Appreciating It All

Chickadee
3.5" square Water Soluble Oils on Canvas
©BEDeuel Bronson Hill Arts

With the Fourth of July weekend of celebrations just a few days away, it is undeniably summer. 

No room for chickadees in this part of the world. For now.

After a particularly brutal winter, it's easy to appreciate the warmth, even at it's humid peak. 

Appreciation is hard to hold in place. It's so very easy to let the negative overwhelm the good in our lives. Whether it is our gratitude for our own lives and loves, or being valued by others in our world, appreciation can simply become nonexistent.

Over the last month or two, I've been feeling appreciated in pleasant, unexpected ways. It's my turn, now, to remind all of you how much I appreciate you. Even if it seems that our visits are often sparse, you are never far from my heart and mind.

All of you!

Appreciating it all: winter & summer, chickadees & bluebirds, special & mundane, friends & family, work & leisure.

Keep life wonderful! Have a great holiday!

Bird Squares

It's time to try a little something different!

Through the last couple of years, I've collected various sized canvases along the way. I've puzzled over what I could do with a package of 4-3" square canvases. After doing "Cece's Window", there was no longer any mystery.

I've started by painting a basic set of colors in a simple pattern for the background. But, I've been trying more pragmatic ways to design my compositions.

Background Paint

In this instance, I made a colored print of the squares and, then, sketched the birds. Once the background paint is dry enough to work over, I'll transfer the images to the actual canvases.

Sketched Birds on Print

The painting of the birds will be in a looser style, but I like having the images detailed enough with which to really work. For this small a canvas, willow charcoal would be fairly useless.

I'll keep posting the steps as I go along...

Keep growing and flying, my friends!