The Bird of The Day

I have become an avid birder, even registered with Cornell Lab of Ornithology so I can note what shows up in my back yard for their information. Granted, I have a limited inventory to take note of at the moment because I can't go out birding to other areas away from my home. But I have learned how to use my long lens (finally) and have become more adept at taking pictures from my upstairs room.

One of my favorite birds is the Eastern Towhee. For years it has been called the Rufous Sided Towhee, but now instead of the broad application, it has been divided into two groups - the Eastern Towhee and the Spotted Towhee. We have the Eastern here, and I love to watch them, but they are hard to photograph because they move so quickly as they feed on the ground, and they like shrubs and low hanging tree branches; they even build their nests on the ground. They have russet colored eyes along with a handsome coat but getting that all in sharp focus has been impossible!

The best I could do, it seemed, was this. The eyes aren't apparent and it's not in sharp focus.

Until.....

The other afternoon as I walked up to the window near my bed, I noticed a towhee sitting on the fence! That was just so unusual. He sat completely still, and he was on a fence! Not part of expected towhee behavior. Muttering to myself "Please don't move!" I turned on the camera and shifted it down to focus on him. Not only did he not move, I was able to get some stunning shots! 

You can see how beautiful he is! The female is a dark rich brown instead of black, but has the other markings. Notice his feet? They seem a bit larger than other song birds; I think it's because of how they hunt for food. They make a rapid hop forward, then back, dragging leaf litter off of a patch of ground so they can eat whatever is hiding underneath. They also do that on snow, trying to get to whatever food may be there.

The song they sing sounds like "Drink your teeeeea!" 

This page has a button to click for the song, and for other calls they make. The sound is clearer there than if you play the video at the top of the page.

I keep my camera on a tripod in front of the window so I am ready when I see a bird. It has really helped, since I have to spend so much time on the bed. 

Hope you enjoyed learning about the bird of the day!

Live your life one day at a time!

Lesson From A Patient Starling

(I have been thinking about Spring, as I view the snow from the past weekend's storm slowly melting, taking its time. The following post was originally written on May 20, 2015 and I thought it would make a nice repost to remind me that Spring is surely coming!)

For the past few days, I've been hearing a sound somewhat like a rusty hinge screeching a flat chord. That's the best way I could describe it! I looked outside my open bedroom window and watched as starlings were marching up and down in the grass and weeds of our front yard, busily searching for tasty cuisine. I was still puzzled as to what was going on with that sound and how it connected to what I was witnessing in the front. It wasn't until I was later at the kitchen window, watching several birds at the feeder that it all became clear. While I was standing there, a mother starling and three fully grown and dull colored juvenile starlings landed over several of the feeders hanging from the pole. The noise was being made by each of the juveniles, while mom instantly became busy picking up food and popping it into the nearest open beak. The juveniles jostled together as they rustled their wings repeatedly, screeching in that same key, and shoving one another aside so they could be the one to be fed next. Once in a while, one of the juveniles would peck at something himself, or fly down to inspect the bird bath, but those forays didn't last too long. Over the next several days, I have witnessed this again and again and marveled at the mother's patience. When mom flew off, they flew off, and when mom came back, there they were, barely a feather's space between them.

Starlings aren't the only birds which display this behavior - cardinals, finches, bluebirds and several other breeds do it as well. Cardinals seem to have the least amount of patience though, I've seen a female cardinal peck a juvenile on the head a time or two when she was tired of being bothered. Bluebird fledglings stay on a tree branch, and the parent will fly back and forth from the meal worm feeder, stuffing their beaks. They all start chirping when the parent heads toward them. The dad will continue this even while mom sits on a new brood. When that brood hatches and then fledges, the birds from the earlier brood will assist their parents in bringing food to the new fledglings.

