I love the hustle and bustle of spring.  It's such a busy time of year here in northern Ontario, with the plants are coming out of their winter dormancy and sprouting up as fast as they can, gardens going in as early as possible - but not too early or the frost will kill the tender plants.  The birds are building nests, hoping to raise their young in time for them to be able to fly south in a few short months.

It's been busy in the studio, too!  So much has been happening I hardly know where t...
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While walking up to my studio yesterday, I saw my first flock of geese flying north.  There have been robin and killdeer sightings, too, but not yet by me.  These are fairly good indicators that spring is truly on its way, although it is not unusual to see robins looking for worms under the snow.

Getting back into my studio to work on the backlog of portrait commissions and other projects feels wonderful.  Even though I was fretting the whole time I was away, thinking about all the work I had ...
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Martha, over at An Artist's Journal, has issued a Before and After Challenge.  The Challenge involves showing photos of a painting which one has reworked into something different.

I've been doing that for a few months now with some of the paintings with which I am not completely happy.

Here is one of them:


This was originally titled "Where the Eagles Fly" and was created for the Biker's Reunion Cancer Fundraiser in which I participated last year.  I finished this on a tight deadline, and was nev...
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I've been falling behind with posting my Thing a Week Jewellery Challenge efforts, so here are a couple of more "Things" for you to see.
 
Week 7:  Another eco-friendly bracelet created from vintage copper wire.  This one is very substantial, simple and rustic.


And something a bit different for Week 8:  An adjustable leather bracelet.  Created from leather scraps that were given to me, and a large leather piece with an embossed horse-head which I discovered in a box of odds and ends left over fr...
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