Winter Titmouse is a delicate yet striking studio acrylic painting that captures the quiet magic of a frozen dogwood tree in the winter landscape of Don Yaun’s Buford, Georgia homestead. This 18″ × 24″ work centers on a small tufted titmouse perched among ice-encrusted branches, nearly blending into the soft pastel blues, lavenders, and silvers of the frost-covered scene. The bird appears almost to disappear into the cold, wintry palette, emphasizing the fragility and resilience of wildlife in harsh weather.
The painting posed a unique challenge: balancing the heavy, bending limbs weighed down by icicles with realistic angles and subtle light effects. As freezing rain accumulated, the icicles naturally tilted toward the bottom left—Don adjusted them carefully to avoid awkward or unrealistic distortion while preserving the sense of weight and motion. He intentionally left visible traces of pencil underdrawing and initial sketch layers, creating a sense of artistic progression and history within the finished piece.
A special note of thanks goes to Don’s wife, Debra Yaun (www.DebraYaun.com), an accomplished wildlife artist whose expertise in bird anatomy and form helped him accurately render the titmouse’s shape and posture.
This intimate winter scene, viewed from the kitchen window, joins other homestead wildlife paintings as a quiet tribute to the beauty and endurance of nature on their property.
