• About

The Perks of Being an Artist

~ Because demented people need love, too.

The Perks of Being an Artist

Tag Archives: birds

Be Yourself

26 Sunday Feb 2017

Posted by emilypageart in art, humor, painting, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

art, artist, be yourself, bird on a wire, birds, Emily Page, Emily Page Art, paint, painter, painting, Raleigh artist, silliness, silly, whimsical, whimsy

I know, I know, I know. I’ve been slacking on the whole blogging thing. But I’m almost ready to post live links for my book, and I’ve been elbow deep in research about how to promote the damn thing once it’s available. And being elbow deep in research is SO much less fun than being elbow deep in paint. Which is why I spent a fair bit of time today (while teaching classes and in between classes) playing with paint. I’ve created a line of paintings with text called Page’s Ponderings. Here is my first offering:

Be Yourself - birds.jpg

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get the series up on Etsy soon and post a link for purchase. Until then, you can get prints and other fun merch here and here.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Chickadees

17 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by emilypageart in family, MOndays with Muddy, painting, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

birds, chickadee, cute bird, Emily Page, Emily Page Art, paint, painter, painting, Raleigh artist

For whatever reason, I’ve made it 39 years without painting a chickadee. I don’t know why. I love them. I associate them with my grandmother, who used to feed them out of her bedroom window. She’d put her hand out and they’d hop right in and nibble away at the seeds she offered. When I was a kid, I was pretty sure that meant that she was secretly a Disney princess. So I have a great association with them. And yet…I’d never thought to paint them. Until a couple days ago. I had 4 little 4″ x 4″ canvases that I had planned to use for a painting for Fractured Memories, but then decided against that particular piece, so they’ve been sitting there, all sad-and-mopey-like, just waiting to be slathered in paint. And then, suddenly, a chickadee flew right into my head and smacked me with its beak. Okay, so that last part didn’t really happen, but something triggered the urge to do a painting of one, and, while my students were toiling away at each step that I taught them, I knocked out these 4 little guys, and voila:

chickadees

Chickadees I, II, III, and IV 4″ x 4″ each acrylic on canvas

Then I remembered that I had a 6″ x 6″ painting that I wasn’t happy with, so I decided to paint over it with another chickadee, and again, voila:

chickadee-5

Chickadee V    6″ x 6″ acrylic on canvas

I haven’t decided if they’re for sale yet, or if I want to hang the quartet or the singleton in my house, so they’re not up on my website yet, but I do have prints available on Fine Art America. That being said, if you’re interested in the originals, contact me at info@emilypageart.com and I could probably be persuaded to part with them.

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Throw Pillows

30 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by emilypageart in art, painting, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

accent, accent pillow, acrylic painting, art, artist, asian art, bird art, birds, decorating, elephant, elephant art, Emily Page, Emily Page Art, floral, flower, merchandise, paint, painter, painting, pillows, Raleigh artist, throw pillow, watercolor

T’is the gift giving season, and I have to honest that I’m somewhat enamored with my paintings on merchandise. I know, it’s vain. I don’t even care. Luckily, I don’t have enough money to fill my house with my own art-drenched pillows, tote bags, beach towels, shower curtains, phone cases, prints on wood, mugs, etc. But you do! Knowing that sometimes people have a hard time envisioning it, I’m going to make it easy on you. Here are several of my paint and sip studio’s paintings and personal paintings on throw pillows. The same paintings and others are available on a wide variety of merchandise. Click on the title below each picture to purchase and/or see other options (this will take you to Fine Art America. Below the image on a throw pillow, you’ll see other merchandise. If you click on my name, it’ll take you to all of my available merchandise and prints.):

throw-pillow-1

Birds and Blooms

throw-pillow-2

Pink Daisy

throw-pillow-3

Peace

throw-pillow-4

Blueming

throw-pillow-5

Tiffany Tree

throw-pillow-6

Dogwood Blossoms

throw-pillow-7

Rose

throw-pillow

One Thousand Goodbyes

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Mondays With Muddy

29 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by emilypageart in MOndays with Muddy, Uncategorized, writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Beatrice Allen Page, Beatrice Page, birds, crows, journal, Landscape with Figures, Mondays with Muddy, unpublished manuscript

Here is the next excerpt from Beatrice Page’s (my grandmother) unpublished manuscript, Landscape With Figures:

“Whoever coined the phrase ‘as the crow flies’ to describe the shortest distance between two points never watched crows at daybreak when they first wake up. They are seemingly catapulted out of the trees, one after another at split-second intervals, sometimes only two or three, sometimes a small flock, all cawing loudly and incessantly as they flap around wildly, as if drunk and having trouble keeping their balance and sense of direction. I can discern no pattern or purpose, just a brawling, sprawling pandemonium until they manage to shake the sleep out from under their wings, regain balance and perspective, quiet down and set off presumably in search of food in a straight line ‘as the crow flies.’

Another thing I’ve noticed about crows, which I’ve never seen mentioned in a bird book, is a peculiar sound they make at times. Everyone know that crows caw, but this other sound they make is a rapid succession of clicks, something like that of castanets. I haven’t been able to figure out what they mean by it.”

