A Warm Studio & Rhu's Winter Adventures

What better way to celebrate a working heater in the studio,

than to invite folks to come for a visit? The day before Solstice, 

I hosted an open studio, a wonderful way for me to engage 

once more with my work and see some local folks.  

I showed my newest paintings and also some older drawings that will most 

likely appear in my Etsy shop sometime soon. 

After not having painted in such a long while due to the lack of heat 

in the studio, I felt a bit rusty doing a painting demo, but I seemed 

to pull it together. Here, I am demonstrating how I use a very sharp, 

wet brush to pull tree and branch shapes out of a wet wash. 

Here, I am adding a layer over a dry wash. 

Here, I am answering questions about my work and 

generally looking teachery, I think. 

Thanks to my former and VERY talented student, Olivia for 

the painting demo photos. Go HERE to see her amazing jewelry.

I printed calendars to sell at the open studio, and they are 

now listed in my Etsy shop if you are interested. 

My Etsy shop HERE.

Little Rhu Bear has settled in well to life at RavenWood, a little wild 

as kittens will be, now a master at climbing down trees without falling. 

However, poor little guy met a porcupine in a tangled root-cave at 

the bottom of a fallen tree, and, clearly, the porcupine 

didn't want to share her den. 

Of course, it was a Sunday, so, when I'd finally managed to 

gather up the wildcat (with the help of a student who'd just arrived 

for a lesson which never was), I whisked him off to the Emergency 

vet for some help removing the barbs. 

Turns out that its a rare event, indeed, for kitties to get quilled, so the 

vet asked permission to do a Facebook story on Rhu - he's a famous little 

guy now. A few other names have been added to the ever growing list 

of kitty names. Lately, he's been going by Sir One-Sock due to his neatly 

shaved leg post vet visit. Auto-correct changed his name to 

Hu Ear in a comment on the vet's FB post, hehe, though I 

may not use that one much.  

Rhu's adventure didn't seem to phase him much, and he was out 

the door and up countless trees the following day, though, thankfully, I 

noticed that he avoided the fallen tree under which the porcupine might 

still be sleeping.

We had a bit of snowcover for a time, much to my delight as I 

wandered in the late afternoon on Solstice to greet winter

and sing to the trees and the dreaming bears somewhere 

under the snow. 

Dad and I had a lovely visit, and, thankfully for him, just the right 

amount of snow and cold - not to deep and not too frigid. 

He spent a lot of time relaxing and reading by the fire. 

Life here, of course, would not be complete without a few owls 

now and again. This barred owl was sighted on my travels about 

town while gathering supplies for festive, holiday feasts.

Here's a small clip of her flying off into the forest carrying 

Happy New Year messages to all of my friends.