I’m welcoming the New Year with a new painting, “Avoiding the Photographer”! I think that’s an accurate title since the girls were hiding behind my scruffy little hemlock while I was hovering around in the snow in the back yard trying to get their photo this past February 2021.

It’s a watercolor, about 12″ x 18″. I’ve been wanting to paint them since I took the photo, and I’d intended to make it my December featured artwork. No time for it in November, but I decided I would paint it anyway and feature it for January.

They are always trying to hide from me, and just like my cats they seem to think that if they can’t see me, I can’t see them. Not so, in fact that often makes them a more interesting subject. We had about six inches of snow and lots of sunshine. The little American hemlock in the corner of my yard is an understory plant, not tall and not dense, just enough to shade the ground and provide cover for birds and other small creatures. It is not adequate cover for two adult deer, though they huddled behind it nonetheless.

Winter is often dark and brownish and with all the trees in our joined back yards the deer tend to blend in, which is also nice. But I love the blue shadows in snow, the patterns of twigs and the sun’s reflection on the tiny needles of the hemlock and wanted to capture all that and the deer without a tedious amount of detail that would not have added to the image. Loose and graceful brushwork and snow shadows like wave upon wave, lots of fun spatters and drips, and likely the first of several paintings of those deer. If they ate all my vegetables and flowers, that’s the least I can get out of the deal with them.

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 watercolor painting “Avoiding the Photographer”. Prints are made in archival inks on acid-free Epson art paper. This print is 8″ x 11″ and matted in natural white mat board to fit a 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.