Finnegan’s Birthday !

Posted on February 17, 2010 by heather • 1 Comment

I remember sitting at this computer a year ago today…plowing through piles of tax papers and getting an email saying that a litter of 14 pups had arrived…and one of them was our sweet little girl…

So far she has celebrated her birthday with a little run through her snow maze…some zippers around the studio kitchen…whining at the window as she watched Zola get on the school bus…then…on the sly…while I was writing this blog entry…she somehow found the stash of bully stick chews and gave her own self a birthday present.

We have a couple more surprises in store for her today…and I can’t wait to see what others she has for us.

We look forward to many years worth of fun and adventures to come….Happy Birthday Finn.

Digging out…

Posted on February 14, 2010 by heather

Valentines Day 2010

Sitting here in the studio looking at mountains of snow.

Three days of hard labor with the snow shovels and monster blower machine thingy and I am so grateful that all I have to lift today is a triple ought sable haired brush.

At the height of the blizzard I took this shot from the studio window…

And here’s a look at a painting that I worked on after our first snow storm back in December…almost the same view…just pan over to the right a bit more…

And a look at the labyrinth that I have to shovel out for Finn each time it snows so her mending legs have a better than fair chance out there in the tundra…

And the Apprentice Herself tucked into the snow fort that has melted some but was well over her head a day or so ago…

The good news is that we finally got Miss Pat out of the lane and up to town. Her cabin fever was approaching the red zone so even the laundromat was looking good !

Blueberry pancakes for both of my valentines this morning to fortify another day of winter survival adventures…and I shall be more than content to paint the day away and know that I am so well loved by my two sweeties.

Blizzard 2010

Posted on February 8, 2010 by heather • 2 Comments

Last week we weathered a trifecta of sad, painful and challenging events. Pat’s father, Frances (Pez) Ritchey 86, was admitted to intensive care and we waited each day to hear news of his deteriorating condition while in the hospital in Hawaii. On the home front our dear puppy Finnegan was scheduled to have the first of two surgeries on her front legs to minimize the elbow displaysia with which she was diagnosed in December. And, along with several other million people, we were following the weather channels who predicted us to be in the core of the blizzard of 2010.

I’m sad to write that Pez died on Saturday. Pat was relieved for him that he was not allowed to linger on machines and that she was able to have many hours of conversations over the last few years about the old neighborhood and adventures that she remembers fondly with him when growing up in Lancaster, PA.

We brought Finnegan home just in time to batten down the hatches for the big snow storm. It has been four days now and she is doing remarkably well. On strict house arrest until her next surgery in a month, she is getting regular therapy sessions and a big dose of love from her buddy and me and ….except for insisting that we refer to her as “You Highness” when she has the Elizabethan Collar on…she’s a model patient.

Today the apprentice returned to the studio for the first time and was beyond excited to see that her toys and bones and her brushes and paints were right where she left them.

Meanwhile I had the pleasure, while taking Finn out several times during the blizzard, to watch it bury our little corner of the planet. We got two feet and more in some spots and the snow blower finally has paid for itself.

Here are some highlights mid-storm and the morning after.

I can report that we made it up to town today to stock up for the next storm which is predicted to be a piddling foot or more moving through here tomorrow night. Restocked the pantry and the wine cellar…so we’re ready.

Night Studio

Posted on January 13, 2010 by heather • 1 Comment

It is deep cold winter now and when I leave the studio at night the furnace is turned low and I shut off every light except the string of tiny white lights that wind from the porch … along the picket fence…up over the garage … and down the path to light my way home.

When my eager apprentice wakes me in the early morning it is night black dark as we make our way to work and those lights are there to welcome us like hundreds of tiny muses.

This morning, like all the others, while waiting for me to get our breakfast ready, Finnegan went to get the paints out for the day’s palette … but she came running into the kitchen with a surprised look on her face.

…this is what she found…

Now I have always known that the muses have a keen sense of humor. And I have often come across evidence of “night play” in the studio. But this little tableaux shows some promise… and I may just see where this road takes us.

Stay tuned…. and stay warm.

New Year’s Eve Snow

Posted on December 31, 2009 by heather

We awoke to a new blanket of snow this morning…

a beautiful way to welcome in the new year.

My apprentice got right to work whittling down a snow bone

as her Finnegan fence slowly melted into the winter landscape.

From our studio to you…

Happy New Year !

Studio Snowstorm

Posted on December 20, 2009 by heather • 1 Comment

Three years ago when we bought the house next door and turned it into my studio I was worried about the coming winter and 200 more feet of driveway to shovel. We’ve lived in the log cabin home for almost 20 years now and Pat and I, two middle aged and determined women, had shoveled our quarter mile of lane and then some with gusto if not with sore backs. But now we are older and with the additional footage it seemed time to join the rest of suburbia and buy a loud and dangerous machine that could do the work of two women.

That was the beginning of the curse. We have had no snow since. Ice yes. One or two mighty blows that could be removed with the broom. But nothing that even remotely called for the orange beast that takes up valuable floor space in the garage. Until yesterday that is.

