Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Christmas Hares



I have been considering creating a Christmas card and various ideas float around in sketchbooks.  I wanted it to be round, part reality, part fantasy.  A late night sketch of a Newfoundland hare and thoughts of a winter night made this marriage.

There are no rabbits in Newfoundland, but hares, arctic and snowshoe hares which were introduced in the mid 1800s to help feed the population.  These are large animals and are prone to fight in the spring which looks like little boxing matches and they take jabs at each other.  The classic 'mad as a March hare'.  I love the shape of hares and wanted to capture that sense of movement and shape and mimic the circular form.




This piece is watercolour on 300lb Arches paper and is about 8 inches in diameter. There is still some tweaking to do and a decision around what little thing to add to make this say 'Christmas'.

My laptop is now covered in little white dots of ink from the spattering. Note to self:  Move pieces off the main table to spatter them!

10 comments:

Sonia said...

This is a very beautiful work! The rabbits are awesome!

Jeanette Jobson said...

Thank you Sonia

Sandy Maudlin said...

These should be for sale as Christmas cards or at least framed in a gallery. Beautifully and sensitively done.

nadinebc said...

Adorable!

Jennifer Rose said...

gorgeous :) your laptop is now ready for the holidays ;)

sue said...

These are gorgeous, Jeanette! How beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Lovely Jeanette!
ronelle

RH Carpenter said...

Oh, you did an even better job than I imagined and I love the backdrop to these leaping hares. So beautifully done :)
Happy Thanksgiving!

Gina Cuff said...

I love the symbolism of the three rabbits in a circle, Jeanette! These beautiful drawings were discovered in caves in China as early as the 6th century and has many meanings, one being enlightenment, my favorite! Great job!

Jeanette Jobson said...

Sandy, I will be creating cards and some prints out of them and putting them in my Etsy store and perhaps further afield.

Thanks Nadine and Momamama

Still cleaning the laptop Jennifer :)

Thank you Sue. I've just finished them off tonight.

Ronell, thanks for commenting.

Rhonda, I'm glad you like them. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Gina, I love symbolism in animals. I didn't realize that images of rabbits were found that early. Very interesting.