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. 

Waiting for Birds on the First Big Snowday

A big snow has come today, dressing the trees in their winter finery and bending 

the sweeping hemlocks to the earth. Rhu and I were out early, loading wood 

into the house, just as the snow began to fall. An enthusiastic cat, he is, racing 

around, up and down the trees and up the wood stack, providing hearty 

entertainment for the morning's work. 

Back inside, several hours later, the bird feeders are filled, but not one bird has 

found them yet. I do hope they will by tomorrow morning, I think Rhu will enjoy 

the show when I am gone off for a Thanksgiving feast with family. 

Rhu Bear is a cat that likes to climb and climb and climb... waaaay up in trees... and 
he has been perfecting the art of graceful falling, too.  

It has taken me months to find my way back here. Maybe because there has been a 

cat to settle in, and many, many leaves to move and gardens to ready for winter and 

students to teach and long roads to travel to do so. Maybe, too, because there is no 

heat in my studio, and not much art to show you. I've been waiting for weeks 

for someone to come, only to discover they were never scheduled to do so. 

I found someone else and then parts needed to be ordered and a week of waiting 

and now, finally, the parts are here and next week I should have heat! 

In the meantime, my camera has accompanied me on my long drives to school, 

and has captured some scenes from my travels - foggy mornings, and the setting 

sun on my home commutes and strange, painterly blurring that happens with speed. 

The lights are flickering and the snow continues to fall. I had more to share, but 
I'll come back another time (hopefully sooner than last time) so I'm sure this will 
get posted before the electricity fails!

A Bit of Forest Magic

One warm and quiet afternoon, I wandered in the forest, listening to the  

fading cricket chorus, and playing with my camera in hopes of 

finding the magic that is found here. 

Recent rainfall brought the mosses to life, 

and the light revealed the hidden truth: that, truly, I wander

in a cathedral, the windows clearly visible. 

We've been visited by the deer of late,

and the slow transformation of plants is a wonder to behold. 

Speaking of transformation, Rhu has become quite used 

to romping and climbing outside, and has gained a few pounds 

in a month! Still he's mostly supervised while out, but now 

and again he has a wee bit of alone time when I'm inside 

for a bit or am about to follow him out. 

He LOVES climbing trees! This hemlock is his favorite - and was also 

Pasha's - because of the low, sweeping branches that he can follow 

all the way down to the moss. 

He sometimes seems like a very young kitten, 

and sometimes like a wild and powerful adult. 

The maple trees add a bit of color to the patio, a 

last hurrah before the snows come and cover it until spring. 

 Out and about, there are glorious views of autumn's sparkling 

skies and the branching patterns of trees who have let their 

leaves go. 

At school, I've been teaching my students how to eco-dye paper 

with plants. Not that I am an expert, no, I was one step ahead, 

and had some pointers from Velma over at Wake Robin, and, of 

course, plenty of inspiration and ideas from India Flint. 

The results of the first vat:

My sample, it has since faded a bit, but still has some magic. 

The assignment I gave my students was that the eco-dyed paper must 

be used as a raw material/surface for a number of explorations. 

Here is Miranda's drawings and other experiments underway. 

I'm excited to see what they come up with for the 

critique next Wednesday. If you want a more timely 

update of the results, find my studio Facebook page, 

come like me there!

As the light faded last evening, the brilliant leaves were no longer 

visible, but the sky carried on the enchantment until the stars 

began to twinkle.