THE ROBIN AND THE SNOWMAN!

The robin on the tree branch saw
The children in the snow,
To see a sight none could ignore,
He watched their snowman grow...
Two arms, two legs, two ears, two eyes,
One mouth, one nose, one scarf,
The robin smiled with some surprise
And then began to laugh!

And when they turned to go inside,
He landed on its head,
The children's mouths dropped open wide,
So they stood still instead...
The robin twisted left and right,
Like Elvis in his prime,
The children giggled with delight
At something so sublime...

And with their smartphone cameras there,
The videos were made,
For sites like YouTube, where folks share
The funny stuff that's played...
And someone added music, too,
You know how people are,
And yet, in truth, I'm telling you,
That robin's now a star!


Denis Martindale November 2016.


Poem based on the magnificent Stephen Gayford
wildlife painting. Google-search phrases
gayford prints and Stephen Gayford poetry
and also for Heaven and Earth Designs...


Poem shared here:

http://poemhunter.com/poem/the-robin-and-the-snowman/

Shortcut:

http://tinyurl.com/the-robin-and-the-snowman

Printer-friendly text version, nb increase text size:

http://poemhunter.com/best-poems/denis-martindale/the-robin-and-the-snowman/

http://denis-martindale.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-robin-and-snowman.html

http://heavenandearthdesigns.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=160_620


HAED finished pieces gallery:

Please click the link and then click on the left
of screen link for "Show Albums and Stories".

http://s1327.photobucket.com/albums/u678/HAED-Gallery/

Several HAED Fantasy Art artists have pictures
on my website click-a-pic full screen galleries
slideshows, including some wildlife pictures.

http://www.fantasyart.ukartists.com/

:::
:::

THE EXCITING EXHIBITION!

The exciting exhibition
Was opened by the Queen,
Who smiled at the precision
And close-up details seen...
For Stephen Gayford tried his best
To capture what he saw,
That's why, of course, she was impressed,
Like everyone before...

She marvelled at the meerkats' grins,
With smiles from side-to-side,
As well as other meerkat prints
That fans bought nationwide...
And nodded sagely with respect
At lions, tigers, bears,
While penguins made the Queen reflect
On how each parent cares...

Did she buy pictures? Just a few!
In fact, she bought the lot!
And no-one tells her what to do
With hundreds that she got!
She's placed some in the Palace,
The rest on castle walls!
One hopes such pictures brought her bliss,
The little miracles!


Denis Martindale November 2016.


Poem based on hundreds and hundreds of
magnificent Stephen Gayford wildlife paintings.
Google-search phrases to search for:
gayford prints and Stephen Gayford poetry
and also for Heaven and Earth Designs...


Poem shared here:

http://poemhunter.com/poem/the-exciting-exhibition/

Shortcut:

http://tinyurl.com/the-exciting-exhibition

Printer-friendly text version, nb increase text size:

http://poemhunter.com/best-poems/denis-martindale/the-exciting-exhibition/

http://denis-martindale.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-exciting-exhibition.html

http://heavenandearthdesigns.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=160_620


HAED finished pieces gallery:

Please click the link and then click on the left
of screen link for "Show Albums and Stories".

http://s1327.photobucket.com/albums/u678/HAED-Gallery/

Several HAED Fantasy Art artists have pictures
on my website click-a-pic full screen galleries
slideshows, including some wildlife pictures.

http://www.fantasyart.ukartists.com/

:::
:::

SNOW LEOPARD, TOO

The sad snow leopard waited still,
Perhaps he'd eat today,
Perhaps find warmth against the chill
That was snow-bound to stay...
The sun arose, yet gave no heat
Enough to melt the ice
And so life wasn't quite as sweet
And hardly Paradise...

But life goes on, and on, and on,
So hope guides daily through
And even when that sun has gone,
Returning with the dew...
That's why this leopard persevered,
A lesson to us all,
Despite the fact that life felt weird
And joy hard to recall...

He was no tiger, strong and brave,
Yet still he stayed alive,
Accepting everything God gave,
In order to survive...
I can't say that I envy him
When I pause to reflect,
Yet he continues, though life's grim...
And that deserves respect...


Denis Martindale November 2016.


Poem based on the magnificent Stephen Gayford
wildlife painting. Google-search phrases
gayford prints and Stephen Gayford poetry
and also for Heaven and Earth Designs...

