*Song Credit: Darkwood 1, by David Darling
Hummingbird & Honeysuckle
Limited Edition Fine Art Prints are now available to purchase in my etsy store
Hummingbird & Honeysuckle
Hello friends, sending some fresh artwork your way!
(Limited editions prints coming soon).
Winter Pheasant
Hello friends, just updating you that Limited Edition Fine Art Prints of my latest work, Winter Pheasant are now available to purchase in my Etsy shop.
Winter Pheasant
Hello friends! I just finished my latest piece, “Winter Pheasant.” Here is an image of the final piece and also the original pencil drawing.
Eastern Phoebe & Curly Dock
New work announcement! Go to the second image and click to view a time lapse of my process. Thanks for looking!
*All work is original artwork property of and owned by Kelly Yeomans and may not be used for commercial use.
Bluebirds & Apple Blossoms
The blossoms on my heirloom crab apple tree have long since faded and its now covered in hundreds of tiny green apples. She’s been working hard for months now, preparing her food for autumn, when the summer supplies of brambles and chokecherries have all been picked clean.
The Eastern Bluebird has made fewer trips into the open spaces at my woods edge lately, but I can count on his reliability each year to be among the first spring arrivals. This year, I spotted him before I even saw my first Robin. His showy blue feathers striking against the brown monochrome landscape of the early season; a harbinger of the promise of a new life-giving cycle.
The apple blossom and the bluebird; Each spring they flash onto a dreary Midwest landscape with promise and predictability, bringing with them beauty, wonder, abundance, and stability. Extending their gifts freely, they give unconditionally and only ask us to appreciate and accept them in return.
“But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you; And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.” – Job 12:7
Great Blue Heron
This fall I caught my first glimpse of a Great Blue Heron. I just so happened to be looking out my picture window and gazing through the trees to the creek below. It was thrilling to watch it move along the creek, hunting in the tall grasses. I knew that this one would be on my art “to do” list soon. And so here it is, all finished now. I hope I was able to capture it’s essence, in all it’s magnificence.
“Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” – Genesis 1:20
Wood Thrush & Pokeberry
Two new species that 2019 brought to our property was the ever elusive Wood Thrush and the little appreciated Pokeberry plant, providing me with further inspiration, wonder, and understanding. I’ll let this post rest there and leave you with my latest work.
“He has made everything beautiful in its time.” – Ecclesiastes 3:11
Farewell Gray Catbird, Again Farewell
Last year around this time I wrote a post about the Gray Catbird’s fall migration from my property, entitled “Farewell, Gray Catbird.” And so I feel this year needs a revisit to the post now that another Gray Catbird exodus is upon me.
The 2019 spring bird migration brought with it a slightly different dynamic than did 2018. The places on my property they previously seemed to like the most were in direct correlation to the fact that I hadn’t had the opportunity to do some badly needed plant control and forest management. I purposely approached many of these areas with an easy hand this year, but it still seemed rather severe when I looked upon the freshly opened spaces in early spring. Would the same birds come back to the area? What about my beloved Gray Catbirds? Soon, time and its spring arrivals proved that all my worrying had been unnecessary. The Gray Catbirds arrived! And then they arrived some more. And then they had broods. And by July the entire property seemed to be filled with their flicking tails and noisy mews.
These birds are known to be “elusive” and “hard to spot”. My Gray Catbirds have definitely overcome their shy tendencies. Every morning this summer as I worked in my gardens around the house, a Catbird would fly out of the woods just to perch on a nearby tree and mew at me. As they grew more adamant in their noise making (and annoying), often I would remind them that they inhabit my property and life here was pretty good for them, so they just needed to relax. Using pragmatism didn’t avail to them much, so in the end, I told them they were just going to have to deal with my presence. They responded with the now broken record response of “mew” and provided me with a summer full of fun (and noisy) bird watching.
So here I am again. It’s mid-September and the inevitable is approaching. I’m remaining diligent about recording my bird sightings each day so I don’t miss it. It happens so quietly, like an exhale. One day it’s an unusually warm autumn afternoon and all of nature is around; the Phoebe is dancing in mid air for its catch, a few Hummingbirds zoom by, and I spot a Painted Lady fluttering among the Autumn Joy Sedum. Amid the activity I can always hear Catbird calling. Calling to me, I imagine, bidding farewell to another splendid year. It sure was a good one this year! I stand and listen and wait, and take everything in. The next morning brings the familiar low dark clouds of Wisconsin autumn, and as I walk through the edges of the forest, the mews have become silent. They are all gone now.
Farewell Gray Catbird, again farewell.
Kelly of the Woods 