I wanted to start off with this beautiful picture of some of my sunflowers and a bee taken in my back yard! I sure love all the flowers blooming and I hate to see them go come fall! Can't believe September is already upon us!
       I had some wonderful news when I went back to Campbell Pottery to pick up my art at the end of the lily show...They sold my gourd that was entered! I hope the new owner enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it!! I will also be making some pieces for a new show Campbell Pottery will be having in October of dogs and cats!! This show will benefit the humane society in Erie so it is a cause very important to me!! Please check out their website for info and plan on attending!!
    Also , on September 13th Liberty Galleria , the store in Franklin that has my work in it , is hosting an art crawl...A gathering of birds!! There will be food and drink and all kinds of fun things going on!! Please come!! There will be a silent auction and One of my painted birdhouses will be included in that.
      I have been busy making gourds  when I can in between mowing grass and canning goodies from the garden!  Here is a little witch I made. She is available now at Liberty Galleria.

I also made this gourd with pine needle coiling  and a pretty stone bead.

On another note,, after taking a canoe trip a couple weeks ago with some friends, we have decided to get some kayaks of our own! Here I am trying out the one we have so far on Lake Wilhelm. Hoping to get some good wildlife pics from the boat!!

Hope to see you at the Galleria on September 13th and at Campbell Pottery for the dog and cat show!!!

Artist Reception at Campbell Pottery

I don't know if it was the all day rain we had Saturday or not , but the artist reception at Campbell Pottery was packed with people this year! Here I am beside my gourd that made it into the show.

                                                                                                         Here I am beside my painting that was included, ( the top one).It is a very beautiful show this year with some unusual media included. Well worth the trip.

Here are some of my friends and clients and my husband enjoying the fruit and cookies provided. I want to Thank them all again for coming!! The juror this year was Christian Kuharik, from Circle K Studio in Sharon , Pa. I think he did a wonderful job putting together this show and my husband and I actually got to meet him later in the day as we decided to brave the rain and go to Water, Fire Sharon. This event will be held two more times this year and I really enjoyed it! Many bonfires are set in floating containers on the river and beautiful music is played everywhere. Various other bands and performers are there and artists have tents set up to sell their wares, along with food vendors. Christian Kuharik's circle K studio is along the street that is closed off to traffic and he was there firing pottery outside, so that is how we got to meet him, and thank him for a wonderful show and of course including my artwork:) 

If you are looking for something different and fun to do in August and September check out their website and plan on attending!

Campbell Pottery for the 4th year.

 I was so excited to find out last week that my entries for the Campbell Pottery lily festival art show were both accepted this year! I entered the gourd above and a painting. I wasn't sure how the gourd would do, but it made it! The show runs from July 4th to August 3rd. The reception is on July 19th from 1 to 3 and I would love to see you there! I also got some good news from Asbury Woods nature center near Erie. They have accepted my art into their schoolhouse craft show in December..more info to follow. Also, my artwork is now available, at Liberty Galleria on the main street in Franklin. It is a wonderful store supporting local small businesses. Check it out!
                We had a very interesting visitor recently to our back yard!! Check it out, below!!

I managed to get some good pictures before my husband scared him away so he (she) wouldn't destroy our bird feeder!! Haven't seen it since. This encounter did inspire me to make a bear gourd.

 

I also painted this Husky, Malamute?? not sure which . Can anyone tell me ? We saw him at a dog show and thought he was beautiful!!

Wood Duck Gift.

Here is a picture of the wedding gift gourd I mentioned in an earlier post.  The customer ordered it for a friend that is a duck hunting buddy. I carved the wood duck on the gourd and used inlace inlay around the oval in the triangles. I woodburned the leaves , cattails, and a female wood duck on the back. I also woodburned some feather texture on the duck. I painted the duck using acrylic paint. I carved the mini duck calls from a dowel, and also used inlace to put the names of the bride and groom on them. I then spent quite a few hours doing the coiling on top with waxed linen thread. I hope the gift was well received and the recipients have a long and happy life together! I must thank John and Sharon for thinking of me to make this special gift!
       I have been behind on other projects this spring due to an unexpected injury. My old , blind and deaf jack russel terrier, accidentally bit my left index finger while I was trying to get a stuck Denta stix out of the roof of his mouth. I thought it was nothing to worry about until three days later it was still very swollen and starting to hurt down into the palm of my hand. So, a short trip to the emergency room ( I thought.) the day before Easter turned into 3 days in the hospital and surgery on Easter Sunday. I guess my tendon was involved and infected thus the big ordeal! I must say my finger is still not right but thank goodness it wasn't my right hand. I must thank my husband for doing all my chores I couldn't do for awhile
   I have managed to get a few things made for art competitions coming up. I also have finally gotten some of my flowers and garden planted, more to go. I also completed this portrait in acrylic for my son and daughter in law of their dog that they had to put to sleep .

Walter

I also have had a gourd for quite some time that was speaking to me and saying it wanted to be a garden fairy!! I finally acted on that notion and Echinacea was born!

She is very worried about the butterflies and bees in the world due to overuse of pesticides and herbicides. Therefore the sign she carries in one hand says go organic!! She is for sale if anyone is interested.

Until next time....

 

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???