as man-o-man can foxes run, and they are so light on their feet as though flying, I like this shot as foxy is air-born. We watched a coyote cross a field and it was sinking and stumbling continually, surely not as graceful as Red on the snow. We saw a few snow buntings fly past us and a grouse walked across the road while we were having our picnic.

See the dark spot on the right of the road?

Of course with my boots loudly crunching on the snow the grouse headed further into the brush where I could not get a clear shot, but oh well that the way of bird photography.

all in all a wonderful day, hugs to all!

Change can be good

2011-02-11T16:54:00.000-08:00

Spring Blossoms; Goldfinch

12x8 inches

I previously posted this image months ago but since added a few more leaves at the top right and the green bars. The bars in my initial drawing are positioned at the bottom right. Months back I spent quite a bit of time painting bars in and wiping them out until finally set aside the painting though leaving it hang in my view. The problem initially was with using white and yellow in the bar strokes which drew the eye away from the bird. Recently I went back in without hesitation and finished up the piece to satisfaction for now the bars stop the eye and give the painting a bit of distinction from being a general bird and flowers motif. This painting will hang in one of my up-an-coming shows. You notice the difference in color between the two images? The turquoise in the actual painting is a closer match to the lower image which was photographed outside in the shade on a sunny day; the more recent version was photographed last week indoors, showing me how much quality and quantity of light makes a difference.

A Happy Ending

2011-02-07T12:43:00.000-08:00

We had a poor wee finch hit the picture window saturday so Gerald quickly put on his boots and went on a rescue mission as the finch had dropped to the snow, and as it was snowing and blowing he would not have survived lying there. We never had trouble with window strikes till we got new windows. I think the UV reflective crap they put in windows these days must reflect the sky too much. Gerald handed me the bird and I held him in a soft towel to warm him a bit then placed him uncovered in a shoebox as I didn't want to overheat him but left the towel under him and closed the lid. There were two holes in the side of the box to let in air and filtered light. I was worried Mr finch would not make it as he was pretty still for quite some time, but after about an hour when Gerald stroked his head he fluttered his wings so we opened the door, held the box open and out he flew to the tree top, I was so happy. So was his mate I am sure, while other finches came and went she held vigil near the feeder waiting, waiting.

Female finch

male finch

Sandhill Cranes

2011-02-03T12:40:00.000-08:00

I managed to take photos of my sandhill crane paintings this morning, the portraits are posted on my art blog, click on image in right sidebar to see all three portraits.

A parent lesser sandhill crane bringing swamp vole lunch to junior, mmm tasty treat. We watched the parents attentively bring food to the youngster. They would bring food and place it gently a couple of feet away then watch to see that the youngster took it. I had never seen wild sandhill cranes before so it was quite a treat. I fell in love with these small 3 feet tall birds. I painted six paintings of them in January, three portraits, two full single parent birds on brilliant color backgrounds and this one. January has been a good month.

I read that the sandhill crane is like the dinosaur of birds in that its been around a long time. Sadly industrialization and devastation of habitat has affected all the various world crane populations with the sandhill seeming to be the most adaptive and holding it own to the point of nesting in busy areas close to man. These ones nested at Reifiel Sanctuary in Delta BC. The Whooping crane does not fair as well and the only wild place it nests is in Wood Buffalo National Park in the far north of Alberta and does not nest if disturbed by man. I want to paint a whooping crane soon as well, though I have not yet had the opportunity to watch them in the wild. I do have a few zoo bird photos that maybe usable.

Lunchtime: Sandhill Cranes
Acrylic painting on 16x20 inch canvas painted right around the sides so no need for expensive framing.

Birds at the suet

2011-02-02T18:22:00.000-08:00

Cheeky magpie, love the glint in his eye. The sun was out beautifully today and it warmed up with no wind so I was able to get out for a bit and enjoy a breath of fresh air so maggie was not shot through a window. I find magpies interesting birds, quite beautiful also.

Boreal chickadee at the suet. We had two come today. Taken through the window.

This one was taken while I was out today, you can see how much clearer detail is without double pane between the camera and subject. I had a bit of difficulty getting clear shot due branches in the way though I am pleased with this image of full song being belted out, and look how fluffed up e' is.

Feisty female finch attempting to chase off all the males at the feeder, this fella stood his ground though she did usurp three others. Poor lighting as it was taken at dusk last night.

A male downey woodpecker has now found the suet.

Squirrel aerobics, too funny watching him try and reach the suet, he hasn't figured it out yet.

