Spring is here!

This week, the first peeper emerged calling for a mate from across the road. After a few days the chorus joined in announcing that Spring had arrived at last. Heavy rainstorms had washed away the two plus feet of snow that weighed us down only weeks ago, and snowdrops and the earliest of our croci bloomed to our delight. Today, my camera didn't cooperate when I tried to take a photo of them and our tiny Tete a Tete jonquils. So, here instead is a picture of Daffodil Hill taken around this time last year blooming about a week earlier than it will this year. We naturalized daffodils in our backyard many years ago so each bulb now produces more than a dozen flowers, enough for bouquets to share. When they're blooming I'm reminded of a favorite poem from childhood which begins:
I wondered lonely as a cloud
that floats on high o'er vale and hill,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
a host of golden daffodils
beside the lake beneath the trees
fluttering and dancing in the breeze
( I hope my memory serves me well here).

There's so much to do out there it's hard to decide which chore gets top priority. Yesterday, I tackled the bramble and weed trees that are crowding around our two peach trees. I suppose the practical thing to do is to make a To Do list. Let's see, where do I begin.......

Blue skies

What a beautiful weekend! Higher temperatures are melting the 20+ inches of snow we received last week. Hardy shoots of snowdrops have finally popped up and the earliest variety of croci are beginning to bloom. Does every winter that passes seem longer than the last or has it been just this winter? This weekend it's been lovely to walk Sparky, our Beagle Lab mix ( called a Blab by his vet), without concern about slippery patches. Just a short week ago, it looked like this outside.

Though it's hard to stay indoors on such a sunny day, I intend to tidy up my studio. On second thought, maybe I'll just wait til the sun goes down. My studio has files jammed with book and licensing illustrations, as you can see in this photo taken when it was a bit less cluttered. Yes, this is how it looks at it's best. Not visible is the wall of books and the back wall of closets. I'm afraid that if I had twice the space it would still get cluttered. It's so tempting to add books. A recent purchase is Jerry Pinkney's The Lion & The Mouse. Not surprisingly, it's beautiful and the story is told in a new and interesting way. No surprise there, either.

When tragedy strikes

Everything came to a stop this week when a couple of weather systems collided and a heavy snowstorm settled over our heads. After two days, more than twenty inches of snow was deposited. My mood remained upbeat because we didn't lose power. It'd have been another story had it been otherwise, that's for sure.

As the snow fell, I decided to use my time indoors to devote to a new fairy image, Valentine Gift.

I painted peacefully until the news of the devastating earthquake in Chile brought everything to a stop again. What a helpless feeling comes over us when we hear of yet another horrible event in the world. Trying to go on with our normal activities seems almost disrespectful. I hesitated to continue my little picture. Why try to paint something pretty?  Then, I remembered a quote of Renoir: " Why shouldn't art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world".

 So, here is Valentine Gift at early and final stages ( unless a look later in the week prompts me to go into it again)

Well, imagine this. A blog of my very own. Welcome one and all.

What kept me from blogging previously is the feeling I haven't much to say and little time in which to say it. However, after visiting blogs of people who I'm sure are busier than me, I decided it was time to get started, and will not let any concerns about not having much to say get in the way. So often, the most rewarding experiences to come my way have happened after making a leap of faith. So, why not plunge into blogging and see what happens?

Most of the blogs I read are those of other illustrators and designers. What interests me most is seeing them in their environment, reading their thoughts and seeing the things which generate new art. It's inspiring. Blogs may have posts about many different subjects but for artists they are all ingredients waiting to be used in this piece or the next one.

Here's my second art instruction book, Enchanting Elves. which came out last summer. One of the joys of illustrating and writing it was it made me focus in ways I never had before and led to more satisfying results than before. Hopefully, writing this blog will do the same.