encaustic painting
by Susan Najarian
Happy New Year everyone!
This is one of my absolute favorite times of year. The holidays are over, it's the first day of a brand new year full of promise and possibilities, the days are getting longer here in the Northern Hemisphere, and Spring is coming!
I adore birds, and the colors and textures of this painting are incredible. It's done in encaustics, which is a form of painting with pigments and hot beeswax. Encaustic painting is an ancient art which was done around the Mediterranean as far back as hundreds of years before Christ. I saw a demonstration of it a few months ago at a local art supply store, and I have tremendous admiration for encaustic artists.
Don't you just love crows and ravens, too?
Did you know that the average lifespan of crows in the wild is 14 to 24 years? They are monogamous, and both parents raise their young. They can fly 30 to 60 miles per hour, and will eat anything. Gregarious, adaptable and extremely intelligent, crows were regarded by indigenous North American cultures as benevolent tricksters. The Inuit people have a myth about how a crow brought daylight to the world. They are so smart that they can count to 6 and have been taught to play a bird version of soccer in Japan.
Our cat, Skitzi, likes to make sounds like a crow, rather than meow. And our dog, Beau, tries to chase crows when he sees them flying overhead. We are a crow loving bunch!
This is one of my absolute favorite times of year. The holidays are over, it's the first day of a brand new year full of promise and possibilities, the days are getting longer here in the Northern Hemisphere, and Spring is coming!
"Cheers to a New Year
and another chance for us to get it right."
~ Oprah Winfrey
I want to start the new year off right by thanking a wonderful new blogger I found a few months ago, Susan Najarian, from the blog Blackbirds & Bumblebees. Thank you so much, Susan, for the gorgeous painting above, which I won in a give-away over the holidays! I love it! Please visit her blog to see more of the little gems she creates in her home on a beautiful island near Seattle, Washington.and another chance for us to get it right."
~ Oprah Winfrey
I adore birds, and the colors and textures of this painting are incredible. It's done in encaustics, which is a form of painting with pigments and hot beeswax. Encaustic painting is an ancient art which was done around the Mediterranean as far back as hundreds of years before Christ. I saw a demonstration of it a few months ago at a local art supply store, and I have tremendous admiration for encaustic artists.
Don't you just love crows and ravens, too?
Did you know that the average lifespan of crows in the wild is 14 to 24 years? They are monogamous, and both parents raise their young. They can fly 30 to 60 miles per hour, and will eat anything. Gregarious, adaptable and extremely intelligent, crows were regarded by indigenous North American cultures as benevolent tricksters. The Inuit people have a myth about how a crow brought daylight to the world. They are so smart that they can count to 6 and have been taught to play a bird version of soccer in Japan.
Our cat, Skitzi, likes to make sounds like a crow, rather than meow. And our dog, Beau, tries to chase crows when he sees them flying overhead. We are a crow loving bunch!
"For last year's words
belong to last years language
and next year's words
await another voice.
And to make an end
is to make a beginning."
~ T. S. Eliot
belong to last years language
and next year's words
await another voice.
And to make an end
is to make a beginning."
~ T. S. Eliot
This year I'm looking forward to focusing more on art in my blogging, my own as well as other art and artists I find noteworthy or interesting. I'm also looking forward to continuing the many precious friendships I've made here in the blogging community, and I'm looking forward to meeting more new and interesting people.
I think it's going to be a good year!
I think it's going to be a good year!
