Growing on me

An annual local holiday art show- the Eastside Artists- is right around the corner and the usual blitz of creativity happening in my studio. One new item I'll have ready for market is this 45" long children's growth chart. Just wanted to see how it would produce on the blog...wow! It is long!!

Jaeger Kitty

Katt Pa Fageljakt (1883), Brono Liljefors

Gothenburg, the lovely Swedish port city, has a great art museum. The Kontsmuseum, housed in an austere looking building at the very end of the city's vibrant main Boulevard, Avenyn, holds a delightful collection of Northern European art; there's modern and classic, and all in between. I spent a memorable afternoon last fall getting a taste of their collection.

Not surprisingly, many Swedish painters are represented. One painting caught my eye. Bruno Liljefors (1860–1939) was an influential wildlife painter of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. His work focused on animal hunters and their prey, and has been described as being very unsentimental in tone. I agree. The painting I viewed was of a domestic cat (can a tuxedo cat- black and white ever be wild?!) after a bird kill, tromping through a late fall landscape with his spoils. Familiar with this look of satsifaction from my own cat (who occasionally does get a backyard offering, to my angst), something moved me about it and I thought a lot about this painting afterward. I bought the card reproduction of it and recently it surfaced in my studio. I put a light little poem together. Let' s just say I dedicate it to those birds out there not so lucky to cross the path of a jaeger kitty. Note- Jaeger is German for hunter. I liked how it sounded with Kitty.

Jaeger Kitty

Jaeger Kitty in the wood,

Stepping soft

Then fixed, she stood.

Heard a rustle

through the leaves,

something tiny

scents the breeze.

Eyes wide open,

whiskers quivered;

One mighty leap

and pounce delivered.

Jaeger Kitty,

With muffled mew,

brought her spoils

home to you.

“Would you share a mouse with me?”

“Thanks”, you said, “I’ve had my tea”.

Jaeger Kitty,

Now she sleeps,

She cleaned her fur then

slumbered deep.

Contented by her hunting day,

dreams of one that got away.

No proper time of day...

Part of one of my favorite poems of the season, illustrated.

Bipartisan bird

Thinking like a Squirrel on Halloween

HapPy HaLLOwEen!!!

Dala Dreams

My visits to Sweden always include buying one of the traditional Dala (short for Dalecarlian) horses. Painted from little wooden carvings, these creations go back for generations, at least 150 years, and are now widely symbolic of the country. Historically, there were probably made as toys, but were also used as kind of a currency in some rural areas. I love the painted details. They come in many colors, but red seems to be most popular.

I have our Dala horses situated on our front room window sill. Last week on a foggy morning, I felt the larger Dala almost peering out wistfully down the street, thinking of his homeland perhaps. I did a small basic scratch of one to color later...

Sweet illustrations

A deadline always finds me rattling the cupboards for chocolate, my treat of choice. Look at the neat little graphics on my Hershey's miniatures! Love the owl, for the dark one, of course.