New Pastel Paintings

With the unusual amount of snow we have had here in Tennessee, I have gotten some nice references for paintings. I hope you enjoy these.

Spinner's Retreat

The Natchez Trace Wilderness Park was the location of a spinner's retreat last weekend. What is that??!! For those of us who are crazy about wool, yarn, spinning, and fiber animals, it was a time to get together and share, eat, learn new techniques, and dye wool. It was very enjoyable as we made new friends and caught up with old ones. I even got to play my pennywhistle with Magda, (who is from Holland and plays the accordian) and Anna, who plays the fiddle. Sharing our knowledge about our techniques and lifestyles is important. Galyna from the Ukraine shared that in her country, people have forgotten what a spinning wheel looks like. They were not encouraged to keep the skills and crafts alive and people are forgetting how to do them. She tells us how happy she is here in this country because she is able to do all these things.

With the cold, snowy weather we had, I did two things: I painted indoors and took photos outside. I purchased the tulips and painted them before they drooped too much. I guess that's what tulips do in a vase.

I also took advantage of the unusual snow here and took oodles of photos. This pastel was done from one I took of the horses covered in snow.