My Christmas Card for this Year

Here's the painting I used for my Christmas card each year.  I was going through and old magazine and ran across a photo of two squirrels.  In the photo, both squirrels were on a log that was standing on end.  The squirrel on the left was on the side of the log and the squirrel on the left was on the cut end.  Their paws were in slightly different positions.

I imagined it rotated to the right to the composition you see here.  So I changed the paws so that they would work on the branches and added the mistletoe for a holiday setting.  I actually sent out two different cards from the same painting - the landscape orientation above and the portrait orientation you see below.

I began with a pencil drawing then added acrylic and finally a bit of ink.  I spattered the snow on with a toothbrush.  Since the snow has just started, it hasn't accumulated yet on the branches.

The Completed Goat Icon

I'm very happy with the way this turned out and so is my sister (it was a gift for her).  Plus, after a little trepidation and something of a lost feeling at the beginning, it was a lot of fun.  The original inspiration was the little resin goat at the top that I got at a flea market last year.  Then I saw the photo of the goat in a catalog and was smitten by her sweet face.  The third goat piece was the little acrylic painting I did.

I started to do a collage of magazine pieces behind the photo of the goat but was initially very unhappy with it.  But once I went back over it with slightly tinted gesso to push the whole thing back and subdue the color contrasts I liked it very much.  Then I put the word "capra" - female goat - on and added the little sprigs of foliage by painting them in.  I will use this technique again as I like the aged feeling it gives me.

Since this goat is so cute, how could I resist giving her a rhinestone collar?  That's part of the attraction of collage for me - it's liberating...

Shelley's Goat Icon

I wanted to make Shelley a little piece of wall art - an icon with a goat theme.  She's been talking about a companion animal for her horse Merlin, and a goat is one possible candidate.

In the photo, I have all the various elements tentatively arranged on the backing (a piece of primed and painted wood) and then I took a photo so I could remember where they all go when I am ready to assemble it.

Most of the elements are polymer clay tiles.  I rolled sheets of polymer clay, then stamped them with a texture and coated them with mica powders.  The little bird tiles along the right edge are polymer clay that I pressed into a mold that I made from an old button.  The little lamb is from a mold made from a small figurine.  The copper-looking rounds are polymer clay from a mold made over an old metal embellishment - the copper mica powder looks so real!  Some of these elements I've had around from past projects.

The bird is a metal stamping.

The round piece at the top is polymer clay with a Swarovski ravoli in the center.  The leaves are also polymer clay - I pressed chrysanthemum leaves into the clay then peeled them off.  Chrysanthemum leaves are small and have pronounced vein structures, but you need to press them into the clay back side down because the veins are bulgier on the undersides.

The dark green tile with the writing says "volubas capram verum dei equum donebant" - "you wanted a goat but the gods gave you a horse."  Latin.

The large goat at the upper right is torn from a catalog.  The goat lower down is a painted I did on Strathmore mixed media paper with acrylic.  There is also a little resin figurine of a goat that will go on the top.  I coated the goat figurine with Ten Seconds Studio's copper emulsion then their patina.

Ready to assemble!

Thirty Little Collages - Bat

This group of postings show the finished 6" x 6" collages and also the text that I wrote about the animal and included in the collage.

My daughter was living on the second floor of an old house in a little New Hampshire town the summer she was doing her internship for her MBA.  One night she was awakened by a most bizarre sound - a tapping, as though someone were tapping on the keyboard of her laptop.  Was the Universe sending her a message?  She was unnerved and curious at the same time.  When she got up to look she found a bat moving around rather clumsily on the keyboard.  Then it slipped under the door and out of the flat.  The next day it took quite a search to find and liberate the little invader.

Thirty Little Collages - Wolf Pup

This group of postings show the finished 6" x 6" collages and also the text that I wrote about the animal and included in the collage.

Through the ages the sight and sound of wolves has been met with fear.  Now they are a sign of hope as those persecuted animals make little come-backs here and there.  I understand that they are back in Yellowstone and are making inroads elsewhere.  One day I would like to hear the howl of a wild wolf.

Thirty Little Collages - Peccary (a.k.a. Javelina)

This group of postings show the finished 6" x 6" collages and also the text that I wrote about the animal and included in the collage.

When I was in Tuscon I saw a peccary at the Desert Museum.  They are so unattractive - in a conventional sense - that they are actually quite charming.  I found a photo of one standing on its back legs gobbling bird seed from a tray feeder.  I suppose they're like raccoons and squirrels, just looking for a good meal from wherever they can find one.  Sadly, they don't live in this part of California, so I'm unlikely to ever see one in the wild.

Thirty Little Collages - Kestrel (a.k.a. Merlin)

This group of postings show the finished 6" x 6" collages and also the text that I wrote about the animal and included in the collage.

I would frequently see kestrels perching on the phone wires and I became fascinated by these very special birds.  I found specifications, build a kestrel house,, and installed it at the proper height in a black walnut tree near the road by my house.  Sure enough, a pair moved in and before long we were aware of three fledglings.

One day a couple driving by stopped to alert us that a large young bird was in the road.  My husband picked up the wanderer and returned it to its nest box.  But first we got a good look at it and I can tell you that even at that young age, the bird's claws and beak were already those of a professional!