Quietly Tending

"Blue-Gray Morning" watercolor, 11"x15", VClaff, 2017

Here I am, on a quiet Sunday afternoon, after so many months. 

Spring is coming, some flowers are up, especially in the woodland garden. 

Today it is damp and raw and rainy, cold enough for a morning fire. 

"Afternoon" watercolor, 5"x10", VClaff, 2017

I've been busy this year, tending to my inner world that was rocked by the 

outer world and the new reality here in the United States. There is a lot to process. 

My studio has been a sanctuary, and the act of creating a refuge. I've been quiet, 

and my work - or myself inside my work - has emerged a bit from the deep forest to 

stand at the edges. Open spaces beyond the trees are visible - distant ridges, fields 

and ponds. I've been spending a lot of time with the reflections of trees and skies in 

water, and experimenting a bit with white watercolors. 

"At the Edge of the Woods" watercolor, 10"x10", VClaff, 2017

"Birches" watercolor, 5"x10", VClaff, 2017

"Snow on Pond" watercolor, 8" x10", VClaff, 2017

"Marsh Sunrise" watercolor, 7.5" x11", VClaff, 2017

March marked Rhu's third circle around the sun... he's been great company, 

as mischievous as ever, keeping me on me on my toes.

 We had a day-long visit from a barred owl, as friendly as ever. 

She watched the day unfold with one cracked eye as she snoozed on her perch.

I hope to be here more often as my days will soon open up when classes end 

tomorrow and I won't be off three days a week to teach. I appreciate 

a few followers who reached out to let me know they missed my posts

and to check to see that I was ok. In a world gone slightly mad, acts of 

kindness swell the heart.

Earth Medicine

If I told all the stories of the months between the last time I came here -

the story of an exceptionally challenging winter: deep, deep snow, arctic cold, 

storm after storm, roof raking, food poisoning, sledding a new cord of wood over 

the enormous snowplow mound to the woodshed, a major flood in the house 

when the washing machine overflowed (luckily missing the new bamboo floor) 

burn out and exhaustion -  it might explain my absence here, and how, 

when spring arrived and school ended, the only thing I wanted to do was to 

be outside reveling in the sensual medicine of the earth. 

I appreciate the emails from people wondering if all was OK. I am very much 

better than I've been in a few years, but, coming out of a very long, dark, 

underworld journey has meant a shifting so profound that, in my emerging, 

I am blinded and taking time to refocus. As anyone who has gone to 

the underworld knows, there are great gifts to be mined if one stays in the 

dark mystery, trusting that it will be done only when it is done. 

Being quiet, with my hands in the earth planting, moving stones and gathering 
them from the river, listening to frogs and birds and the gentle ringing of Japanese 
Temple bells in the Medicine Garden is replenishing the places that felt hollowed 
and emptied. 

I haven't been painting, all my creative energy is going into nurturing myself 

and the plants and finishing projects in the Medicine Garden. I have forced 

myself to do some of the business end of art, with a goal of finding a few 

new galleries to represent me as I am shifting away from the ones I've worked 

with before. Like most artists, this is my least favorite part of it all, but to balance

it with so much outside time is good. So if I am not in the studio, I am creating

beauty in the garden, and, for me, it is all about beauty, in the many ways 

that it can be defined. 

Rhu Bear is a big kitty now, just over a year, and over ten pounds. He is really

quite a character, mostly well behaved, but sometimes very, very naughty. He 

has obviously come here to fill my heart with joy and to throw in an occasional 

monkey wrench in case I'm getting too comfortable. 

Though these paintings were made while the snow was still waist deep (which 

actually wasn't that long ago!) I just got them back from my photographer and 

wanted to share them with you as I don't believe they were posted here yet. 

We'll see what happens when I get back into the studio, which will be soon, 

but I was finding lots of pathways to explore with these last ones.  

"Blue Shadows" watercolor on paper, 15" x 22", V. Claff, 2015

"Winter Forest" watercolor on paper, 15" x 22", V. Claff, 2015

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.