It Wouldn't Be January without a Downy

 

Nothing says "January" like a painting of a downy woodpecker on a bare tree. I love the texture of a birch tree. While the bark seems at a glance to be simply black & white, at a closer look it's a combination of many subtle shades of brown, green, and even pink. Still, it's much more contrasted than most tree bark. I usually paint a downy scene with a minimum of color variation, except for the male's red patch.

Walls Full of Birds

Recently a customer wanted to buy a large group of my prints for a newly painted sun room wall. She had them framed and sent me this photo. I'm proud to have my work displayed so prominently!

From the Archive

I painted this watercolor of a Fox Sparrow in 2007, which for whatever reason was a common visitor to my garden that year. I have only attempted to paint a snow scene with watercolor 2 times, this one and another one with juncos. The snow is difficult to accurately depict, but I was fairly satisfied with the effect. Both paintings were sold after a short time. It's also hard to reproduce the snowy scene for prints, so this is the only image I have of the original.

The Bluebird of . . .

I tromped around the grounds of the nearby forest preserve until I found an interesting tree-like shrub (or shrublike tree) with some kind of berries. I was looking for some combination of red and white to complement the bluebird that I was imaging painting. The leaves were almost completely gone, and the berries were still white, but kind of shriveled. I wanted it to look weathered. I find that plants are more interesting when they're not looking like they're at their best. I just happened to have a scissors with me in the car. With some effort, I was able to hack away at the shrub until I detached some branches.
It appears that the plant is a grey dogwood, judging from my googling. 

An Amicable Split

After giving the issue a lot of thought, I have decided that it's best if the cardinal couple split up. For the sake of the art. I painted them together 3 years ago, with the intention of showing them interacting as a faithful couple, as cardinals are often known. However, the painting was still with me unsold, and I had to figure out why.
First, its frame was rather dark and bulky, and may have detracted from the painting. Its layout was also decidedly horizontal, perhaps too much. There may have been a bit too much space between them, which made the design a slight bit off balance.
Honestly, I was tired of shlepping this painting to and from shows. Cardinals usually are quick sellers, and even with "this economy" I expected them to have sold by now. With their legal separation, they can be displayed as good friends instead of mates. I added some more leaves to the male's picture to fill in some gaps. I'll mat and frame them identically, and with these improvements I'm hoping they'll find that it's for the best.

Over Already?

It's hard to believe the art fair season is over, for me, that is. Art in the Barn was hard work, but fun. The inside of a barn can be cold! Tomorrow, I'm calling to cancel my account with the merchant services company I've been using for the last 7 years. I'm fed up with their fees for membership, inactivity fees, activity fees, malfunctions when I phone in the transactions, and the percentage taken from each transaction.

Yes, it's time. I'm going to take the step towards "The Square". This requires that I get a smart phone, which I've been avoiding up until now, but I've heard such good reports about the Square, that it's inevitable that I sign up. More about that later. . .

Acorns Are Falling

To commemorate the recent sale of my latest blue jay painting, I whipped up another one. This will be a bountiful season for these birds. The acorns are raining from the trees this "Fall". I don't know what causes oak trees to have an overabundance of acorns one year and not another, but this is one of those abundant years. In honor of this season of acorn bombardment, I painted a blue jay contemplating one of them.