garden Archives - Page 6 of 7

Keeping me sane…

Posted on May 14, 2010 by heather • 1 Comment

This time of year is always stressful. The big show of the year, summer show at the Granary Gallery, is now only weeks away and I’m typically working extra long days to finish paintings, haul them up to the photographer, and back and forth to the frame shop to select framing.

The usual stress releasers, aka therapy outlets such as tending to the gardens and sitting at the spinning wheel or taking long hikes with the dog, are my favorite detours this time of year.

But this year is different. The challenges of this last winter have set me back almost two months in the painting schedule and the spring has brought a whole new set of complications. The demands on my time away from the easel have upped the ante in the stress department and I’ve gone into emergency painting mode.

Finnegan has been taking some of the slack by pulling out the tallest of the weeds, the spinning wheel sits idle and the new fleece is safely stored in a pillowcase and the weather has turned much cooler and rainy in the last week which isn’t good spinning weather so that helps, and Pat has stepped in to take Finn for some play time each day and the yearling pup is running like a champ on her newly recovered elbows… so all is being looked after and it is more than ever a team effort here in the studio.

I know of many other artists who are scrambling these days to get ready for shows… and I was just wondering how you guys stay sane ?

Pat will tell you I’m not doing a very good job of that right now… and her oft told joke that she has me chained to the easel…well I’ve better get back to rattling them chains before she notices I’m at the computer…

The clock doth tick .

Happy EARTH DAY !

Posted on April 22, 2010 by heather

Go play outside…

and DIG IT.

I will sleep much better tonight…

Posted on April 14, 2010 by heather

Thanks to our friend Susan who suggested we try calling the electric company to see if they would come and take down the 100 foot tall fir tree that was threatening to topple onto their wires that traverse the studio yard. I have been fretting about this tree for a couple years and this winter it began to take on a lean that was terrifying. The roots were lifting out of the ground and I layed awake through the last two nor’easters listening for a crash.

So I called, Micky came out the next morning and said yep we’ll treat it as a storm damage so we don’t have to pay for it and she actually thanked me for calling them. This morning the trucks showed up with a crew of happy hard working guys who quickly and professionally took that baby down…. AND they hauled the wood to the corner of the yard for us AND they raked and cleaned up ! I am impressed and grateful.

Pat and Finn and I watched the show with awe and when they left we sighed a big relief and crossed that chore right off the big list. Now we’re taking suggestions as to what nice shade tree we can plant there …

Here’s a slide show of the tree felling adventure… PS- after a few days I removed the slide show because it was causing the blog to open very slowly…

Zink family to the rescue…

Posted on April 10, 2010 by heather

One small step for our studio garden….one giant THANK YOU !!! to the Zink family who showed up in force yesterday to help haul two truckloads of dirt to the new raised beds out back.

These guys really know the meaning of hard work and humor and friendship and kindness. Saren, Chuck, Dana, Jim, Jake and Ryan….we are so grateful to you for making a monumental chore into an evening of fun and good company.

Here’s a little slideshow of the dirt moving party… and the snap-your-fingers-progress that has these new beds ready for planting way ahead of schedule…and a much appreciated random act of kindness… [slideshow]

It’s my birthday…

Posted on April 5, 2010 by heather • 1 Comment

and I’m taking the whole day off… from painting that is…

the easel chair is empty…

The daffodils are in bloom…

Finnegan, Pat and I have taken the first walk in the park of the season…

and there is a stack of wood in the driveway that wants to become new garden beds…

and the promise of sushi when the sun begins to set…

a fine day to turn 52.

No stopping it now…

Posted on March 22, 2010 by heather • 2 Comments

Spring is here and the studio is hopping…

Week three and I finally got a decent nights’ sleep and the long slow climb out of pneumonia is trending upward…

Creeping out of that fog it feels like the world has spun into high gear and I am a bit dazed. After the long cold months of dreaming my way through the winter… every corner of the studio has a new project calling…in some cases screaming…at me.

The new printer has arrived and we are preparing to launch the sale of prints published in our own studio and sold exclusively on our website next week. Emails back and forth with Ross, the webmaster…and testing of the new machine…and producing an announcement to be mailed out have the office hopping…

Outside the next phase of construction is underway in the studio garden… we’re going greener with some new raised beds in which to plant veggies to replenish our weakened immune systems…

Back inside the easel has this year’s mega panel endeavor waiting patiently for my energy level to return to normal. The panel is ambitious and I can’t wait to tackle the intense detail…so far it’s been weeks of building up the ground work interrupted by weeks of crawling back to bed…today for the first time I feel that tide turning.

And then last week my share of the Jupiter Moon Farm fall shearing arrived… this time I ordered raw fleece rather than the processed yarn. It is glorious and I won’t have to wait now until the May Sheep and Wool Festival to sit and spin my cares away. I am going to try and use this as a great big carrot to lead me back to the easel and only after a good days work of painting…allow myself to sit at the spinning wheel and let the healing fibers fly.

