An Unexpected Hiatus--And New Artwork

Where have you been, you ask? Just busy with life, I guess. I had no plans to take a break from my blog, but this summer got pretty crazy, and the next thing I know it's October, and I am totally out of the habit of blogging. It's really a tremendous amount of work, especially when there's photography involved. Images have to be sorted, edited and arranged in a way that they fit into whatever story is being told. I would often spend over an hour writing one blog post, and as it turned out, I just didn't have the time or energy to do it these past few months.

My plan was to "take time off" this summer from a hectic show schedule and spend more time doing some things around the house, as well as getting out more, at least on a day to day basis. I dropped my show schedule down to 10 from 17, but I somehow had less time for "me" things than more. I did take two extended trips--my Isle Royale trip in June and a vacation with Lori and Lisa to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in August. Prepping for these trips ate up a lot of time, in addition to the trips themselves. I also spent much time editing Lori's third installment in her Holly Wild mid-grade fiction series, which gobbled up whatever extra time and energy I had. But now the book is printed, my last show for the year is this weekend, and I am out of excuses and ready to jump into some new artwork.

Artwork! Right! I'm supposed to be making art! I only managed four new pieces from July 2012 to July 2013, although in my defense they were all larger, time-consuming pieces. I have way more pieces that I want to do than I have time for, and now after our trip out West I have even more (wild horses!!). I did produce one new piece over the summer, a Ruby-throated hummingbird feeding on a rose of Sharron in our backyard. It was actually a female, but for the added color I turned it into a male:

"Ruby", colored pencil and ink on Bristol board. 7x10, framed to 11x14. $395.00

So it's time to get back on the blogging horse, but rather than go back to June and Isle Royale, I think I'll start with our most recent excursion, a four-day weekend at Tahquamenon Falls in Michigan's U.P., keeping these posts more timely, and save the summer vacations for something to write about this winter.

Upper Falls, Tahquamenon State Park

Yipee!