I’m trying to get back on track here. It takes awhile! Christmas usually commands my attention for a few weeks of the month – at least. We had a nice Christmas day – snow on the ground, family home and dinner with friends. The next day we all went to the pond to go skating – girls, boyfriends, dogs…how great to be able to do that!

This week I’m working on a few pieces for the Settlers West Miniature Show in Tucson in February. In a day or two I’ll show you the first piece. Painting always amazes me.  The first of these pieces went really well and easily, and is almost done. The second has not gone so smoothly. You’d think that once you learned to do something it would always stick with you, like riding a bike, but that doesn’t necessarily apply in the world of painting! Tomorrow is another day though, so we’ll see.

I thought I would do a blog entry – anything to put off going outside to feed. It has been nasty and COLD this week. I’ve spent a lot of time outdoors feeding, shoveling and fixing. That is so much easier here in the summer, as long as you’re watching for rattlesnakes!

My first image is testimony to why I’m still sitting at the computer…our bunkhouse in the cold this week. The next are pieces from the Gallery Russia in Scottsdale. I always try to get to the Main Street galleries when I’m there, as I was a few weeks ago. The nude is a painting by a Russian artist,  Laimodot Murnick from the 50’s. I am amazed by the color! The next piece is called “The Pickers” and is by Maija Eliase, also from the 50’s. The landscape is called “Snow in the Country”, by Valery Shmatko, 2002. These pieces impress me so, as do many of the classical Russian impressionist works. There is so much texture, vibrance and gutsy brushwork. These are, in my opinion, some great painters!

Hello. I am just in the process of moving my blog to this location from my old blogspot address. Here, you may subscribe (simply, I hope) to receive my new blog posts at your email address. See the Subscribe button under my picture.

I am just back from Phoenix, where it was incredibly HOT, and am now regrouping. I am remembering that I never showed you our ponds, only the skull we found when developing the first one. So – here is the middle pond in our west field. It is now finally turning green here (after 30″ of snow at the end of April and a little more today!)

I should say I’ve been painting this week, but I haven’t. It is spring on the ranch and the spring projects are in full swing. We’ve developed some ponds in the west field that were just seeps – enough muddy water to sort of satisfy at least 65 pair, but in just damming up that area, we now have 3 beautiful ponds! The third one was put in last fall, and I’ve been seeding it the last few days. There are 2 pair of Canadian geese thinking about nesting there, and a lot of ducks using the ponds as stop overs. Lot’s of birds. It’s really wonderful! I wanted to put up something that shows you this area, so I reworked a photo (just a little!) of an old bison skull we found buried about 8′ down when we were excavating the first pond. There’s much evidence that the bison used to roam here years ago. A painting of this? Maybe.

Christmas is past us. We had a great day. I hope you did as well. I do have to say that I am really tired of the WEATHER here! I have spent much of the last few weeks dealing with it. Today I tried to get to town (our own ranch road / trail is 2 miles long and not maintained.) I made it half way out before really burying the truck in a deep snow drift. I spent 2 1/2 hours shoveling to get out. The wind at times was blowing so hard that it blew snow back in the tracks as fast as I could shovel. I thought I was dressed well. I wasn’t. I cannot tell you how important survival gear can be at times during a Montana winter! I was cold and wet and had to keep getting back in the truck to warm up. There was no way I could have walked home without becoming hypothermic. But – I did it – I shoveled out about 25′ on either side of the truck and finally backed out of there. We’ll be snowed in for a few days, that’s for sure. At least I’m not trying to go anywhere! These pictures were taken yesterday, the day after Christmas at our place. It was truly beautiful – until the wind started blowing, as it always does here on the east side of the Divide!