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December Featured Artwork and Desktop Calendar: “Star of Wonder”

"Star of Wonder"
“Star of Wonder”

I usually have too many ideas for which art to choose for my monthly desktop calendar, but December is a special month for all the holidays that are celebrated at this time of the year. We don’t really celebrate any one tradition for the winter holidays, but we enjoy sharing traditions of all our friends, and personally I love winter and snow and the unique light and color palette I see at all times of day. Usually I like something colorful with a lot of red and jewel tones, but sometimes something wintry will do. None of the feline art I had on hand expressed all those feelings for me, and though I had settled on an image I just couldn’t get the calendar done.

And then I thought outside the box—the box of my art done by hand that I usually chose from—to electronic art, and one of my absolute favorite designs ever: “Star of Wonder”. I had created the six-pointed star as part of an invitation I designed for a non-denominational holiday musical celebration at my local public library a few years ago.

Invitation to "Mass of Hope"
Invitation to “Mass of Hope”

But “Star of Wonder” at the top was not the first design using my fine felines and this star high in the blue night sky. It could have been that, while I worked on that design on my computer, one or more young black cats found it intensely interesting against the black background of the design and an idea was born, a universal message for the season, with cats. It wasn’t the one above at first, but another one, below, adapted from remembering the Four when they were kittens looking out the big window at the birds and the snow, then it was night and there was a star…

"Can We Get That Thing?"
“Can We Get That Thing?”

I really like this design, and it was just what I’d envisioned. But there was another, more serious design developing in there. Soon I was looking for the purr-fect silhouette. You’ve seen me use daily sketches for new designs for merchandise, but I’ve also used daily photos. I remembered a feline silhouette from a photo of Mr. Sunshine looking up at a moth in the pendant lamp that I used for my annual Independence Day post Oooh! Aaah! I wanted to be certain to capture every single hair and whisker of that silhouette—it was very fun and worth every minute to isolate all those furs and whiskers to that his silhouette would look authentic.

"Star of Wonder"
“Star of Wonder”

And there it was, a little more serious than the first design, just a cat, a star, and the blue of a winter night, and it can take on any meaning you’d like. It’s one of the favorites in my collection of greeting cards and in all the illustrations I’ve created, feline or otherwise.

May the wonder of the season bring you peace and joy through the year.
~ from Bernadette and feline family and fosters of The Creative Cat.

As always, I will miss looking at last month’s desktop calendar image, but I hope you enjoy this month’s image as much as I do!

~~~

Giuseppe sincerely wants you to have peace and hope this holiday season.
Giuseppe sincerely wants you to have peace and hope this holiday season.

You can find the “Star of Wonder” greeting cards in my Etsy shop available singly or in half or full dozens.

I also have “Star of Kittens” in my Etsy shop singly and in quantities as well!

You can read more about the greeting cards in “Star of Wonder” Holiday Card.


This month’s desktop calendar

I’ve worked this image into a desktop calendar for you to enjoy and use for the entire month. Looking at the downloads from previous months and averaging out which dimensions fit which devices, I have reduced the number of variations from 12 to four. 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, download the image to your gallery then choose it as your wallpaper—this is slightly different on all devices.

Horizontal and HD monitors and screens

"Star of Wonder" desktop calendar 2560 x 1440 for HD and wide screens.
“Star of Wonder” desktop calendar 2560 x 1440 for HD and wide screens.

. . .

Square monitors and screens

"Star of Wonder" desktop calendar, 1280 x 1024 for square and laptop monitors.
“Star of Wonder” desktop calendar, 1280 x 1024 for square and laptop monitors.

. . .

Small Mobile Devices and Tablets

Click here to subscribe to The Creative Cat on your Kindle.

"Star of Wonder" desktop calendar, 600 x 800 for iPad, Kindle and other readers.
“Star of Wonder” desktop calendar, 600 x 800 for iPad, Kindle and other readers.

. . .

Cell Phones and Smartphones

"Star of Wonder" desktop calendar, for 400 x 712 for mobile phones.
“Star of Wonder” desktop calendar, for 400 x 712 for mobile phones.

 


Take a look at other featured artwork and desktop calendar posts.

Each month I feature a piece of feline artwork from the archives to the present day, discuss its history and process, and set it up as a free downloadable desktop calendar for just about every electronic device available.


Click here to see daily sketches, click here to see daily photographs

click here to see other artwork featured on The Creative Cat

or visit Fine Art and Portraiture on my main website.

If you are interested in a print of this image, check my Etsy shop to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.


Subscribe to my e-newsletter

Subscribe to The Creative Cat Preview E-newsletter.


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 my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.


© 2015 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

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Weekly schedule of features:
Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life
Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters
Tuesday: Rescue Stories
Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork
Thursday: New Merchandise
Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy
Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!

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Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

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