No leaves on the trees yet, but strong spring sun fills the misty air as the creek rushes by with its spring volume. Rain and snowmelt rush over rocks and gravel and hurry around the bend, the sycamores reflecting white in the stark early morning sunlight, a little bit of mist wafting among the trees. This painting is entitled “Spring Comes to a Bend in the Creek”, 26″ x 19″, done in soft pastel on sanded pastel paper.

This site looks remote, but it’s a bend in the creek I pass nearly daily in all seasons, especially if I’m on foot on my way to Main Street. Chartiers Creek twists and bends all along its course, but at this one point it lines up with the morning sun as it rises over Library Hill and touches the water, rippling over rocks, and the trees, illuminating individual branches. The trees then cast a shadow on the water at the bend, and in that shadowed area the sky is reflected and creates an interesting change in color palette across the water, one of the reasons I chose this moment and not one of the many others in all the years I’ve passed this way.

And the mist is rising as the sun warms the channel, as if sweeping it away.

This painting became the inspiration for my fourth annual poetry reading and art show at Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall, Coming Spring.

Get a print of this artwork

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. This New Member print is a signed digital print of my painting “Spring Comes to a Bend in the Creek”. Prints are made in archival inks on Epson Velvet paper. This print is 8 x 11 and matted with a pure white mat to fit an 11 x 14 frame.

Click here to register for your account to order your free print. When I receive your registration I’ll send you an email with information on how to order.

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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.

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Horizontal and HD monitors and screens

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Square monitors and screens

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Small Mobile Devices and Tablets

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Cell Phones and Smartphones

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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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© 2022 | www.PortraitsOfAnimals.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

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.