Desktop calendar, 1280 x 1024 for square and laptop monitors.

October Nature Desktop Calendar: Allegheny River Reflections

Allegheny River Reflections, pastel, 12, x 16 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Allegheny River Reflections, pastel, 12, x 16 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

I had had another autumn painting chosen for my October calendar, but was secretly hoping I’d paint one of the autumn views I had planned for the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge, and I did.

This is a view of the Allegheny River in Western Pennsylvania, seen from Tarentum. I took a quick walk through the park along the river on a beautiful autumn day and took as many photos as I could. The hill is very high and steep behind this row of trees and otherwise the hill comes down to the bank of the river, but for this short stretch the row of trees was separated from the hill, deep in bluish shadow, while the trees caught the late afternoon sunlight.

I knew I wanted to keep this loose, just capturing the visual of the reflection and the contrast with the bright sunlight, bright leaves, and dark hillside.

I had intended to use navy blue paper for this painting because of the bluish cast of autumn, but I had no navy blue left in the pad of paper, so I used black. I used Strathmore charcoal paper, which is lightweight and has a finer texture than the other black pastel paper I’ve used. When paper is made the pulp is poured into a mold that has a screen in the bottom of it. The paper pulp is spread on the screen, then pressed into it with a piece of heavy felt. As it dries the paper holds the screen pattern on one side but is relatively smooth on the back. I considered using the “felt” side, which has only a slight screen texture, but then decided I wanted to use the texture to build the detail in the trees.

This was my painting from Day 26. See other paintings in this and other painting challenges on the page Creative Challenges.

Get a print of this photo

Register for an account and get a free matted print

The featured artwork also becomes one of the New Member Gifts for the month it’s featured as well, so if you’ve been waiting to register for an account, here’s another good reason. Your 8″ x 11″ signed digital print of “Allegheny River Reflections” is made in archival inks on Epson Fine Art Paper and is matted with a pure white mat to fit a 11″ x 14″ frame, just for registering for an account. Visit this post to read more.

Or purchase a print of your choice on paper or canvas

[ss_product id=’33f97b88-a351-11e7-92ed-002590785994′ ]Landscape, Allegheny River Reflections[/ss_product]


This month’s desktop calendar

Wallpaper calendars are free to download. You’ll find them below along with instructions.

If these sizes don’t work for your device, or if you have problems, please let me know. Often I can troubleshoot the reason an image won’t download or won’t load on your device, but if I just can’t figure it out I can just email it to you and hope that works.

How to download and use your desktop calendar

  1. Click on one of the images below that matches the dimensions of your monitor to open the image in a new page.
  2. For desktop computers and laptops, right-click on that image and on a desktop computer choose “save as desktop wallpaper” or “save as background” or whichever option your operating system gives you to be able to do this. You may also simply save it to your hard drive and set it as your background from there.
  3. For mobile devices, press on the image to bring up a menu and choose “open in new window”. Go to that window and press until a menu appears and choose as “set as wallpaper” or “set as lock screen” or whatever you’d like—this is slightly different on all devices.

Horizontal and HD monitors and screens

 Desktop calendar 2560 x 1440 for HD and wide screens.

Desktop calendar 2560 x 1440 for HD and wide screens.

. . .

Square monitors and screens

 Desktop calendar, 1280 x 1024 for square and laptop monitors.

Desktop calendar, 1280 x 1024 for square and laptop monitors.

. . .

Small Mobile Devices and Tablets

 Desktop calendar, 600 x 800 for iPad, Kindle and other readers.

Desktop calendar, 600 x 800 for iPad, Kindle and other readers.

. . .

Cell Phones and Smartphones

 Desktop calendar, for 400 x 712 for mobile phones.

Desktop calendar, for 400 x 712 for mobile phones.


Take a look at other featured artwork and desktop calendar posts.

Each month I feature a piece of artwork or a photo from the archives to the present day, tell its story, and set it up as a free downloadable desktop calendar for just about every electronic device available.

Other items with the same art or design To find all items on this site with the same art or design, use the search box for the name of the artwork and you'll find all that's available.

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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “purchasing” for availability and terms.

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