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.