Poem shared here:

http://poemhunter.com/poem/snow-leopard-too/

Shortcut:

http://tinyurl.com/snow-leopard-too

Printer-friendly text version, nb increase text size:

http://poemhunter.com/best-poems/denis-martindale/snow-leopard-too/

http://denis-martindale.blogspot.com/2016/11/snow-leopard-too.html

http://heavenandearthdesigns.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=160_620


HAED finished pieces gallery:

Please click the link and then click on the left
of screen link for "Show Albums and Stories".

http://s1327.photobucket.com/albums/u678/HAED-Gallery/

Several HAED Fantasy Art artists have pictures
on my website click-a-pic full screen galleries
slideshows, including some wildlife pictures.

http://www.fantasyart.ukartists.com/

:::
:::

FULL SCREEN SLIDESHOWS!

Having used a computer, as well as
some Internet devices, to view and
save images, I know that there are
PC programs, as well as the Google
Play Store apps that can be used to
display images in a full screen style.
I've created the Fantasy Art demo
to display such artwork collections.
I've even edited the original art
images to highlight details better.

With Stephen Gayford images,
it's not as easy to do this, because
most ebay images are the framed
art and not always captured as
well as professional photographers
and editors and website designers.
Some images are not correctly
aligned or in focus anyway and
may include some reflections that
show the photographers, too...

Even so, there are several full art
images without any extra white
space around the art itself and
without a gold or silver frame...
When we right-click an image,
or choose some other way to save
an image, or a complete web page,
we really ought to check Google
for Stephen Gayford images, too.
We can then use the Search Tools
option for image size ranges eg
large only, or 2 MB or higher...
Whatever gets us high quality,
hi-res or high resolution images.

Perhaps we use photo editors
installed on our PCs, or use the
various online editors, or apps.
The Gadget Show, here in the UK,
recently featured Android apps
that allow us to test what features
are user-friendly for amateurs,
not just the professionals...

I've used Paint Shop Pro for years
and can crop images, rotate them,
resize and reshape them, plus add
fancy frames to match the style
of Stephen Gayford artworks...

I've also tested Android apps,
some highly recommended on the
Google Play Store. Even so, it helps
to maintain Android devices and
close apps to release extra storage
space for our immediate editing
to continue to work for us...

A Google search for recommended
photo editing and slideshow apps
will also help beyond what the
Google Play Store search option
provides. Also check app web pages
for links to the creators' websites.

Nowadays, there is video content
for 4K or Ultra HD quality...
Most of my UK Freeview shows
were recorded on a Fetch TV
Smartbox in the MP2 format.
Though bid tv and price-drop tv
UK shopping channels have gone,
they were in standard definition,
yet today's video editor programs
can create better quality versions.
Some website designers would
merely create animated gifs or the
swf file format versions instead.
I prefer a slideshow the website
visitor controls in a click-a-pic
style when the visitor wants to
view the next slideshow image.

Once I got my website online,
I was able to create web pages
for each full screen image so
that there was no web page
margins, top, base, left or right.
No scrollbars, as these weren't
required, just click the image
to get the next to load up.
Even here, some web designers
could create some use of the
pre-fetch action that loads up
a collection of images prior to
their being viewed on screen.

I kept the web page text simple,
so I could get on with about 500
for the Fantasy Art demo to work
for several Fantasy Art galleries.
Once known, the web pages were
easier to test. I used thumbnails
to display the galleries and then
it's just a matter of clicking for
that first thumbnail image.

Don't think this demo was just for
a medium size PC monitor, as it
was for the Netgem iPlayer to
display full screen on our TVs.
This Internet box was before the
Fetch TV Smartbox and it was
better at viewing websites. That
meant medium and large TVs
really showing the big picture.

Google Mini Slideshow option:

By the way, when we visit Google
for search results, the image tab
then displays a collection of images
and if we click one, it opens a black
screen area with that image and
links to it separately, as well as its
website, or web page. A few extra
images appear on the right to view
these, too. Next is a right arrow
that loads the next Google image,
In effect, it's a limited slide show.

Furthermore, we can select the
choice of a website, rather than
every available website. So we
may select a free-to-use images
website like unsplash.com or
pixabay.com instead. Adding a
keyword helps refine the results:

eg type in this test phrase...

site:www.unsplash.com tiger

or

site:www.pixabay.com lion

Google then loads up website
links so we switch to click the
images tab instead then select
the first image and begin our
very own mini slideshow.

Scroll down a web page display!

An alternative of a side-by-slide
slideshow is when we find a
collection of images, such as in an
Internet website's directory eg
Index of...

We merely click on the selected
image filename based on its
file size, avoiding any obvious
smaller file thumbnail images...
If we use a website editor, we can
edit and create the extra web page
that displays all these images and
just load that up and scroll down the
web page instead. Or adjust the
width= value to pixels or the screen
width percentage. We can set the left
and right margin to zero and then we
can view so much better than before.
A more advanced option is editing
the picclick image results from the
smaller or the larger images up to
the best sizes available eg the s-l1600
size for ebay auction images...

