My opportunities for exhibiting paintings aren't too often these days, but I got the chance to put up paintings at the Bluegrass on the Harpeth Festival in July. I got my paints out and painted a fellow artist doing portraits. Then I did a pastel of a young man. Not only was this all very stimulating, but I was also pleasantly surprised to sell a painting to a lady from Vermont. "Golden Sunset" (6"x8") was painted from Pull Tight Hill, a spot near my home. The day that I painted the picture, I realized when I got to my painting spot that I had forgotten my palette. So, I made do with a piece of cardboard and used a palette knife for most of the painting. It was a good enough painting to impress a collector! So, the lesson here is to be flexible in your circumstances and let the creativity flow.

May 25th and 26th I am participating in the TN Fiber Festival in Dickson, TN. Along with presenting an Angora workshop about raising Angora rabbits and spinning the wool, I will have a booth and will have my bunnies and rovings and yarns for sale. I thought that I would post photos of the bunnies I will have available then.

Here is Elaine's December litter: Chinchilla buck, fawn doe and chestnut doe.

Here is Esther's December litter: black buck and chinchilla doe (she has been clipped some)

Here is Esther's March 20th Litter. opal buck and blue buck:

Here is Elaine's April 5th litter. a white buck, copper agouti doe, chestnut doe, and a cream doe. They would not be still!

I decided to employ the chickens and rabbits to work the garden. It was very successful. Those chicken feet are natural scratchers. I kept them where I wanted them with the net fencing- very handy. The bunnies enjoyed the outing. The result will be a litter of bunnies next week!

We Have a Finalist...

Recently, I entered the Richeson 75 online pastels competition. It was very pleasantly surprising to find out that my entry, "Good Morning Hackberry," is a finalist. Final results will be announced in May. But, just being a finalist in a national competition is an honor in itself.

This painting simply happened very easily. I wish they were all like that. This is the Hackberry tree on the hill that I see every day on my way to take care of the animals. I caught it in a nice morning light. By the way, I like to talk to the animals and plants; so it was natural to say "Good Morning!" to a tree.

Red Rabbits

Did you think I was kidding? Yes, there are red rabbits. Red being deeper than a fawn color. It is a rare color. Red angora wool is beautiful. This is Elaine just before I sheared her.

New Wall Hanging

I have just made a new felted wool wall hanging. The inspiration for it is the prodigal son. I love the sculptural quality of the felted wool. I wet-felted the initial picture with different colored batts of wool. Then I needle-felted and stitched to refine and define the picture. I sewed a border and a backing to it, and then prepared a wooden rod to hang it on.
I have just won first place fiber in the juried fine art show at the Williamson County Fair!

Sheep go to the city

I was asked to bring a sheep to a vacation Bible school in Nashville this week. I chose Meadow, a yearling ewe that is friendly to go. After putting the large dog crate in the car, which has to be taken apart to get it in, I drove to the city with baa-ing in my ear the whole way.
This was not the usual VBS. The church is ministering to Bantu children, whose parents came from Somalia and now live in the poorer part of town. The children are from Muslim families and the church does not yet speak to them about Jesus, only about God. They tell them stories about sheep and shepherds and play shepherd games. I shared with them from the shepherd's perspective about keeping the sheep safe from the coyotes, shearing, and using the wool to make yarn. I had the sheep that they could actually see and put their hands on; and Meadow was a trooper. One little boy was especially interested in all parts of the sheep. Many of the little girls were afraid of the sheep. They would jump, that would startle poor Meadow and she would jump; and the girls would fall on the ground laughing. Many of them asked if the sheep would bite!

This girl loved Meadow and did not want to stop hugging her.