About This Stamp
With four mixed-media illustrations of seasonal flora and fauna, the Holiday Cheer stamps usher in the simple pleasures of the season.
The first stamp features three scarlet amaryllis flowers, their bright green stalks tied together with a red ribbon. The second stamp shows a holiday wreath with a mix of light and dark green leaves interspersed with holly berries and a large red bow at the top. The third stamp pictures a plump yellow Bartlett pear, a red pomegranate, and a reddish-orange clementine nestled against a branch of an evergreen tree. The fourth stamp shows two crimson cardinals with black facial markings and dark shading on their wings, each perched on a mistletoe branch.
The artist created the collages using gouache and acrylic paint on background paper from a vintage gardening book. She then cut out the shapes for each image and pasted them onto an archival cotton board.
The crimson northern cardinal has long been associated with the winter holiday season. These much-loved songbirds grace many holiday cards and provide glorious splashes of color against snow-covered evergreen boughs in backyards across the country.
Decorating for the holidays with fruit, flowers, and greenery has been popular for hundreds of years. Pears, berries, and other seasonal fruits provide beautiful color to wreaths and floral arrangements throughout the winter season and are an important food source for birds and other wildlife.
Art director Derry Noyes designed the stamps with artwork by Denise Fiedler.
The Holiday Cheer stamps are being issued as Forever® stamps in booklets of 20. These Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Derry Noyes
For more than 40 years Derry Noyes has designed and provided art direction for close to 800 United States postage stamps and stamp products. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from Hampshire College and a master of fine arts degree from Yale University.
Noyes worked as a graphics designer at Beveridge and Associates, a Washington, D.C., firm, until 1979 when she established her own design firm, Derry Noyes Graphics. Her clients have included museums, corporations, foundations, and architectural and educational institutions. Her work has been honored by American Illustration, the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, Communication Arts, Critique magazine, Graphis, Creativity International, and the Society of Illustrators.
Before becoming an art director for the U.S. Postal Service, she served as a member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 1981 to 1983.
Noyes is a resident of Washington, D.C.
Stamp Artist
