Spring,,Maybe!

I was actually thinking Spring was here. We had a day of 80 degrees just two days ago and the grass was turning green and a few flowers had started to come up. But alas, it is snowing again today. On the bright side it is supposed to be short lived and then back to pretty nice temperatures. I had to take some of my work to Erie this past week to be juried into a craft show and I took the time to check out the peninsula and the trails where the art was juried.

I was excited to see the geese were busy making nests and there were lots of birds of all shapes and sizes feasting on some dead fish. I got some good photos that will hopefully be used as reference shots for a painting.

 Mom's Love

Snuggled In

I have two of my watercolor paintings online on the PA watercolor society's web site in the members show. Check out the web site for some beautiful paintings!

I have been working on some gourds too. I finished a couple hand painted bird houses since it is the time of year to get them outside for our feathered friends!

Here is one with a rose breasted grosbeak on it. I hope spring has arrived where you are and flowers will be blooming next time we visit!

vacation in Vieques

We had a wonderful vacation at the end of February. We spent a week on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. There were 6 couples that went this year, and we rented a beautiful house. The island is full of wild horses, and the beaches are pretty much empty, which was great. The snorkeling was good and it was nice to have a marine biologist among us this year!

 The house we rented.

 Wild horse in our yard.

One of the beautiful beaches.

All of us enjoying a lobster dinner at the house!

I did try my hand at some plein air painting one afternoon while there but I am not ready to show those results!! I did get some nice pictures that will hopefully make some nice paintings in the future. We  returned home to cold and snow in this winter that will not die!! All the animals were fine thanks to Galena who takes excellent care of them . Here is a small gourd container I finished that could be a vase, a pencil holder, a kitchen utensil holder, etc.

I used the inlace inlay around the circle where the zebra is.

 

 This is a small watercolor of a junco I completed . " A soft place to land" Hope you like it.



Snow Rollers

I wanted to start this post with some pictures of the rare "snow rollers" that recently formed in all the open fields around here. They are supposedly only able to form about once every 100 years because conditions have to be just perfect. Pretty cool, huh?
            I have   been spending a lot of time in the studio lately since the weather is so awful. I finished the gourd that is a wedding gift. The process of using the inlace went pretty well, but the stuff is pretty awful to smell, both when applying and sanding. I can't imagine it is a very healthy thing to be exposed to. I now have 3 cans of the stuff to use so I will have to come up with some more projects for it, but I think I will wait until it is warm enough to do in open air!
          I have also been working on some watercolor paintings and have finished three just in the last couple of weeks.

This one of the burrows and sunflowers cheered me up while doing it, looking at something other than snow.

This is an older watercolor I don't  think I ever put on here. I painted it after I got a really good reference photo of a hawk holding a hornworm. My husband yelled at me because I stopped the car on the road to get the picture.

Here is an older gourd I did as a decorative tea pot.

I think my horses are getting tired of the snow and cold  too. This is two of them saying can we go in the barn now???

Busy Christmas and loss of a pet.

The kids were all here for Christmas this year ,but getting them here and home was an ordeal. Flights were delayed and cancelled due to the weather . But it was wonderful to have them here, and the time passed much too quickly. The top picture is of our son and his wife and the bottom one is of our daughter on a hike we took on one of the nice days we had. After they all left the house was much too quiet again.  Soon after they left we had a very cold spell. Temperatures were below 0 with wind chills in the negative 30's. My poor old pygmy goat didn't due to well with that cold. I tried putting him in my workshop in the barn to warm him up several times. But his 16 year old body just couldn't recover. Sadly he passed away during the night , even though it had warmed up by then. I miss his cheerful face and find it hard to  feed horses and not have him there too.  

Petrie the goat and Shelby our dog.

 

I have had more time now to work on art projects. Here is a wall hook I made with an  acrylic painting of a bernese Mountain dog.

This is a western style gourd that could be a vase or pen and pencil holder, etc. . I am also working on a custom gourd ordered for a wedding gift. I am really excited about the progress on it and hope it will be a real stunner. I am going to try some inlay on it which will be a first with Inlace.  I will show pictures of it after it has been given. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and is well on the way to a great new year!!

 

Snow Snow Snow

Here is my studio now in the midst of our snow storm! It is very pretty I must say but I still prefer sunshine and flowers!!

This is the view looking out one of the windows of my studio into the woods.

Here is a woodpecker enjoying the suet I put out for them!

I have been working on a lot of custom orders for Christmas but I did find time to complete this decorative gourd pitcher with appaloosas on it. I used one of my horses old slide plates for the handle!! It has a horsehair decorated rim. Available on etsy or at my shop.

This is a coat hook I made also from cedar with a wolf painted on it in acrylic.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and please remember the wildlife and pets in this cold weather!!

Open Studio Weekend

Finally my little studio is completely finished!  In celebration, I will be having an open studio weekend, Nov. 16th and 17th from 11 to 6 each day. There will be some refreshments for everyone and a drawing for a gift certificate, and the best thing is, I will donate 5 % of all sales to Skye's spirit wildlife rehab center in Harrisville. These people do wonderful work helping injured and sick wildlife and hopefully getting them back to nature. Check out the link I have to the website they have. So please come and visit me !!! There are directions on the events page if you need them.  I am having some new signs made but not sure if they will be ready by the open studio.  Hopefully it won't be the day for our first blizzard this year!! I also want to take this time to publicly thank my husband for all the work he put into this building!! He is the best!!

I have been working on some more Christmas décor to offer at the open house. I hope to have quite a few ornaments ready and I will take orders until I run out of time. Here are two Santa gourds I recently finished which will be available.

Here is a picture of one of my last sunflowers from last week ,since now we finally got a killing frost and all my flowers are history until next year!!!  I will miss them!!

 

Studio open at last!

My little art studio is finally open, after a year of working so hard on it. My husband still has to put up the track lights, because they just arrived last week. I have not advertised much yet because I am not sure how much of a mess will be involved in putting up track lights. I am open for now on Tuesdays from 11 to 5, and Thursdays from 11 to 7. Come and visit and check out our little cabin in the country!!
     The weather here has been so beautiful for October.. still wearing shorts and t shirts all last week!! This means I am also still mowing grass and doing some canning!! I actually rode my reining horse also which hasn't happened in quite awhile!! He was really good, amazing since he has been on vacation for way too long..

I also took my dog for a walk at Lake Wilhelm and wondered why she wouldn't get in the water in a stream we hiked near until I looked beside me and saw this quite large snake looking back at me!!!

Here is a gourd vase I recently completed. It is carved and woodburned and would make a nice decoration for a fall or Thanksgiving table. It is for sale on Etsy and of course here in my studio.

This is a new watercolor I finished ,titled, Alone.

I hope I see some of you at my studio very soon!!Until next time......