"Passed" Painter and Blogger? of the Day

It is warming up...well, it's in the 40's! Compared to the teens, 20's and snow we've had over the last few months...it almost feels like spring! So in honor of the coming season, I thought I'd feature James John Audubon (1785-1851), who called himself an, "American Woodsman".

Audubon was born in what is now Haiti, but was raised in France until the age of 18 when he came to America to live on a farm (Mill Grove) his family owned in Philadelphia to escape Napoleon's war. He was a very likable person who enjoyed people as well as roaming the land and drawing the wildlife. After his move to America, a couple of significant things happened that changed the direction of his life. He met Lucy Bakewell, whom he later married, and his parents were no longer able to support him financially.....so John needed to get a job!

He decided to head to Kentucky to open a store that would sell supplies to settlers in the new frontier. However, Audubon wasn't very good at shop keeping...instead, he could be found out in the woods drawing or hunting! A famous bird expert came into John's store one day and showed John his drawings of birds. John thought his own drawings were better (gotta like his self-confidence, lol!), and decided that's what he would like to do for a living....draw birds in their natural habitats. And he lived in the perfect place to do this, the Mississippi Valley. In this area birds would migrate through and because of the growth of the area at the time, some of the birds were becoming extinct, so John had to draw quickly to preserve them!

There were some "lean" years for his family as Audubon perfected his craft and tried to sell and publish his drawings. It took 11 years to engrave and print "Birds of America". (the photos are from this book)

Audubon might have been a clever and consistent blogger too! (Just my opinion!) He not only loved to draw, he enjoyed writing as well. ".......he seemed to write continuously, pouring out letters, journals, stories of the American frontier, notes on birds he studied. Occasionally he wrote so long and hard that his hand swelled, and for a time he would have to still the urge to spill his thoughts out onto paper."-Shirley Streshinsky, Audubon, Villard, 1993
OUCH!! Wonder what he would have been able to do with a computer keyboard?

resources: "History of Us", Book 5, Joy Hakim, 2003
Audubon.org

And part 2 of this post! The Primitive Gathering is updated for the 15th. Please follow the link to see all the wonderful offerings for February 15th!

The Primitive Gathering


Here are mine:

"Prairie Girl"


"Mellicent"

......and bunny note cards: