Birds in Winter

The feeder near our window is a busy place. The birds perch in the rhododendren as they wait their turn to approach the feeder and pluck a few seeds.

Our cat, Maci, lounges on the back of the recliner only inches from the glass and watches avidly. With the frigid winter and deep snow, the level of seeds in the feeder goes down quickly. We drive miles out of our way to buy shelled sunflower hearts. Can't let our feathered friends down, can we?

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Going Stir Crazy or Fun With Ice

There is a lot of snow out there and instead of soft snowbanks we have hard icy ones. Last night's low was -2 and it was windy all day. Tomorrow we are to get another big snow. Predictions are from 6-12 inches or more. So maybe I am going a little crazy about now.

I did have a wonderful art day with two friends. What can be better than friends, lots of polymer clay, a fired up woodstove, plenty of food and large windows for watching a snowfall of fat, fluffy flakes? It was food for the soul in this long cold winter! Did I take pictures? No. Too busy eating and having a good time.

Today's picture is me having fun with ice.This is a pot of ivy that has turned pink in the cold. The leaves are decorated with icicles. I used a filter to change the look and ramp up the color.

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Art Chain on Facebook

My artist friends are doing an Art Chain on Facebook. After an artist posts three artworks a day for five days, he/she nominates another artist to do the same. So now it is my turn. I want to share some of the work I have been posting on NancyOliviaDesigns Facebook page.

An early freezing rain coated these leaves while they were still green.

An ice storm later in the season coated these branches to sparkle in the sunshine. 

 

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Fine Art America - National TV Photo Contest

Do you ever buy a lottery ticket knowing the odds are against you but hoping and wishing anyhow? I have done a similar thing by entering Fine Art America's National TV Photo Contest. Each person can enter three images and each image must receive 250 votes from the public to be considered for the final judging by Anne Geddes.

Every person can vote 100 times but only once for each image. For the front page of the Photo Contest click here. You can click on the voting tab and see the thousands of entries. To find my three entries I will put the links here for you.

Thank you for your votes. Please share my links with your friends and ask them to vote. Help a struggling artist succeed.
Nancy Olivia Hoffmann

CORAL BELLS WITH RAINDROPS
http://fineartamerica.com/contests/national-tv-photo-contest-3.html?tab=vote&artworkid=11303218

DREAMING OF SPRING
http://fineartamerica.com/contests/national-tv-photo-contest-3.html?tab=vote&artworkid=11104765

SOFT GLOW
http://fineartamerica.com/contests/national-tv-photo-contest-3.html?tab=vote&artworkid=11168520

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Staying Creative Against All Odds

You might have noticed I have been absent a lot lately. My husband's health issues are very time consuming. We are still adjusting to our "new normal." I am trying to stay creative and optimistic. A lunch with artist friends tomorrow is something I am looking forward to. Both of those friends can do anything. Among other talents, one makes guitars, paints and drums; the other spins, felts and does woodworking. A visit to either of their houses is a treat!

My son-in-law gave me a Gelli plate for Christmas. I am having a ball experimenting with it. So far I am making backgrounds for collages and also tearing some of the papers to use in the collages. This is taking me off on a new track.

At the same time, I keep my hand in on photography. I will be displaying a digital art work on canvas at the Snow Ball Dance in Willimantic, CT, and donating a framed piece to the silent auction to be held the same night.

This collage, "Into the Red" uses torn photographs, stone beads, and rolled paper beads. 

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Hint of a Peony

I love doing digital paintings like this which look like watercolors. It is the layering of transparent colors which give it the effect of watercolor paints. It looks soft and dreamy. This would be lovely printed on chiffon. You would never know this started with a photo of a peony.

Hint of a Peony

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Astilbe Variation

My startup disk is full and I am in the position of having to delete photos. Weeding out is not a bad thing. In some cases I have multiple copies of each art work like in this case "Astilbe Variation." I save it in layers, merged and then with different borders. It is time to delete some of these extra copies.

Too often when I work I get a message saying, "Can't save, Startup disk full." Hopefully a big PURGE will help the situation. Of course, then I do more art pieces and it fills the disk again.

You are probably thinking, "Why doesn't she use an external hard drive?" Well, I do use one for backups, but I do not want to delete photos from my computer and have them exist only on the external hard drive. When I sit with my laptop, I want access to ALL my photos. I tend to keep too many photos thinking, "I can do something with that one." But when I take ten photos of the same thing, each from a slightly different angle, I should not keep each shot!

Here the Astilbe makes the background as well as the main subject. The angled lines frame the flower within the border.

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