This Year's Nativity Scene

A short post today to share the nativity scene I built this year.

 
As usual I did not paint the planned Alp landscape background (which is called "Hald" (from "heap") in Ebensee, from where this specific nativity scene tradition originates) this autumn and knowing that I very likely would not paint it for next Christmas (or the one after that) either (as landscape painting isn't up my alley at all) I had a sudden lightbulb moment born out of utter despair: I could use one of my photographs I have taken this summer when hiking the Krippenstein to take a look at the marvellous Dachstein glacier from there!!

The more I thought about doing this the better I liked this idea. It would kind of transfer a very old and loved tradition from centuries ago into the 21st century - a contemporary "interpretation" so to say! Yessss!

This is one of the images that made it into the finals...but in the end I decided to go for a background that looked more "close" to the scene with all the children, shepherds, animals and other characters ...

Of course I was too late with getting my printed photo-canvas in time so I could already have it for Christmas eve, but it arrived today and I am more than just pleased with how it turned out! Yay!

I will have to get a bigger base of course for the scene to match the size of the canvas...but that is a lot less "scary" than imagining myself painting a mountain landscape. But then it will always be a work-in-progress project as there will new characters and animals be added and maybe new pieces of bark, new rocks,... just as it is meant to be.

Wishes!

Claudia

xxx