"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:

~Happy Valentine's Day~

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."
~William Shakespeare, Mid-Summer Night's Dream, 1595

A Give Away!!

My friend, Lorraine is celebrating her 100th post with a give-away! Please be sure to visit and enter before the February 23rd deadline for her sweet gifts. Just click the link below to go!

PieCake Primitive's 100th Post Give- Away

"One of Those Weeks"

"Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

......however, this Sunday was a welcome relief from a week of commitments, activities and winter woes.....oh, and throw in website updates, a seemingly l-o-n-g week of home school (my younger son is preparing for a Science Fair!), and the usual day-to-day responsibilities....it was "One of Those Weeks"!

Part of the busy week was spent preparing for an annual event at our church, "The No Talent Talent Show". It was this past Tuesday and my family (minus me!) participated in the show. My older son memorized a few one-liners and practiced his "dead-pan" delivery on us all week. He did really well, remembered his lines and after a few performance jitters, ended with his best joke: "Why do people go up into tall buildings only to put money into binoculars just to look down on the ground?"
My younger son had a very special talent that makes a mother proud! :) He was introduced by the MC and walked up to the platform, took the mic and said, "My talent is imitating my Dad's cellphone when it's set on vibrate." And he put the mic up to his nose and proceeded to snort loudly! (It really does sound like Dad's cellphone on vibrate!)
My husband played the piano (which he does very well), and along with another instrumentalist (a Tuba), played audience requests...and jazzed it up!

Some of the winter woes were dispelled this weekend with the a little bit of sunshine and the melting of snow! (I'm VERY ready for spring!)
And as a very bright and unexpected highlight of my week I was given an award from the very gracious Lidy of Little French Garden House. She is a sweetheart who I've had the pleasure of meeting through blogging. A visit to her blog is like stepping into a fairytale of wonderment, and lovelies. She always has thoughtful posts, and pretties to share, as well as a charming website. French Garden House

Lidy passed the award along for my "Passed Painters" posts, that I usually write on Fridays, but.....well, it's been "One of Those Weeks", and I took last Friday off!
I'm to pass this along, and because my head is still spinning from the 'week that was'....I'll pass it along later this week, which hopefully will not be a busy one!

~TDIPT Group Launch~

Just a little note to let you know "To Dwell in Primitives Thymes"~TDIPT is having a group launch on Ebay this week. Click HERE to see all the "Birds, Bees, and Bunnies Too" creations from some very talented artist.

Lana Manis of Honeysuckle Lane is offering one of her beautiful "Bird in Hand" whimsies. I am fortunate to have one of these pretties! Lana's work is impeccable and so detailed....you will love this sweet offering.

My offering is the painted silhouette...a few posts below. "Sisters in Silhouette"
Thanks for peeking!

..... a recent painting

Some of you have asked about the "recent painting". That is Sir Harrington over there to the left. He comes from a long lineage of Hares I have yet to paint! (He was one of the offerings on TDIPT on Feb. 1st, and has recently been adopted.)

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend...we had more snow, so I stayed busy inside and painted!

"Passed" Art Form of the Day~Conversations

TDIPT Mercantile has been updated for the 1st of February. Harriette (thank you, Christine), from the "Hare's Hair" post below will be offered, as well as, two bunny-themed paintings. One of which is a conversation, or "conversation piece silhouette". These silhouettes usually showed a family at home in perhaps a parlor, with their personal items, such as chairs, tables, and rugs. The silhouette captured the family in a more intimate setting. Here is a wonderful site that describes these silhouettes, as well as gives a history of painted silhouettes:
Shades and Shadow Pictures
The "conversational piece silhouette" (and I use the term "loosely" to describe the one I painted!), entitled "Bunny Garden", is my own design and pictures a garden scene of a little girl growing bunnies and veggies! Perhaps she is "conversing" with the bunnies?

The other silhouette will be on Ebay sometime this week when TDIPT has a group launch. This conversational piece silhouette is based on a silhouette by Augustin Edouart (1789-1861).

Thank you all for your encouraging comments about Harriette...they were very much appreciated.

Have a warm weekend....we've had two snowstorms this week, and expect another to hit on Saturday. I suppose that means I'll have more painting time!