Garden Songbirds Set 4 Completed

Back in February I began another set of collage backgrounds for the Garden Songbird Silhouette series I was working on. I finally had the opportunity to finish this set.

Evokes Springtime, don't you agree?

 

These are available for sale. Contact me via email or visit my Etsy site. Both links are to the right hand side.

 

Birds on my Mind

It's okay, you can call me a bird brain! I'll take it as a compliment. I watch them several times a day, beginning with sunrise and their visits to the feeders.* I have been working on the mixed media collage painting series of songbirds (as previously posted) for a month now. So is it any wonder I am beginning to see bird images everywhere? This morning I noticed this design in the bath floor towel created by wet feet. It looks like a bird on a flowering tree branch to me - does it look that way to you?

An unusual post, but I thought it was cool and wanted to share it. And yes, I will be creating at least a drawing and more than likely a painting of this. Asian brush style, I think.

*Some recent posts about my backyard birds can be found here:
Breakfast with the Birds
Juncos and the Upcoming Blizzard
Cardinals and the Blizzard

Garden Songbirds Mixed Media Collage Paintings

Enjoying the process of creating the mixed media collage paintings of the foxgloves as well as the finished product, I decided to use this technique again for some small bird images.

Beginning with pages cut from old books on birding, assorted ledger papers, snippets of decorative paper and hand written notes, these were glued to matboard.

 

Next I applied torn pieces of assorted Asian fiber papers. On top of that I added line drawings of garden songbirds. The first two came from the drawing it did for Birdsong and two other monoprints. I have also used this drawing for the title page in a visual journal. Wanting to make this a trio, I added the finch-like bird. I was originally going to paint the birds brown, but decided to make it more spring-like so used a robin's egg blue acrylic paint.

Garden Songbirds I

Garden Songbirds II

Garden Songbirds III

I am happy to say that this set of three has found a new home.

An Attitude of Gratitude Journal - Books, Education and Things I've Learned

Continuing along with the month long Attitude of Gratitude Journal challenge, here are Days 11, 14 and 19:
 

As I read each day's prompts, I make notes of what comes to mind, then work them out in the journal. Working on a few pages a week, I have the advantage of seeing what themes and technique challenges are coming up. I have noticed that my thoughts for one day can also be applied to another day in a few instances. Because of this, I have decided to combine some days. Here are Days 11, 14 and 19 - Things I've Learned, Education and Books.

The technique challenges for each day are: use the Vaseline resist method; use the liquid pearls technique; and use a book page. I do not currently have Vaseline in the house, so was not able to try this technique. I did watch the video and it looks really cool. I will try it on a future page.

For the page on the left, I added book pages from a tree identification key guide, wrote the scripture and journaled my answers to the questions. I noticed that the blank areas formed triangles. I thought that the black & white checkered tissue paper I have would look good there. I looked for it but could only find a piece that has a thin coat of gesso applied to it. This wasn't bold enough so I drew in the triangles and checker squares and colored them.

On the right I added another book page, from an old Peterson Guide to Birds book I bought at a library book sale. I added the piece of checkered tissue paper to tie it in with the other page. I don't own Liquid Pearls but I do have pearlescent paints, so used this instead. I scraped it over a stencil as demonstrated in the video. I chose to add texture by blotting the paint while wet with a sheet of paper. On this page I wrote about my favorite books and made a list of places where I have taken classes.

I love books and I love learning! Thank you Lord for these treasures.

Birds and Blueberries

Of the prints that sold during the CWOS Alternative Space weekend were three containing the same birds drawing and mask used in different ways, and blueberries, printed with two different methods.

 

Birdsong - Mixed Media

Birds Diptych - Monotype

In the Thicket - Monotype

 One woman who bought a blueberry silkscreen print told me that she was buying it as a Christmas gift for her sister, with whom she shares a blueberry bush. Another woman told me that she too was buying it as a Christmas gift for her parents, who live in area of Connecticut surrounded by blueberry farms.

Blueberry Summer, silkscreen

From the drawing for the blueberries silkscreen, I created a drypoint etching in plexiglass and printed it onto some of my handmade paper, using the chine colle method. There are five versions of this, though this is the only one I have a photo of. This particular one is framed and has not sold yet, but is similar to the ones that did.

Never Stop Learning - My New Year Tradition

For many years now, I have celebrated New Years Day by adding books to my family's library. When the children were younger, I would take them to Barnes and Noble or Borders and have them pick out a book on a subject they would like to learn more about. I would do the same for Bob and myself.  Alina often chose travel books or books on photography. Joe preferred books on origami or Star Wars. One year he chose a book on backyard blacksmithing. While we haven't done that together as a family in a long time, I do continue to buy books for myself each New Year.  My favorite sources these days are Edward R. Hamilton, Booksellers and Amazon. While I love books, I am faced with the reality that they are expensive, so choose these sellers for their selection, great discounts, and fast delivery.

This year I bought from Edward R. Hamilton the following:

Backyard Bird Secrets for Every Season by Sally Roth (Rodale) (c) 2009
The Magic of Digital Close Up Photography by Joseph Meehan  (Lark) (c) 2006
Paisley Designs - 44 Original Plates by Gregory Mirow (Dover) (c)1989
The Decorated Journal by Gwen Diehn (Lark) (c) 2005

They arrived yesterday.

It is my hope to learn more about the birds that are regular visitors to my feeders so that I can make their home here more appealing to them. Already I have learned from Backyard Birds Secrets that birds need extra crude protein and fat in their winter diets to stay warm. Today I bought specialty peanut seed mix as well as two types of suet and feeders to hold them. I discovered recipes for making my own suet when these run out. I learned that if I build and install roosting boxes and provide conifers for shelter, the birds can stay warm.  With this information, I asked Bob to prop up the Christmas tree we bought in the garden near the feeders so that the birds have another cozy place to sleep at night. (We were saving the tree to use the branches as protective covering for the perennials.)

I love close up photography! Many of the photos I take are close ups, but they often turn out blurry, or the camera refuses to take the shot at the range I want to take it. The Magic of Digital Close Up Photography looks like a textbook and I am hoping to learn the tricks of the trade from it!

Paisley Designs will help me when I create the other decorative fruits to add to Punica ornamentum. It is my plan to add a paisley apple and pear and thus create a series of this type of print.

Lastly, I have known about the book, The Decorated Journal, for years. Having other books on book and journal making, I didn't buy it until now, although it is a classic on the subject.  The price was right so I decided to add it to my collection.  Already I have learned new things from it!


It is great to learn something new every day, but there is the trap of being always learning and never doing, which will be the topic of my next post.