Art for Autumn

The summer shows are over and as the weather begins to cool, I am looking forward to leaves changing and the cycle beginning again.  Much of my time now has been working on gourds for my show in October.  I love to share new work with you so here is a preview of what will be on display in a couple weeks.

Monarch

This is a small martin house shaped gourd, I do nickname any of these that are uncut and can sit on a little shelf "smalls". This gourd is pyrography with colored pencil, and an freeform border of gold leaf.

Last year I planted milkweed but sadly it did not return this season.  I really was hoping to gather a chrysalis off of a milkweed to watch the butterfly emerge so that was disappointing.  There were various visitors to my butterfly bush along with some monarchs, including swallowtails, skippers and some clearwing moths.

You can watch me working on the pyrography of this gourd here.

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Downy Woodpeckers

Downy Woodpeckers are one of my favorite frequent visitors to my suet feeders all year long.  I love it especially when they come in pairs and I always wonder where their nests might be.  This gourd I tried something really new for me with carving the background.  The woodpeckers themselves are done in my usual pyrography with colored pencil.  The background is a low level relief and I wanted to have more of a scenery behind them, as if they have just landed in a round window and are discussing whether or not to fly through to the pine trees and mountains.  

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Moondance

This gourd is inspired by one of my customers.  She loves rabbits as much as I do and has a few of my rabbit gourds in her collection.  One day I received a lovely letter from her and she said that she likes to tell visitors to her home that the rabbits come out and dance at night! That, of course, conjured up a myriad of pictures in my mind.  This gourd is the largest of the dancing rabbits that I am making a series of.  Shown here are two sides, the whole gourd features seven rabbits leaping and dancing and just having a jolly time under the moon and stars.  It is just one of those artworks that I hope will inspire smiles.