(click for bigger DA link - a fave would be appreciated if you like it)

If traveling through the wilderness in wintertime you could, just when the shadows started to grow long, come upon a place where the snow had melted. But even though it looked melted as if by fire, no fireplace could be found.
Then you knew the Vaette had stopped to rest here before you.


My Christmas card for 2021. I wanted something more serene and brighter than last year's card.

Update: This is now tweaked and printed, thanks for feedback!


There will also be a timelapse video of this one when I get down to compiling it.
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Griatch

Really well done. Congratulations. It's quite cool in the Southern hemisphere summer for me. The idea of melting permafrost as a Christmas card is pure genius. I wish I thought of it.

Lovely card Griatch. I look forward to your card each year and am not dissapointed when it arrives. Enjoy the little story that comes with it too. I can't see anything wrong. Look forward to watching the timelapse too

Lovely one, I like how the eye wanders from the Vaette to the river to the background, and the whole thing is indeed very serene.

In cauda venenum:

- The grey blotch in front of the pines on the extreme left is weird, the shadows are lighter/softer elsewhere
- The "main" pine is crooked and I have never seen a pine like this, they are fairly straight trees usually.
- Physics police: since there are stalactites, it must be quite cold so either the river is slow but frozen, or running but then should have ripples.

Thanks, as usual with these cards, the 'story' of the image tends to develop as I make it.


It's become a fun tradition to do these, glad it was not a disappointment!


Thanks, that was the idea!


- Good point. I updated the far left side, softening the shadow and also added more detail to the trees there overall.


- I tweaked the trunk to give it a little less of a bend, but it's not unusual to trees to have a bend, particularly when standing alone like this, affected by wind all year around. It is also coming out of the ground at an angle.


- I need the icicles there in order to better indicate the fact that it's a protruding ledge, without them there 's little to guide the eye. One could maybe picture the fire revealing colder parts of the ground, but overall I'll probably have to claim a bit of artist's freedom on this one

Thanks for the feedback! I have now updated the first post with the finished (and slightly adjusted) image. Check it out.
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Griatch

Beautiful landscape Griatch and they look cosy by the campfire. I think everyone will be pleased to receive it for Christmas

A lovely Christmas Card. Griatch, Congratulations for another wonderful artistic creation.

Thanks for the nice comments, teapot and issabella. And yes, I think the card was well received.