Cardinal Collage

8" x 10"

Painted and found paper collage on cradled wood panel

Moving on from chickadees, cardinals have been a joy to work on.  I had been hoarding favourite papers but was determined to actually use them.  Although I have several new ones to post, I returned to this from a previous post to add more branches as it seemed to need a little something more.

Painted AND Sewn

A slight departure from my normal posts.  There is a fund raiser for our local Aviary called The Nichoir this weekend.  And I decided to paint and stitch some pillows for it.  

Handpainted on unprimed canvas and embellished with free form stitching.  The birds are appliqued onto the background.  This was very satisfying to do as I can expand on this many ways and I can indulge in my love for fabric and beautiful embroidery threads at the same time.

As experiments do, this lead to my stitching up some Fall leaves using wool, dupioni silk and organza.  I'll incorporate these into wool scarves, handmade bags and more pillows.  

On my desktop....

Bringing the outside in....

Trying to make time to sketch and paint is not easy when there's planting to be done in addition to everything else. (Not that I'm planting fields or anything)  This really captures the flavor
of the season....bringing little specimens of what's blooming outside in to be recorded into my sketchbooks.  Sketching doesn't
come easy to me.....but I've missed the learning experience that happens when working in sketchbooks and have looked at artists who use theirs regularly with envy.  It's funny, I think I actually cherish my few sketchbooks even more than my most challenging paintings.

P.S.  The sepia photo that is collaged onto the flower pot is of
my dad sitting on his mother's knee.  I've used that photo many
times in various media.

Wing Flutter Problems

Chickadees figure into my artwork noticeably and yesterday I completed two 16" canvases that included an image of them in a collage. As I posted the previous entry, I was distracted (enthralled) with the activity at the bird feeder merely a metre
away from me on the other side of the window where I sit at my computer. I had placed the feeder (the first one I've ever had)
in that location over a month ago and it took them that long to notice but now that they do, they literally line up in the
Lilac tree to try to bump each other off. It's killing me that I can't photograph well. Sometimes there are cardinals and chipmunks
all in the same place at the same time...

The title of the collage shown here is "Wing Flutter Problems" an excerpt of the study from the Aeronautical Journal published in the 1930's addressing those concerns is also collaged into the image.