Vintage Art Appreciation: Christmas Eve by Carlton Alfred Smith

You can live a charmed life by causing others to live a charmed life.
That is, be the source of ‘charm’
— of charming moments and experiences — in the life of another.
Be everyone else’s Lucky Charm!
Make all who you touch today feel ‘lucky’ that you crossed their path.
Do this for a week and watch things change.
Do it for a month and you’ll be a different person.
― Neale Donald Walsch
I initially downloaded the above painting — Christmas Eve, painted by Carlton Alfred Smith (1853 – 1946) in 1901 — on Wikimedia Commons, which I then cropped and edited. You can download a high-res 6" x 4" @ 300 ppi JPEG of my digitally enhanced version here. I thought it would be interesting as a greeting card or incorporated into a collage or junk journal project but you can also simply print and frame for wall art.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain fine art are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Free Vintage Outdoor Clipart for Cardmaking, Collage or Junk Journaling: Two Drawings of Winter Scenes by Winslow Homer

We feel cold, but we don't mind it, because we will not come to harm.
And if we wrapped up against the cold, we wouldn't feel other things,
like the bright tingle of the stars, or the music of the aurora,
or best of all the silky feeling of moonlight on our skin.
It's worth being cold for that.
― Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass
Two 19th century illustrations that were drawn by Winslow Homer for a couple of different publications. The first drawing (top) is titled "Cutting a Figure" and appeared in Every Saturday in 1871. The second drawing (bottom) is titled "Christmas Belles" and was first published Harper's Weekly in January 1869.

You can download the free 6" x 4" @ 300 ppi JPEGs without any watermark for cardmaking, collage or framed art projects by clicking here (lone lady skater in a desered patch of a frozen pond) and here (group of ladies racing away in a horse-drawn sleigh).


From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Nature Poem for Kids: The North Wind Doth Blow (with Sheet Music)

The North wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will poor Robin
do then, poor thing?
He'll sit in a barn,
And to keep himself warm
Will hide his head under his wing,
poor thing!

Antique nature poem found in a children's magazine from c1880 (the origin of the poem itself is much older and is thought to date back to the 16th century). You can download this illustrated poem and sheet music as an 6" x 9" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here for use in cardmaking and nature journal projects or simply print and frame for wall art.

Here is a really adorable video I found of the poem on Youtube:



Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized poems by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Vintage Art Appreciation: Winter Landscape in Areskutan by Carl Brandt

Winter Landscape in Areskutan, 1921
by Carl Brandt (1852 - 1930)
I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.
― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.
― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence.
Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance.
Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence.
Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.
― Yoko Ono