It's a scene repeated each spring, and has been going on since creation. The mature birds help their offspring and their nurture hasn't ended at the nest. Most of us experience some of that from our parents, and even some mammals do as well. It's an encouragement to me to see these age old routines played out at this time of year. What a reassurance that whatever craziness is going on in parts of the world, the normal order of things has not been broken. And it reminds me to be willing to be helpful to not only family members, but to other artists, of whatever creativity they are into. We don't live alone as hermits, and even if I don't practice a certain kind of art, I can be encouraging to its creator. After all, my Creator encourages me daily from what I see and enjoy in nature.

Enjoy your life one day at a time!

Finishing The Tissue Encaustic

All right, in my previous blog, I was sharing the new technique I was trying, collage with images printed on tissue on 300 lb. press watercolor paper. I finished my first try and found very quickly that it is not as easy as it looks. But then, when something looks great, it isn't usually an easy process!

The glare on the wax is because I took a photo in my studio instead of outside as I usually do.

What I learned:

Cutting the watercolor paper was the easy part!

You can't have your fan running when dealing with tissue images. A fan is a necessary part of doing encaustics because of the fumes but I need to turn it off as I cut, tear, and study placement.

The background to the "tree" was darker, so it shows, although you can't really tell here. I tried using oil pastels and oil sticks to sort of blend it, but it really doesn't work. I know how to make transparent PNG images in PSE, so I will do that next time, then print them.

You CAN use too much wax! I became fed up after trying to scrape back, and then I developed a hot spot where the wax wouldn't stay on the paper.

I am pleased with the layout, as far as composition goes, but I think I will use a stronger "tree" image - that is actually a seaweed.

When trimming the overlapping wax with the blue tape with the X-Acto, you really need to make sure you have a firm press on your ruler. I don't know if you can see, but I took out some of the area that would have showed through a mat board.

The parts of the paper not covered with tape will absorb the wax. In this case it's at the top and would not show if I matted it.

Double sided tape does work in a laser printer. I have also read the painter's tape will work as well. I may give that a try.

I hope that you have seen my encaustic work I've uploaded, to know that I do actually have some skill -haha! I felt like everybody could learn from my mistakes here, so I'm sharing the good with the not-so-good!

I think I will try using a butane torch on these pieces to see if the wax application is smoother. The heat gun seemed to overwhelm the piece. Or else I am too impatient.

And that was my first try, or should I say, experiment! Stay tuned - I'm not giving up!

Tissue Torment

Trying out a new idea, from seeing it demonstrated with another artist doing an encaustic segment. Tissue paper collage encaustics, and hers (of course) turned out beautifully. Ah, I said, I have to give that a try.

First off, making copies on tissue took me a long time to figure out. She used a bottom feeding ink jet printer and mine fed from the top. Gravity was my enemy and it seemed that no matter how much cellophane tape I used, the tissue came out wrinkled, when it would go through at all. Couldn't use my laser printer, because it would melt the tape and ruin the printer. Hmmmm, why to do? Then I was pointed to a video where another person was working on a different project and she used double face tape through her laser print and presto - it worked! Doing projects requires me to spend double the amount of time, because I have to lie down after being up for a certain period of time, so that means two days had gone by at this point.

Here are some tissue copies; with the fan running (a must when you are doing encaustics because of fumes) they never wanted to stay put. They quickly flew off if I forgot to put something on top of them.

My substrate is a 7 x 9 300lb pressed watercolor paper, with a 5 x 7 center marked out with painter's tape. Actually this was the easiest part of the whole process.

In her video segment, the artist encouraged us to write words or scribble something on the base layer. I wished I'd never done it. It looks stupid. I won't next time, or else I will use a layer of vintage script. In this picture, there are a few layers of wax.

This is where everything is now. I tried using some oil pastel crayons to blend over the writing, with more layers of wax. Also, one of my tissue images has a darker background than the other and it shows, instead of seamlessly blending together out of sight with the layers of wax. I can still see the word. Sooooo, this may be just a test piece, but I am swallowing my pride so that you can see - hey- mistakes are made by everyone, it's how we learn! I promise to finish and remove the tape so that you can see what it looks like, hopefully not quite so messy!

