Santa Bear and True Love, Woodland Christmas |
Santa Bear and True Love, Woodland Christmas |
Farewell, Woodland Nutcracker |
Snow Birds, Frances Tyrrell 2015 |
Visitors, Woodland Nutcracker |
The Milky Way, Woodland Christmas |
Little Foxes, Woodland Christmas |
Leaping Moose, Woodland Christmas |
Ten Lords-a-Leaping, Woodland Christmas |
Piping Squirrel, Woodland Christmas |
"Cardinal Post" |
Herald Angel, Woodland Christmas |
Two Turtle Doves, Woodland Christmas |
Santa Bear, Woodland Christmas |
Seventeenth day of Advent One last bird from Woodland Christmas, the Ruffed Grouse with a nice Elizabethan ruff collar. |
Fourteenth day of Advent |
Eighth day of Advent |
Sixth day of Advent |
Fourth day of Advent |
Second day of Advent |
Our beautiful WoodlandNutcracker book, which was chosen as The Children's Picture Book of the year in 1999 by the Canadian Book Review Annual, was orphaned earlier this year when the publisher went out of business. We are fortunate to have obtained the remaining books from the publisher's warehouse, boxes of mint-new copies full of Christmas magic and adventure.
As with the earlier Woodland Christmas, the story was inspired by many camping trips and cottage visits in Canada's boreal forest, "far away from highways and city lights", where one can travel for days and not meet another human being or even a camera-shy bear. In a story that parallels the Nutcracker ballet, Clara is given a wonderful carved Nutcracker Bear who transforms into the dashing Nutcracker Prince. After settling a midnight battle with the field mice with a Christmas Eve truce, giving the hungry mice food for their families, Clara and Nutcracker fly away to the Ice Palace of the Great Bear, Ursa Major.
At the Great Bear's palace an international cast of bears performs for Clara - juggling pandas and trapeze artist koalas and more, plus some of her dearest woodland friends. I have made two posters from the illustrations, grizzly bear Mother Ginger with her junior hockey team, and the polar bear Yuk Tuk dancing to the strains of the Russian Dance, pictured below. For the purposes of the poster I have placed a copy of the book in her gracefully extended paw!
2 Comments on " Woodland Nutcracker", last added: 11/1/2011
The gallery is looking lovely. The creatures and characters from Woodland Christmas and Woodland Nutcracker are beautifully displayed and despite dreary weather we had a busy weekend at the opening. It is a real pleasure to see these pieces together again, and in a setting reminiscent of the summer cottage that inspired the Woodland books.
Fairy art and books are on display too,
And between the fairies, keeping them company, is the last of our Gund Woodland Nutcracker bears that were produced for Eatons reopening in 2000.
It was a brief reopening for Eatons, a chapter of Canadian retail history in which our Woodland Nutcracker played a decorative role. While the Titans of retail wrestled for supremacy, our lovely bears and woodland friends were recreated as life-size figures for in-store Christmas displays. A phalanx of Woodland Nutcrackers was commissioned and the 9-foot bears were positioned at store entries, and more bears and Woodland friends twirled inside in animated displays.
10 Comments on In a Heartbeat, Advent, and Good Fairies, last added: 12/4/2009
Dear Frances, what joy your Advent posts have brought. Every image is beautiful and also carries a special spirit connected to the Woodland. Lovely and peaceful. What an artist you are!
Happy Christmas to you and yours. xo