deer on a snowy eve

Deer are feeding on a block of compressed sunflower seeds in the backyard of my friend Jenny Munten. With her trail cams, she also captures bobcats, coyotes, turkeys, raccoons, foxes, rabbits and opossums in our neighborhood abutting on the Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan’s National Seashore. – Opossums are most welcome because they are supposed to be savvy at smelling out tick nests to devour the ticks. – Also abundant are ravens, crows and blue jays.

oil on wood panel, 8 x 10 inches

14 thoughts on “deer on a snowy eve”

  1. This is a beautiful painting. I love the background and the brown tree in the foreground. The snow has a warmth

  2. Thanks, Barb. As I was painting the snow falling, I kept thinking of one of Munch’s painting that shows a woman within, what looks like, a glittering water fall. I am glad that the emotion expressed in Munch’s painting did not intrude on what my painting here is all about.

    1. Actually I just looked at some Munch paintings. Anxiety reminded me of your boy swimming. Munch painted the red and orange cap on the girl to carry the reds through the painting and give it dimension. Nice deer painting.

      1. Nino on a skim board. With his amazing 3D orientation in space, he was fantastic at parkour. Re the colors of that painting, one of my artist friends here hated the brightness of the colors, another one commented that the colors are what one sees in vacation posters but felt that there was something else, redeeming. — So many contemporary painters like to express pain or discomfort. I was there in the late sixties. Coming from Germany, I processed my German ‘heritage’, with buying lithographs done by George Grosz, Max Beckmann and Kaethe Kollwitz. I am no longer in that space. – Compassionate with the suffering in the Ukraine, as an antidote, I like to think of peace, happiness, and joy.

  3. Very nice, Birgit. When I zoom in I can see your beautiful brush work. As Barb mentioned, even though it is winter, the deer make me feel warm.
    I’m curious about the process and the collaboration. Let’s talk Sunday.

  4. what a tranquil scene of your inviting “nature center” enhanced by your caring seeds & iridescent like snow strokes. LOVELY!

    1. Thank you, buddy. Once the cold is gone, we will immerse ourselves again in the beauty of Lake Michigan.

  5. Hello Birgit. I love this painting and how the deer are camouflaged in the snow. It shows a particular moment as the deer pause yet are ready to spring away. I love the mood.

    1. living in this wonderful place, I am getting attuned to the local fauna. Winter is part of it. — I am learning to integrate better whatever is happening in a painting. I am going back to some earlier paintings, thinking about integration there too. Thank you for viewing.

      1. I’m intrigued by your idea of integrating better what is happening around you and in the painting. Yet still with some mystery. I want to do this in my writing.
        thanks for sharing.

        1. Thank you, Katherine. I am still thinking of snow, this time illuminated by the sun. Dewey made a 7 ft x 22 inch panel for me to paint a crow flying alongside snow hills at Lake Michigans’s beach. I need to finish before stuff starts growing outside. – I appreciate you sharing your writing with me.

  6. My first post, on a bluehost website that died, was entitled ‘Luminous wave’, a photograph. What a beautiful word!

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