Taoist Fairy

I finished my media/collage painting.

Mo-ku-hsien, Taoist Fairy

(click for details)

Until I found this image, I didn't know that Japanese literature included fairies. She always has her deer in attendance.

The image is a color transfer, and other images are transferred and then collaged on top of the transfer. Background is acrylic paint with oil pastels. I also included tiny Italian square ceramic beads, paper flowers and 3 tiny rolled scrolls. It's on 12 x 12 wrapped gallery canvas. Enjoy!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Another Collage Postcard

The reason I do a lot of postcard art is because with this illness, it's a lot shorter timewise to create a postcard, so I can still have the joy of creating, and yet go back and lie down! But I miss making bigger things, so I have started a painting which I've wanted to do, but have been putting off. For right now, here is the latest postcard for you to enjoy!

(click for details)

Mixed media includes collaged tissue strips, various paper bits, acrylic paint, rubber stamping, part of a lace doily, texture strip, stabilo pencils oil pastels, and then the top images and gems. The original postcard was a black and white advertising card. The texture strip is something found in the sewing notions, but I forget exactly what it was. The bird is a Dresden Scrap, as it was originally published in the 1930's. 

While I was on the porch photographing this, I could hear a storm coming, so I tried a few shots of the sky and clouds, and even took a couple of shots of one of the 6 hanging baskets we have on the front porch.

AngelWings Begonias, Petunias, Sweet Potato Vine and I don't know the name of the really small leafed hanging plant on the left.

Click on picture you want to see closer.

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Pink Birds Postcard

I have had really up and down days, but I wanted to be doing something so I tried something new with this postcard. The background is collaged dark green paper, then I put a wash over it. Next I used a stencil to put Bead Gel in the shape of birds. After that dried, I painted them, sketched in a few leaves and the outline of mountains. Mixed media with paper, acrylic paints, bead gel, Stabilo pencils, oil pastels.

(click for details)

These birds live in the high mountains of an imaginary country, 

somewhere far, far away. 

And this postcard goes in the mail tomorrow.

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Art Postcards 1 & 2

I had enough energy today to finish two collage postcards of the latest foam core set.

(click for details)

(click for details)

The cards incorporate postage stamp, dried flower petals, tissue paper, sequins, gem,  rubber stamping, Dresden Scrap birds, acrylic paints, fiber gel, paper tape, oragami mesh and paper lace doily.

Enjoy!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Yahoo! PLAY!!

Today, for the first time since around Thanksgiving, I felt like doing art all day long! Of course, I can't just yet and fatigue and exhaustion caught up with me, but it was grand to be up in my studio. When I did the foamcore board postcards a few weeks ago, I could only spend a couple of hours at a time, and some days I just had to push myself. And I realize that those days may revisit me, but I am excited about this day!!

Speaking of foamcore postcards, I started another batch! The two postcards shown in yesterday's post have already been mailed out! So, I thought I better get a move on and do some in a larger batch. Do you remember this tissue paper from another post?

Bright primary colors, juvenile images, not really my style.

BUT..... that becomes this:

(click for details)

(click for details)

With a little bit of paint, stenciling and other alterations. I tore the tissue into chunks and adhered it to a piece of 12 x 18 foamcore board. This is just the beginning, I will be adding much more to it and then will cut them up into another set of nine postcards. It needs to rest and dry, and I need to simply rest!! But I'm excited about what they will become!

While I was photographing these pictures, there was a lot of activity at the little bird feeder hung up outside my window, so I managed to get a couple of shots of a titmouse.

The feeder has shelled peanuts in it.

The Titmouse watched me for a second or two.....

.....then went right back to eating. This little feeder attracts House Finch, Purple Finch, Titmice, Carolina Wrens, Brown Headed Nuthatch and Black Headed Nuthatch. They are used to me sitting just a foot or two away and will empty the feeder very fast, especially on a day like today which was much colder than it has been!

Okay, I'm tired and achy now, I need to go find a small piece of chocolate!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!