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Last Danube Stuff, I Swear, Sort Of

18 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by emilypageart in blog, culture, humor, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

airport, airport security, Amsterdam, birds, Danube, Detroit, Kandinsky, Passau, patterns, travel, water ripples

I think this will be the last post I make about my trip down the Danube, but you never know. I’m at least not planning anymore. These are just random observations I made that don’t fit neatly into posts of their own:

  • In the Raleigh airport, which is a reasonably clean space, there were two little birds hanging out at our gate. So many questions: How did they get in? Are the crumbs they pick up off of the ground appropriate food for them? Are there worms somewhere inside that we can’t see? Why isn’t there bird poop everywhere? How do they make nests if there isn’t any plant life to swipe? If there aren’t other couples around, are their babies going to mate with each other? If that keeps happening, will they turn into mutants that take over the world?
  • When  we were flying into Amsterdam at night, there were low clouds hanging over the water, and it looked forshortened or compressed, like they were on the same level as the boats floating along. It looked like something out of The Life of Pi – pure magic. Boats floating through clouds.
  • Watching the water, from the boat while we were docked, it reminded me of Kandinsky circles. Rings within rings within rings. I wonder if that was ever something he noticed or in some way subconsciously influenced him?
  • Also watching the water, I noticed these really cool ripples, and then looked at the chair I was sitting in and saw the same pattern repeated. Intentional?

water ripples

chair ripples

  • In an art gallery in Passau, there was a sign that said, “If you plan to haggle, please give us advanced notice so that we have time to raise our prices.” I NEED that sign.
  • Do the workers at the Amsterdam airport who don’t use deodorant not smell themselves?! Because I sure as shit smelled them.
  • Why was I pulled aside at EVERY SINGLE SCREENING POINT for extra special uber screening?!
  • When we got to Detroit from Amsterdam, they made us uncheck and then recheck our baggage, and go through security a couple more times. They said, “The water you got on the last airplane can’t go through because it’s over the 3.4 fluid ounces, so throw it out.” Two things about this: if you know that it came from the last flight, and that we haven’t been able to leave the airport since getting off the plane, why can’t we take it through to the next plane? And if it is a bottle full of BOOM, how does dropping it in the trashcan next to the line help? It can blow up just as many people there as it can on the plane. Anyway, the Detroit airport is its own special brand of hell. Avoid it at all costs. This is me once we finally got through the 18 fresh rounds of security:

Cranky me in Detroit

 

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Baby Birds and Other Terrifying Creatures

29 Friday May 2015

Posted by emilypageart in humor

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

birds, bugs, cats, infestation, mice

Baffled Baboon asked for baby bird stories in a recent blogpost, and, having lived in the GFW (God Forsaken Wilderness) for so many years, I’ve got a few. So here you go:

We had 2 chimneys in our house, and birds were always making nests in there. Occasionally, baby birds would fall out of the nests and into the house. Then the fun would begin. We’d all scramble for gloves, and boxes, and anything else we could think of to capture them safely and transport them outside. They were so cute and so scared and I wanted to pet them but was simultaneously terrified of them. Small creatures moving quickly really freak me the feck out. Plus, I’m a little bit of a germaphobe, and birds are full of mites and other strange critters that could potentially make me itch and die. When you grab them, they freak the feck out, too, and start flapping their little wings really hard, making it hard to hold on and not injure them. Usually, we were able to move the screen aside and capture one at a time without them getting loose into the house where they would have to contend with very interested kitties. Once outside, however, there would be a serious debate about where to put them to keep them safe for their parents to find them and safe from the outdoor cats and other bird-munchers. 9 times out of 10, the cats would get them from wherever we’d “safely” stashed them. One time, while we were away on vacation, we got a panicked call from the tenant who lived in the apartment over the garage. He was cat sitting and had come in to feed. Apparently, an adult bird had flown down the chimney and was loose in the house. We advised him to lock up the cats and open all the windows and do his best to usher it outside. He reported success. When we arrived home, however, we discovered bird poop EVERYWHERE. He got the bird out, but didn’t think that it might be a good idea to clean up the feces covering our home from top to bottom. Eesh.

But birds weren’t the only things that got into our house. Besides the ladybug and stinkbug infestations, the creepy crawly invaders, and the occasional snake (I almost crapped my pants just writing that word), we often had mice. Again with the cute things that are too small and dart-y for me to be comfortable with. One time, the cats had trapped a mouse in my parents’ bedroom and were toying with it out of sheer evil pleasure. The little mouse was squeaking desperately, and the cats were, I swear, snickering. Now, my parents’ home was built into a hill, so their bedroom was actually on the 3rd floor. My dad, compassionate soul that he was, grabbed the gloves and scooped the little mouse up and away from the cats, then tossed it out the window, declaring, “I saved it!” To which I replied, “You just threw it out of a third story window!” Le sigh. Good intentions and all that.

Cross your fingers that the new house (it looks like the sale is going through and we’ll be closing on June 22nd) has no such critter issues. Maybe cross your toes and elbows and knees, too. If it does, you should all invest in bourbon stocks, ’cause I’m gonna need a ton of it.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...
Follow The Perks of Being an Artist on WordPress.com

Emily Page

Emily Page

Check Out the Art

You can view my artwork on Facebook or on my website at http://www.emilypageart.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Archives

Buy Fractured Memories!

Buy the book!

Goodreads – Fractured Memories

Follow The Perks of Being an Artist on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,252 other followers

Buy Fractured Memories!

Buy Fractured Memories!

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • The Perks of Being an Artist
    • Join 2,252 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Perks of Being an Artist
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: