Chickadees Galore

The season is changing outside here in Las Vegas but it has been slow coming with November temperatures still in the upper 80's but in my studio there is snow all around.  Winter and the holidays has arrived in full force. With December approaching I am finding that every gallery I affiliate with has decided that a holiday themed show is the thing to do and I have 4 of them I'm busy trying to create for not to mention my recently completed ornament that is on it's way to Washington D.C. to be hung on the National Christmas Tree.  I've been one very busy artist!  This ornament features the Mountain Bluebird, which is the state bird of Nevada.






After finishing the ornament, I focused on creating more unique Christmas designs including a painting.  As you can see this week has clearly been a Chickadee kind of week.  I finished this 12 x 12 acrylic snow scene and what fun I had painting it.  I'm calling this one "Chickadees in the Snow" and I'm thinking of hanging it in the Boulder City Art Gallery for December.












Then I decided to add a couple of more sketches that featured a similar pair of birds and those adorable red berries by having them appear to be stringing garland or decorating their nest.  I thought it was a cute idea and the "Stringing Garland" piece looks really great on a greeting card.







Speaking of greeting cards, I have also been working on improving the look of my cards by adding a border around the 4 x 6 print with a slightly larger rectangle of Christmas designed card stock.  I bought a pad of 60 sheets at the Michaels Store  just to see how I could spice up the design on my cards and I think they have turned out really nice.  I'm looking forward to filling card orders and making these available at a number of local area galleries and hope to take some out to the store in Pahrump.




A final design created this past week is more in a cartoon style but those little Chickadees are still going strong.  This one I have called "Decorate to Impress".

If you enjoy my work please leave me a comment below and check out my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com or follow me on Instagram or like my Facebook Page.

 

On It's Way to Washington DC

This week I was given the pleasure of designing and creating a unique Christmas ornament that represents the State of Nevada and that will be hung on the National Christmas Tree in Washington DC.  What a great time I had doing this project.  I did feel a bit funny not painting a white snow scene, but I am recently returned from a weekend trip to enjoy the fall colors on the 33 mile drive called Success Loop near Ely, Nevada.  Part of the drive is covered in a mature aspen grove.  The sounds, the colors and the beauty still fill my memories and it was that image of Nevada I wanted to portray on this plastic globe.  As you can see from this picture the ornament is actually pretty good sized and began as 2 halves of a clear plastic ball.  

I put a gray primer coat on the ball initially and tried to apply acylic paint directly on top of the primer.  I didn't like how this was working so changed gears and painted the whole ball a blue color.  I think created all the artwork on paper using my Prismacolor pencils and pen and ink.  I think cut them all out and glued them to the surface of the ball.  I then came in with acrylic painted and added the leaves and the grasses.  I also painted a number of small pebbles in silver paint and glued them to the top of the ornament.  This represents silver nuggets and of course the state of Nevada is know as the Silver State.  To finish off the project I sprayed the whole thing with fix-it spray and then a couple coats of spray on clear varnish to add shine and to make sure everything stayed in place.  

I decided to add a detailed Mountain Bluebird because they are not only a beautiful bird, but they are after all, the state bird.  Our first trip driving the Success Loop we saw a number of deer so I wanted to include a young buck.  Of course on my ornament I tried to duplicate that shimmering and sparkle that only quacking aspen trees can produce.  I don't think I even came close, but I guess I probably gave a modest representation and you are at least able to guess what I'm trying to convey here.

Since it is difficult to get all views of a circular globe with just one photo, I created a collage of all 4 sides so that you could get a better feel of what the ornament looks like.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did creating it.  

Check out all my artwork on the gallery link above or on my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com