The cat portrait pictured here is an acrylic painting on 8 x 10 inch canvas board. I also make pet portraits in watercolour or  in pen and ink. For more info on commisioning a pet portrait, check out my webpage at www.styleartc.com/portrait.html

7 x 5 inch acrylic painting on canvas board of a Tree sparrow perched on a branch with budding leaves signalling the arrival of spring. And at this time of the year that's a long way away.

Buy A print From Digital Version

I thought the aspen tree was just another name for the birch tree, it wasn't until I started writing this blog post that I found out the two are actually different tree species. Aspens have a wider distribution range in North America than Birch trees which are mostly found in the northern and eastern regions.

Both have slim trunks and similar white looking bark with black markings making it difficult to tell them apart.  But the bark of birch trees flakes and peels off the trunk in paper thin layers. 

Another difference is in the way they grow, aspens grow from a single root system in a way similar to rhizomes in some flowers like irises but birch trees grow from seeds. There are also more varieties of birch trees than there are of aspen trees.

 But regardless, both add beauty to the natural landscape and are a favorite painting subject for many nature artists including me. The digital version of the acrylic birch tree painting (or is it an aspen?) pictured in this blog post can be bought as canvas prints at Pictorem and on other products at Redbubble.

This is a companion to the acrylic painting of a female Northern cardinal I posted previously. It was purchased by the same person.  

Cardinals love black oil sunflower seeds, in fact black oil sunflower seeds will attract a variety of birds to your backyard,

In the bird world the males are more colorful and prettier than the females in many bird species, and the Northern cardinal is no exception. The females are a beige color with tinges of red, most notably in the tail and red beak.

But both male and female cardinals are stunning to look at. I have a lot of them passing through my yard all year round. A distinctive feature in both is the black mask around the beak making them unmistakable.

Another name for the Northern cardinal is the "common cardinal" and "red cardinal". It's obvious why it would be called "red cardinal" but "common cardinal"? It's striking looks make it look anything but "common", I never get tired of seeing them perched on a tree branch in my backyard.