Through it all, right at my side, has been my little apprentice…

Finnegan is the healthiest of the bunch around here. She has both of her legs back under her now and is rehabbing nicely. She is more than ready to run with the big dogs again but it will be 6 more weeks or so of restricted exercise before she can really let loose. While I was writing this blog she decided that box of fleece left on the floor in the bathroom should be rearranged… the trail leads through the kitchen, down the hall, and right to my easel chair…

I get the message…back to work !

Stay tuned for updates on all these projects and more… H

Thinking ahead…

Posted on March 5, 2010 by heather • 3 Comments

The call came in at 3:30am from the hard working vet that Finn was out of surgery and doing well. I had caved in at midnight so it was early this morning that I got the message. Now my flu ravaged body may still be weary but my spirits are high. By this time next week all members of my little family should be off of antibiotics and we can say good riddance to displaysed elbows and rattling pneumonic lungs and maybe even to … snow ???

I’ve got to pass along our thanks to all of you who have been checking in and offering help and that all important compassionate ear of support… you will never know how those words and gestures of kindness reach in and lift us up.

One person who has done some heavy lifting in that department is our friend Saren. She has talked me down off of many a ledge especially with dear Finnegan’s trials. I was checking in with her early this morning and felt like a corner has been turned. The sun is shining, there is a definite warming in the air, and when I took the time to look I found the first signs of spring in the studio yard…

Can I get a witness ???

Through the darkest days of this long hard winter I’ve been taking myself to one of the happiest and most anticipated events of my year…the Sheep and Wool Festival !

The warm sunny first weekend in May when the Howard County Fairgrounds fill up with color and fiber and everything sheep. The crowd is full of my kind of people…old back to nature hippies who dress in sensible clothes and parade their knitted and woven creations and scour through the straw strewn farm shed stall to replenish their supplies of yarn and fleece and needles and sheep dip, etc.

There are many happy memories there for us and I’m so excitedly looking forward to making that trip this year…we may go both days !

My spinning wheel waits behind the snow shovel…

And I’ve got one great big panel up on the easel that needs to be finished before then…

But by golly I can feel it getting closer…I am dreaming now of coming home with a nice bag of fleece in the truck and oiling up the old wheel and sitting on the warm sunny porch with Finnegan stealing bits of wool and running down the walkway with it flying up over her shoulders in triumph…

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.

The fence is finished and the roses are a-bloom.

Posted on June 1, 2009 by heather • 2 Comments

Ok so this blog is getting far and away from the art related content which is its focus… but I am trying to keep it real. If an artist is painting from her soul then she brings to the easel every part and corner and adventure of the surrounding world. If each sense is alive then they are constantly recording and… on a good day…remembering.

Painting from ones authentic self, nod to Joseph Campbell, is my goal. Woven through the early days of this year have been threads of death, dying, grief and mourning, anticipation, joyous birth, heart-pounding happiness, soul searching love and ab-stretching laughter. I’m expanding the dialogue here to share some of this life that is lived behind my easel. You will be the judge as to whether or not the common threads make their way into the paintings.

In that light, here are some photo updates and some things that fall into the category of … musings…

Finnegan's fence — Teaching her to spell her name

claiming clamshell — Just wait until we get to the beach !

Painting Finished !!!… and Finnegan’s fence progresses

Posted on May 21, 2009 by heather • 1 Comment

’tis DONE !!! … though I’m going to have to wait for the photographer to do his magic in order to get a good reproduction, here is proof that the panel is off the easel and I am moving on…

The last few days involved cleaning up the detail on the remaining boats and making sure all the shadows were correct, then glazing in several more layers of water and reflections. Varnish will make a huge difference with a painting with this much contrast. The van dyke brown and olive green dark dry with a dull matte sheen and all subtleties within those dark areas are lost until the varnish pops them out. Imagine a beach rock which is transformed from a dull grey when first you pick it up on a hot and dry summer beach…and then comes alive with color as you let an ocean wave wash over it.

With that major project completed…and before I begin the whirlwind effort to paint the rest of the works for the July show…I treated myself to a rare morning of carving. In the midst of the pile of sticks, which Finnegan and I have been collecting each morning for her fence, I found a honeysuckle branch that decided it would rather be a walking stick. The wood is wonderful to work with. A slow growing hardwood that has a beautiful heartwood of purples and reds. Finn worked on removing the bark while I whittled away at the knot holes and we created a right fine pile of shavings…

It does my soul good to spend a morning listening to the birds, watching my sweet puppy play with her new bone, and working with wood.

We’re making good progress on the fence as well but were up too early to start hammering so here are some shots of yesterday’s work…we were running out of fallen branches so decided to get some fresh meat and trim out the honeysuckle and take down a couple saplings that were too close to the power lines.

After all that work…it was time for a break…

and then over to the fence to say hello to Jed and make sure Zola doesn’t miss her school bus !

Now… back to work !