birds

Carve December Day 7

| Gina Lento

This morning, I let the dog children outside so they could go potty. I saw movement over by our potted flowers when low and behold, I spotted a hummingbird! I couldn’t get close enough to see any details, but it was a busy little bugger. Last night we had Great Horned Owls hooting it up, today, itty bitty hummingbirds.

Any time I see a special creature in the wild, I am truly grateful for that gift of nature. Taking the time to notice one’s surroundings can be full if wondrous things. Today was one of those days.

I played around with a hummingbird design today in between painting and putting up holiday decorations.

Carve December Day 6

| Gina Lento

I don’t know why it never occurred to me to draw a partridge in a pear tree. While I was growing up, we had these partridges and pears that we put on the Christmas tree every year. My mom had picked them up from Sears “on the Boulevard,” which was the flagship store in Philadelphia. I don’t remember which Christmas they first appeared, but I remember hanging the pears on the tree and using the wires built into the partridges legs to attach them to the tree. Most of the time, they would flip over and hang upside down so it took some creativity and multiple branches to get them to stay upright.

It’s funny what simple ornaments that you hang on the tree every year that invoke the strongest memories. Christmas is a time of traditions and customs. Like family gatherings, decorating the tree, making cookies, shopping for and wrapping presents. Holiday music and favorite holiday movies and big meals and celebrations.

And a simple partridge in a pear tree is a traditional member of the annual cast characters that pop up during the season

Cardinal

| Gina Lento

Cardinals are such perky birds. The nice thing is when I moved from the Northeast, the cardinals were here, too. I get to observe them in a different environment. They sing a lot down here and they tattle on predators and raptors. I am always amazed at their bravery.

I did a sketch of a Cardinal on a cold day perched on a snowman. Not an unusual sight when I lived on Long Island.

Today, I also tried my hand at lettering and carved Noel.

Puffin

| Gina Lento

This prompt was easy because I made a pamphlet book for my grandkids a few years ago that was about Arctic animals, puffins being one of them. I have not shown this book outside the family so this is the first time that I can remember actually posting one of the illustrations on my blog and social media. The book has a wintery Arctic feel to it and I really enjoyed doing this book. I should probably pull the entire book into Procreate and update it submit it to publishers. I did it to create awareness of the animals that would be negatively impacted by a warming planet.

Today’s stamp is also included below. It’s a stylized poinsettia. New blades came from Amazon which made a significant improvement in my cutting skills, LOL.

Live Critter Sunday – Bald Eagle

| Gina Lento

Labor Day, (last Monday), John and I went on one of our “tiny adventures” and we passed by a pond and John said he saw an eagle. So we turned around and went back and I took these photos and sure enough, it was. It’s not the first time we’ve seen eagles. They are in many parts of Florida, but it’s always awesome to see one.

Long beaked Cardinal

| Gina Lento

Another Imaginary Creature pulled out from the page. I drew the beak long and almost erased it, but left it because it isn’t supposed to be representational anyway.

There’s a lot of angles to this guy. He uses them to hide in oak and elm trees.

I also included what the page looked like before I painted him so you can see where I got the idea for him.

A visitor

| Gina Lento

John and I were watching TV and getting ready to call it a night when something crashed into our windows behind the couch. We froze. John got up to open the door but I cautioned him not to because we have everything from panthers, bears, coyotes, foxes and heaven knows what else living in our part of Florida.

Instead, I opened the slider which was inside our screen house but has a view of the side of the house. There was something hanging in our screen door.

This barred owl stared back at me and I took his photo. I spoke gently to him because he looked a little out of it. He just looked back at me and hung there a bit and flew away, banging into the top of the carport as he left. We have many creatures that crawl around the carport…lizards, geckos and what not so someone missed being a meal.

In the morning, we found that his crash into the window broke the screen. But that’s ok. It can be repaired. We heard the owls later and the next evening so I guess all is well.

Barred owl

Carmella

| Gina Lento

Just hatched this morning, everything was new to Carmella. She looked down at her feet.

“Wow, what are those? Can I eat them?“

This is an Artist Trading Card sized art. ATCs are traded between artists and they have to be 2.5 x 3.5 in. I prepped a few ATC sized pieces because I can do those quicker than larger pieces. And I can also work on them from anywhere.

An ACEO (Art Cards, Edition and Collection is a ATC that an artist sells. I have seen ATCs/ACEOs that were framed very nicely. They are tiny art but they are also fun to collect.

Think of them as baseball cards for artists.