Chickadees, Chickadees And More Chickadees.....

It seems I've been painting a ton of chickadees these days, these two pieces were the beginnings of a special project that I hope comes to fruition soon. These two happy spring birds are getting ready to fly out of my studio this coming week and hopefully, onto a new home.

This coming week I'm on to other painting projects, ones that do not include chickadees this time. The spring weather here in NY has been lovely, leading to lots of walks in the mornings and yoga sessions as well. It is amazing how much more "alive" I feel in the beautiful spring weather, ready for activity and painting projects as well. I hope everyone is enjoying a beautiful and inspiring spring this year.

"Awaiting Spring" - Chickadee On Gallery Canvas & A Blog Spring Cleaning

I've been painting a lot of birds lately for a project that I'm working on and "Awaiting Spring" is the newest chickadee to be added to the collection. www.artfulcreations.etsy.com

I had one of those mornings where I thoroughly amazed myself today. You see, my blog has been looking shabby and neglected for quite a long time now, it was in a real state of sad disarray. There were widgets I wanted taken off, things to be moved around, added, it basically just needed a lot of help. My husband being the techie in the family, always does all these tasks for me after I make him a detailed list of what needs to be done. Lately he has been very busy and I have totally forgotten to write a list so these things that needed to be changed, just stretched on, undone, for weeks and months.

This morning though I sat down and went into the design area of the blog and to my great amazement, I saw all the things I needed to take out and was easily able to delete them. I also added pictures of Chris and me and our doggies and was able to successfully upload those in the blog sidebar as well. What I'm probably most proud of though is that I figured out how to add painting photos, make them clickable so they take you to my ETSY site and also add links to my website and ETSY site that actually work. I was also able to add a photo link at the top of the blog in the left hand column that can take people to Creative Connection licensing agency. I then realized all the photos and links I had made were right in a row, not where I would want them so I was able to click and drag them to where I wanted them. I then realized by hitting that magic little "save" button, all my changes would be happily displayed just the way I want them on my blog. Amazing!!!

I hope you have been able to amaze yourself today as well!!!!

Attraction - Acrylic Hummingbird Quadtych Painting

"Attraction" is a new acrylic quadtych on gallery canvas that just came off my easel last week. I've actually been wanting to paint this for quite some time, a couple of years actually.

It all started one spring when I went to the nursery to get the annuals for my back porch. I have a very sunny location in the backyard so I love geraniums for my pots out there as they are so hardy, colorful and sun & heat tolerant.

I had always gotten zonal gernaiums but this particular year, I saw cascade geraniums and thought for my hanging pots at least, they would be perfect. What I didn't realize was, cascade geraniums attract..............

HUMMINGBIRDS!!!! Imagine my happy surprise at this discovery.

So now each summer, cascade geraniums fill my hanging pots out back and I am treated to the site of hummingbirds fluttering around on a daily basis.

This painting has already flown off to it's new home....I hope it will be enjoyed each day, for a long time to come. www.artfulcreations.etsy.com

"Gazing Upward" - Acrylic Painting & Sand Dollar Pendant Set

Did you every hear that old expression, when it rains it pours?? That is about where I am in the world these days. So much seems to be going on all at once and I'm not really finding the time to stay up to date with blogging or even getting on the computer for that matter. A week of jury duty turned into being selected for a trial, which I thought I would have hated but I must admit to enjoying and being quite fascinated by the process. In short, I'm glad to have had this experience, I never thought I would hear myself utter those words, but there they are. All this fun of course has kept me away from painting as well so I've just been doing what I can, when I can. This chickadee is the second in my painting/pendant combo sets.

The chickadee is painted on an 8" x 8" gallery canvas that is 1 1/2" deep.

The matching pendant is painted on a 2" sand dollar.

This set is now in my Artfire shop: www.artfulcreationsbyruthwelter.artfire.com . Once my head comes up above water level again, I can start to think about Christmas....how can it already be 2 weeks away??