Northwoods Series #2

I’m continuing work on my Northwoods Series of paintings focused on the four seasons in scenes along the North Shore. In celebration of the warmer days of summer, the second painting reflects a familiar sighting for folks living or visiting the city of Grand Marais. The painting, Harbor Schooner, 5”x 7” Watercolor on 300 lb. paper, captures this famous boat as it leaves the harbor and sails out on to Lake Superior. 

Northwoods Series

January seems a good time to focus on capturing some of the beautiful scenes of the North Shore in Minnesota. After weeks of below zero temperatures, we are enjoying a couple of days with daytime temps in the teens – and it seems like a heat wave! In fact, it was so lovely today, I found myself just leaving the back door open for little bits of time. Our pets, Maddie and Zach, thought it was wonderful – they could come and go outside at will!  

I’m working on a series of four scenes with the intention of loosely reflecting the four seasons. The first painting, Northwoods Isle, is a 5”x 7” Watercolor on 300 lb. paper, and reminds me of a spring sunset on one of the many lakes flung along the Gunflint Trail.

 

 

Mountain Retreat

Happy New Year! We are living out the song lyrics, “the weather outside is frightful, but the fire so delightful” – with minus 20-degree temps over the past several nights! Last night, though, we bundled up and ventured out to greet the new year. It was about -20 degrees, but there was a beautiful full moon and a night sky filled with bright stars. We have deep snow here and the woods was so quiet, but we could hear the distant ruckus of the Trumpeter swans and Canadian geese on the creek that runs behind our house. The Fox Creek stays open all winter and we are thrilled that about 30 Trumpeters choose to make that their winter home and stay all year round.

This week’s painting, Mountain Retreat, 11”x12” Watercolor on 300 lb. paper, calls the viewer to relax and enjoy the warmth of spring sunshine at a mountain cabin.

 

 

Welcoming Christmas!

It’s a full weekend of getting our hearts ready to celebrate this very special season. Yesterday, we had the wonderful experience of taking part in our first Christmas program of the season. We picked up Mom and had such a fun time seeing our grandsons (her great-grandsons), Haddon and Schaeffer (and Casper, too!), share the story of the first Christmas in Bethlehem and be able to join in singing with all the Rivertree students so many of the favorite Christmas hymns. Tonight, we are traveling back into the cities to see the Nasha Shkola students in their Christmas program. It’s a wonderful story, told both in Russian and English by the students, with all the beautiful Russian costumes and pageantry. And tomorrow morning, we’ll be up early and back on the road to see grandchildren Kollette, Anabelle, Grace and Andrew sing in their church program.

This week’s painting, Cottage Ruin, 5”x7” on 300 lb. Watercolor paper, takes us back to the beautiful rural spaces of the Connemara region of Ireland.

From our family to yours, we wish you a joyous Christmas season and blessings for the New Year.

 

Irish memories

Earlier this fall, we missed a highly anticipated trip to Ireland. At the time, Paul was recovering from a terrible allergic reaction, and we thought it best not to chance being overseas while he was still on antibiotics. It was a fair hit to the finances, but it was mostly just so disappointing – to miss out on seeing new sights in one of our favorite places and then getting to visit with dear friends in Holland.  However, we are hoping to go another time soon.

In the meantime, I’m working to expand my line of Irish cottage cards for market. This week, Summer Reflections, is a 5”x 7” painting on 300 lb. Watercolor paper. The full line of Wild River Art cards is available through the “Legends of the Celts” Irish shop in Hayward, WI.

 

Season of Thanksgiving

It’s another year of Christmas music and movies playing non-stop from November 1^st on. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Hallmark movies, but I’m a huge fan of Thanksgiving, too. It’s a special holiday, a reminder of the good that comes from caring for each other and sharing from our own bounty, and a wonderful time of gathering together with family. It was a joy last night to facetime with three grandsons, a couple of hours away from our house, and see them dancing around their house and wearing their handmade Thanksgiving hats! We are blessed that it will work for 21 of us to gather at Mom’s new place this weekend for an early Thanksgiving. She’s excited about the event, but we’re a “joyously enthusiastic” family (o.k. – we’re loud!!), and now with 10 active cousins under the age of 13 as part of the festivities, it was a wonderful relief to hear from the staff that they are so happy when families choose to gather together within the retirement center. Everyone is bringing something to share, and at our house, the first batch of lefse came off the griddle last night and today we’ll make the apple pies. We wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving!

This week, I’m back to sheep! Sheep have been such an important part of my life. For many years, I raised a small flock of black sheep on the edge of the Red River Valley in North Dakota and was part of an amazing fiber guild. The women in the group shared their talents for all things fiber and faithfully came to gatherings from regions around the Dakotas and southern Manitoba. It was an inspiring time of my life and served to shape much of what I am today. It was such fun to paint, Keeping Watch, 7”x10” Watercolor on 300 lb. paper.

 

 

Snowy Barns

Can’t believe we’re into November already! We’ve had a wonderful fall with lots of outings to see the changing of the trees in this area. Along with spectacular scenery on the North Shore of Minnesota, our own woods here in northwestern Wisconsin put on a spectacular show. We are surrounded by large Maple trees, and they were so pretty this year. I love living in an area that has four definite seasons, and now I’m looking forward to the arrival of snow. We had a brief taste of it this past weekend when 5” of snow fell overnight. It didn’t last long, but with family here for a visit, it was such fun us to spend time building snowmen and enjoying a campfire in the snow.

And I’m beginning to think of upcoming holiday celebrations. This week’s painting, Snowy Barns 8”x10” on 300 lb. Watercolor paper, reminds me of one of my favorite activities – walking through a quiet woods and watching snow fall on a rural farm scene.