Heres Hunny bunny. I notice that his ears and nose stayed brown. We've noticed some jacks are half brown already, maybe it helps city bunnies to blend into the dirty snow and street gravel.

Delights of Snow

2011-01-30T07:34:00.000-08:00

Weight of snow-laden trees.

When the sun finally presented itself the trees happily shook their burden tossing snow into the air with branches rebounding joyfully upward. The waxwings bombarded the sky with delightful song, I smiled watching their aerobic flight patterns. How do large flocks of birds keep from crashing into each other as they swoop, dive and rise like a wave flowing across the sky?

Early morning view down the street taken from the comfort of a warm abode. Pretty, fresh, delightful and cold, brrr.

Winter-birds all fluffed up against the cold sporting flashy red.

I don't take people shots much anymore but this bright red coat is gorgeous against the stark snow.

We drove to The Wildbird General Store to get more black-oil sunflower seeds for my feathered friends and also got a suet ball to help the birds survive the cold snaps we are experiencing, its dropped to -25 again so any help they get conserving heat and energy when its this cold helps them to survive. The nuthatches seem to like the suet as they go back and forth between it and the seed-feeder. I am hoping the flicker comes by and finds the suet.

Big hugs and warm thoughts to all!

LOVE

2011-01-18T09:50:00.000-08:00

LOVE

About a week ago I mentioned learning to paint with pixels and working on a mixed media piece similar to Kykkotissa. Here is the finished work appropriately titled "LOVE".

It seems since becoming a grandmother that the mother and child image has become ever special and endearing, sentiments of age and continuity; maybe.

This is a pixel painting which is pigment printed onto quilters photographic cotton, coated with two coats of acrylic gel, accent stitched by machine. I then built the fabric frame around the image and added antique buttons, ribbon and fringe. Completed with a "LOVE" brooch bought at a church sale last fall.

I find quiet enjoyment creating these mixed media pieces and what better way to recycle old buttons and use up odds and ends of material from my past sewing adventures.

LOVE and HUGS!

finches galore

2011-01-15T19:34:00.000-08:00

In answer to a couple of questions posed yesterday, first off regarding the mountain chickadee. Stokes field guide states the Mountain chickadee eyebrow is black feathers with white tips which wear off in summer due to rubbing entering and leaving the nest hole, so that would explain the lack of as that photo was taken in august. John if you clik the image larger you can see a ghost of an eyebrow.

And as for finches, this is the delightful blaze of color that frequents the feeder each day for black-oil sunflower seeds; with this cold snap and abundance of snow we are recieving a trip to the Wildbird General Store is imminent to keep our feathered guests stocked in black oil seed. I would hate to run out when they most need it.

This was too cute, she had reached up for a berry whereupon dislodging a snow shower.

Tis lady finch is quite soft gray overall.

I notice some birds are a very striking deep red color with very defined light and dark on the wings, others are softer shades of red or orange, though the one I call Dale who was bright orange has not been around since a few days before christmas, at least I haven't seen him.

Some of the females are a brownish color and some lean towards gray, a lot of variation.

And then there is this wee fella, I am not sure if he is a stunted finch or some poor bird that did not fly south. It's smaller than the finches and extremely timid which has made it difficult getting a shot off as it flys to a further tree when it senses me at the window. Initially it arrived with a small crew of siskins when we had our first cold snap a few weeks back. Though larger than the siskins it seemed to travel and feed with them on the lower catch basin; now I notice it go to the feeder once in a while and seems to be sticking around. I keep attempting to capture it on the feeder with a finch to be able to see the size difference clearly, but so far I've been eluded.

This is Dale.

And here is Dale dining with his buddies, isn't he sweet

Have a wonderful day, Hugs to all.

cold snap brings in variety

2011-01-14T17:11:00.000-08:00

With temps hovering at -24 to -26 for the last four days we have had non-stop guests at the seed feeder. The black-capped chickadees come either singly, in twos and threes and once in a while about ten at a time. The bonus with the cold temps is we are getting a couple of boreal chickadee at the feeder, though they tend to come real early and again late when the light is waning making a clear shot difficult.

Black-capped Chickadee

Boreal Chickadee

During our summer camping birding trip I managed to capture a mountain chickadee and a chestnut-backed chickadee. The difference between each can be clearly seen.

Mountain Chickadee

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

snow snow and more

2011-01-09T22:48:00.000-08:00

Here is some digital play, a couple of my photographs meshed together. Really simple once I got the hang of it, though I can complicate anything.