Suggested Links:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/
http://www.ebay.com/
http://www.picclick.co.uk/

http://www.google.co.uk/
http://www.google.com/

http://www.unsplash.com/
http://www.pixabay.com/
http://www.photobucket.com/
http://www.pinterest.com/

Full screen Fantasy Art demo:

http://www.fantasyart.ukartists.com/

Denis Martindale November 2016.


http://denis-martindale.blogspot.com/2016/11/full-screen-slideshows.html

For extra artwork designs, I recommend:

http://heavenandearthdesigns.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=160_620

LONE WOLF:

http://heavenandearthdesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=160_620&products_id=14184&zenid=a918757974e8116e26b48a578350b8d1

IMAGE:

http://heavenandearthdesigns.com/bmz_cache/s/stephen_gayford-lone-wolfjpg.image.400x558.jpg

HAED finished pieces gallery:

Please click the link and then click on the left
of screen link for "Show Albums and Stories".

http://s1327.photobucket.com/albums/u678/HAED-Gallery/

Several HAED Fantasy Art artists have pictures
on my website click-a-pic full screen galleries
slideshows, including some wildlife pictures.

http://www.fantasyart.ukartists.com/

:::
:::

GREETINGS!

While most of the items produced by
Stephen Gayford were by Osborne
and Allen and seen on their website,
here in the UK, we bought from the
Freeview and Sky shopping channels.
So I got used to listening to the TV
presenters explaining some of the
stories behind the wildlife paintings.
One day, I saw something different.
There was a collection of the artist's
pictures presented as greetings cards.
At another time, there was a calendar.

Of all the animals painted, there was
a picture of a redbreasted robin... and
this is one of my favourites, as this has
appeared in many  a Christmas card.
So the complete collection ever painted
didn't exclude some of the UK animals.
Some of these fine art paintings have
been seen on Ebay and included the
badger and the owl and the robin and
a few of the birds seen at the seaside.

Stephen Gayford's safari trips were
to see the animals in their habitats
and to capture photos and sketches.
The black and white mini sketches are
often seen when we look at the prints.
Thankfully, many ebay sellers provide
us with their close-up photos of these
and the signatures and the rear panel
with titles and extra details...

Some of the greetings cards were sold
with the tip that they could be framed.
Even so, I've never seen mini frames
with these greetings cards or with the
larger and more detailed calendars.
Usually, it's just the original artwork
prints or lithographs in their frames.
Of these, it's the just canvas textured
prints that look like the greetings cards
or the calendars in the designs that
were selected for the Wild about Art
collections.

It's not like we can create our very
own greetings cards out of hundreds
of Stephen Gayford pictures or create
collages from a few of these either.
It's much more likely that we would
buy the greetings cards and keep these
at home, never sending these to others
for Christmas, Easter or birthdays or
other celebrated events. Why break up
the collection? Even so, if you see such
a collection sold on ebay, it's worth the
effort to view the larger zoom images.

From these, you'll recognise animals
being sold in other ebay prints, yet
it's easier to view these with their
titles using the picclick.co.uk site as
previously recommended since the
site has a zoom-in scale bar above
the display of dozens of images and
we can select the order eg low price
to high price and so on.

While it's obvious the calendars sold
are out-of-date and may not match
the current year's days of the week,
the pictures still look impressive on
a month-by-month basis, but imagine
how they would look as a collection
of TWELVE fully-framed pictures!
Your very own Stephen Gayford
wildlife art exhibition. WOW!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/
http://www.ebay.com/
http://www.picclick.co.uk/

Denis Martindale November 2016.


http://denis-martindale.blogspot.com/2016/11/greetings.html

For extra artwork designs, I recommend:

http://heavenandearthdesigns.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=160_620

LONE WOLF:

http://heavenandearthdesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=160_620&products_id=14184&zenid=a918757974e8116e26b48a578350b8d1

IMAGE:

http://heavenandearthdesigns.com/bmz_cache/s/stephen_gayford-lone-wolfjpg.image.400x558.jpg

HAED finished pieces gallery:

Please click the link and then click on the left
of screen link for "Show Albums and Stories".

http://s1327.photobucket.com/albums/u678/HAED-Gallery/

Several HAED Fantasy Art artists have pictures
on my website click-a-pic full screen galleries
slideshows, including some wildlife pictures.

http://www.fantasyart.ukartists.com/

:::
:::