Saturday, February 25, 2006

Bird Songs and Art

As Églantine and I go out to walk our dog these days, there is an increasing amount of bird songs to be heard. The Blue Jays are calling constantly, the Black-capped Chickadees are singing their spring mating song and so are the Cardinals. Yesterday morning I took photos of a beautiful male Cardinal until my fingers were numb from the cold and then brought them in to process on the computer and lost them. (I saw a batch process that I had not used before and wondered what it did. Now I know. It makes great photos look lousy and it works on lots of photos at the same time. Sigh!)

Today I did my last long training run for a half marathon race next weekend. The temperatures were not bad but the wind was high and made the temperatures feel much colder. When I got back home I was too tired to use the camera on the lunch time walk so I have no new nature photos to post. Instead I offer two views of an art work in progress. This term at the local art school class in which I am enrolled, I have chosen to work on a mask theme. Below are two photos of a nightmare mask that I am working on to both produce a scary mask and to reproduce an image from a nightmare that I had years ago, several times. I hope it does not give you nightmares.



The second photo of the mask gives a feel for how large the mask is. It is about three feet by four feet or 1 metre by 1.3 metres.


(Photos © Églantine)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Blue Jays, eh? I saw one shortly after the winter solstice and have not seen any since. None were counted in the Saline county Christmas Bird Count. The experts are blaming West Nile. Am not sure what to say about your nightmare character. Maybe, good luck?

robin andrea said...

That really is a nightmare mask. Yikes, I wouldn't want to see that fellow in any setting.

Our Stellar's Jays have just left. I think they must winter here. Haven't seen them in over a week. More food in the feeders for the little ones. I saw my first pine siskin yesterday. They're probably always here, but I never noticed them-- they are so small.

Ontario Wanderer said...

KR, Nice to know you are still around. Yes, lots of Blue Jays still here and noisy. It was the first bird I saw when I went out the door this morning. Meanwhile Cardinals were the first I heard and the Red-bellied Woodpeckers are being very noisy these days too.

RD, Where do the Stellar's Jays go? I've seen them in BC in summers. Does that mean they go north for summer and come down to you for winter? I've not seen Pine Siskins this year but I've heard that they were around.