An honest to goodness nor’easter, that most of you probably shared in your home towns, has dumped over a foot of perfect snow blower snow on our little patch of the planet. At 5:55 I was up, yes that number thing is still happening, and shoveled a path to the garage. By 9am most of the neighborhood and all of our driveways had been cleared …and on one tank of gas.

It’s 11am now, one hot shower and one warm meal later I am ready to settle in and paint. That’s IF I can hold a brush in this hand that is still shaking from holding on to that mighty machine.

Here are some pics of the studio snowstorm… from the photo I took the day before of the farm across the street that looked like a Breughal landscape to me…and the progression of snowfall recorded by the bird house Walt made to resemble the studio…to the log cabin evening festivities that included the traditional mushroom soup making and pecan puff cookie orgie (I took a pic of the Joy of Cooking to show just how popular that recipe is…I write some little journal note each time I use a recipe and this one dates back to the 80’s)…to the shots from this morning when I had the whole neighborhood to myself and the birds…and then to my apprentice who has finally had a taste of the real stuff for which she was born to glide through regally .

You all stay safe out there and have a hot toddy or two for us !

Paying it Forward

Posted on November 30, 2009 by heather • 1 Comment

Our grandson Ben Lackey is one of our favorite humans. He made the studio his home this weekend and we had 48 hours of intense art lessons sprinkled with lots of deep and meaningful conversations, leaf raking, wood gathering, dog training , leftovers and laughter.

A senior at Seton Hall Prep in NJ this year, Ben is pushing himself hard to finish his high school career on a high note while he waits for those big envelopes to arrive with good news from the colleges that he hopes to attend next year.

It was a heartwarming gift to be able to sit across the table from the confident young man who only yesterday we were cradling in our arms. But there was some serious work to do and we had a blast helping each other out.

I recycled my old digital camera to Ben in exchange for some heavy lifting around the log cabin… we got our chores done and Ben got this rainbow on one of his first shots…

The best part is always seeing the grandchildren reflected in Pat’s eyes…

And the apprentice made sure that the young artiste stayed focused…

Except for lunch breaks…

And Finn’s own personal reward…

It’s all about teaching the eye to see and the heart to understand and the hand to follow that lead… this student gets it and is well on his way…

A note from the Apprentice

Posted on September 10, 2009 by heather • 1 Comment

The cooler weather is perking up the not-so-little-anymore Finnegan…

At six months, her studio apprenticeship is focusing on getting the artiste to stick to a routine. Up at the crack of dawn, feed the pup, climb into the truck and head over to the park for a brisk half hour walk…then home to hose off …

hoser

Then it’s time to get to work…

Her new name this week is Runs With Brushes…

When I catch her and get this one back… I WILL get to work.

early morning mist

Posted on August 31, 2009 by heather • 2 Comments

It’s been stressful in the studio this week and I have been finding solace in my early morning walks with Finnegan.

It’s not safe to walk a pup on our street so I drive 10 minutes over to a local park and we walk for half an hour or so. The farms along the way are close to harvesting corn and sunflowers and the other morning, when we got a particularly early start…and just as we crested a small hill…the sun was a firey re/pink globe hovering over pockets of mist that hung in the valley of the fields below. I have driven that way every day since and the late August morning mist is there but not that spectacular sun.

Here’s a look at yesterday morning’s mist giving way to the sun…

I have a couple other paintings in the works which the Granary Gallery has requested but I am taking a small detour to work on the challenge of recording these peaceful early morning vistas while they are still fresh in my mind and before the snow flies.

As Polly would say…Shake yourself together ! and indeed I have.

Granary Gallery Show

Posted on August 5, 2009 by heather • 2 Comments

Well it was a wild week up on the little island of Martha’s Vineyard… the show was a huge success, there were many new adventures, new vistas to investigate, a little bit of poison ivy, lots of early morning walks on the beach, many evenings of friendship and fine feasts, way too many kudos and not nearly enough sushi…and now that we’re home again I am rejuvinated by the enthusiastic response to the new paintings and ready to dig deeper and take the work to a whole new level.

Here is a gallery with some of the highlights of the trip…

check out our little apprentice as she visits the island for the first time…from the big boat to the bigger ocean she was a trooper… she left the last of her puppy teeth there and is now settling in to her cushy day job here in the studio…

another new adventure was being interviewed for Plum TV which has stations in lots of fancy vacation spots…they followed me around for a day with cameras and two delightful cinematographers…and our friend Barb followed them…very much looking the Annie Lebowitz part…

we had our usual techno breakdown on the night of the opening so there are only a couple photos… but I went in the next day and got some shots of the gallery to give you a feel for the place …just imagine a few hundred people milling about with mixed beverages and kind things to say and you’ve got the rest of the picture…

and then there are a few shots of good times with good friends and some views of the pond house where we whiled away the week that was… and of our visit with Ted to Menemsha and a stop over to Jane Slater’s, my teacup muse, and a chance for Ted and Herbert to catch up on some laughs…then, finally, a tight squeeze on the new ferry back over to America…

I’ll let you check this out while Finnegan and I get back to work…

be well, Heather