So thrilled to be a part of Naomi Shihab Nye’s amazing new collection of poetry ‘Voices in the Air’! This has been a very special journey. So honored to have my birds on the interior pages of this wonderful book.
It will be released February 13th! https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062691842/voices-in-the-air
This has been a great experience. We are so thankful for the tremendous support we have received from our fantastic backers.
More information here:
As is typical for me birds and wildlife are the greatest inspiration. It is so important to protect them and their habitat.
Thank you to all those who are commited to protecting wildlife around the world!
My Dove design will be featured on a tee shirt available only though our Kickstarter campaign ‘Brooklyn Tee Time’
I am so very excited about starting this new project with my mother!We have created a tee shirt company highlighting endangered wildlife. We will use the company to raise awareness and lend some support to those organizations who are helping to protect endangered and at risk wildlife. All of the designs are original. Some of my designs are birds. Please click the link below to learn more. Please share freely. Thank you!
I am so very excited about starting this new project with my mother. We have created a tee shirt company highlighting endangered wildlife. We will use the company to raise awareness and lend some support to those organizations who are helping to protect them. All of the designs are original created either by me or my mother. Only two of my designs are birds. Please click the link below to learn more.
Please stop by the Wild Bird Fund sometime before October 15th and you can see 10 of my paintings and you can learn all about the great work the Wild Bird Fund do to support and rehabilitate the wildlife of New York City! I am so honored to be featured in their window on Columbus Avenue.
Paintings by Dawn Henning
September 7 to October 15, 2017
565 Columbus Avenue, between 87th and 88th Street, New York City
50% of sales benefit the Wild Bird Fund.
http://www.wildbirdfund.org/event/reception-paintings-dawn-henning
City parks and the wildlife they support have been my refuge growing up in Brooklyn, they continue to be my tonic for life.
Join us August 22nd for the opening reception.
Watercolor, gouache and acrylic paint on Fabriano paper.
In response to the presidential election results this week I listened to an On Being interview with the poet Naomi Shihab Nye. I found it inspiring though it wasn’t my first time listening to this interview or her poetry. I am a great fan of her work. Poetry can be like an old friend that you visit again and again, especially in tough times.
Here’s the link:
http://www.onbeing.org/program/naomi-shihab-nye-your-life-is-a-poem/8720
If your life is not a poem maybe it is a painting or a homemade hat. Hopefully it is filled with kindness and love and the freedom to be who you are.
The Common Grackle is a favorite of mine – strong and elegant – a smart mischief maker. Nothing common about them their black iridescent coloring reminds me of a black opal. I would love to entertain them in my garden. I have no Grackles in my garden but many Mockingbirds and Cardinals. They are coming for the ripe figs!
Painted with Gouache and watercolor on smooth Fabriano paper.
Continuing my illustrations of the “counting crows” nursery rhyme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_for_Sorrow_(nursery_rhyme) after a little break. Not a part of my childhood memories, a dear friend from Belfast shared with me her memory that as kids after the sighting of just one Magpie, they’d search the skies for a second or a third Magpie, not to be left with just one for sorrow.
I love Magpies to paint and observe. My first live sighting was two years ago in Athens at the Greek Agora. I saw just two – for joy. This past November in Greece again I saw Magpies, not considered a rarity in Athens, sometimes considered a nuisance actually. Two Magpies welcomed us when we arrived this year, just outside our window. Again on a birding tour of Imittos Mountain and the Oropos wetlands with Akis Gaitanakis (Greecebirdtours.com) we saw more Magpies (and 43 other beautiful species).
The most magnificent and inspiring show of magpies came at about the 41K point of the Athens Marathon while running- as I entered the city limits of Athens – a large flock of Magpies flew out of a tree and filled the sky in their noisy way. For me this was a thrilling sign of encouragement. I ran with a singlet printed with the image of a flying Magpie my mother designed. As I learned from Akis the previous day, Magpies are not really fast birds, especially for long distances, you will almost never see them on the Greek Islands… an appropriate bird for me as I am a very slow marathoner.
Looking forward to beginning four for a boy. Hope your 2016 is filled with wonder.
Sketchjay 