Art Notes

The magic of Christmas should be a year-round joy, and the many characters wedded to the season can be explored well beyond our annual celebration. In a “Reindeer’s Finery,” I take one of the most essential denizens of the yule-tide holiday and imagine what they might do when their work is done. In my vision of the North Pole and specifically in a wonderful place I call “Reindeer Meadows,” Santa’s traditional toy-haulers play their reindeer games and then bring in the New Year with a spectacular party! Indeed, they put on their most colorful adornments, giving mirth to all those there to enjoy the moment and fill their own lives with the light they provide to many others on Christmas Eve. I hope you enjoy this four-legged fashionista and will venture back with me from time to time as I further visit this version of Saint Nick’s kingdom. And as always, I want to thank you for sharing my adventures in art.

Key Points

• A Reindeer’s Finery is part of Zac Kinkade’s Animal Accents collection, a series that captures playful and sometimes whimsical moments from the Great Outdoors.
• Although most reindeer live in the tundra, in Europe they are domesticated animals! (Maybe Zac’s reindeer isn’t fantastical after all…)
• Although Zac’s portrayal of the reindeer in this painting is fantastical, reindeer are real! Did you know they live in the Arctic tundra and the forests of Canada, Alaska, Greenland, Scandinavia and Russia?
• Reindeer are a member of the deer family, and in North America they are called caribu.