Learning the pixel painting process has enabled me to start the mixed media pieces I have wanted to do for the last year. I now have one image pixel painted and pigment printed onto quilting photo fabric, which I then coated with acrylic gel, two times to really seal the pigment in and then I machine stitched some detail for texture, whereupon I had to rein in my enthusiasm so that I didn't overdo the thread work. Then I attached more fabric, a few antique buttons and now am in the process of attaching fabric to make a frame similar in idea to the previous wall hanging icon I painted. Its about half way to being complete and sitting at the "what does it need now stage". I will post an image when its finished as I am pretty happy with the mixed media pieces I am working on.

I'm also keeping busy with painting for my upcoming Calgary show this May. Its exciting as I'm working on a series of bright beautiful bird paintings and have completed three 8x8 bird portraits last week and started on three more larger ones to complement the finished ones. I will post images when they are all completed, but for now enjoy the photo-play I post as I keep learning new techniques. To see the layers in the above image click it larger.

I had wanted to go to the winter festival this weekend in which I have 4 juried painting showing, but alas sometimes more important things need tended, such as having snow shovelled off the roof which was waist high deep on my hubby where it drifted in on one side. So much heavy snow is weigh too much on a house. Anyhow because we received about two feet of snow all at once hubby has been working long shifts all weekend then had to come home and shovel. Sometimes its hard to have to just set things aside that the heart is set on but its his job to be on call during the winter; the upside is we get a solid month of birding in the summer.

Enjoy, live well, laugh loud and share a smile and a hug, they cost nothing to give, yet are priceless to receive.

Happy New Year, Light up my life, yours too.

2011-01-03T14:33:00.000-08:00

We went to candy cane lane last night to check out the lights display and I, more learned than last year was able to take some manual night shots of the displays.

Last years attempt to capture these nativity figures ended with fuzzy washed out images, this year shows much improvement, though a wee bit washed out the images are not bad for hand held.

I don't know how many years these have been on display but one of the wise men seems to have lost his gift.

It almost looks like he is searching the snow for it with his lit lantern.

The church window that overlooks the nativity mannequins.

Another church had an ice sculpted Nativity

and another church had this lights Nativity.

Enjoy

Sweet country style house, notice the painting under the door eve.

I did not take a lot of photos as many houses had a trim of lights and those monstrous blow-up walmart special plastic decorations", UGH!

I prefer handmade painted time and effort produced joy and cheer.

The most original one, real snowmen surfers, look out for the snow shark.

All following images are of one house, fantastic, the joy of the night.

This house is not on candy cane lane, its in S. Edmonton and its a fantasy marvel of lights.

Cinderella's chariot?

These flowers alternated being lit so they looked like falling flowers.

Palm trees and flamingos in the snow, brr.

Gingerbread people, yum!

Reindeer dancing in the sky. As the reindeer revolve the tree behind lights upward in varying degrees and colors, magical.

Ye Olde Toy Work Shop, there is a chute coming out of the roof bearing presents down to a waiting sleigh.

Here is the sleigh.

Happy New Year to all!

2010-12-31T17:07:00.000-08:00

May your year

Hold sweet fragrance and sunny warmth of the heart that delights all you come in contact with.

Happy New Year, Hugs to all!

2nd version photoshop

2010-12-29T12:00:00.000-08:00

"Glory of Love" digital manipulation of my own photos.

I felt the need to learn a few more techniques this morning such as adding text, filters, and cleaning up the one bolt that had been covered with an image layer. I feel this version is more complete than last nights.

I have an upcoming show in May and along with my bird paintings I want to have some multi-media pieces that incorporate my photography of Miriam images and angels, hence the learning photoshop.

May your day be blessed with The Glory of Love. Hugs to all.

more photoshop play

2010-12-28T23:14:00.000-08:00

This is a digital collage I completed tonight using 3 of my photos and manipulated them; its like using scissors and glue without the mess.
I'm starting to grasp a few techniques with photoshop. Still nowhere near where I need to be to accomplish my artistic goals, though each days play inches me a little further along. I picked up a brand spanking new book from the library that has guided exercises for photoshop elements 6 but I'm thinking that these projects were designed on a PC as I get through portions of the exercises and then get stuck. Not being able to complete the required task the way its set out in the book as steps seem to be missing I persevere and find a simpler or alternative way to complete the task. In all fairness the author does set a disclaimer at the start that one should know some photoshop basics, and, well I am learning the basics as I go.