Days are flying faster than I could imagine. In just a few short weeks I am looking forward to seeing friends up on Washington Island, Wisconsin for a fine dose of historical teaching, good food, fine fellowship, music, and a showing of my artwork.

The wonderful folk on the Island are welcoming and accommodating each year to our small group of re-enactors as we settle on the ground of the Farm Museum around the 4th of July.

This year I will be sharing my paintings with the residents in a one-woman showing at Fiddler’s Green on Washington Island. I will have a fair body of work in the show and plan to have prints available for many of them.

The newest piece, “Sisters” is at the printer right now and will be available in limited edition soon. Exciting stuff!

. . . is to set an extremely vigorous schedule of making art so that I establish a much quicker pace and a much more robust discipline — my version of avoiding the common mistake “aim small, miss small”.

So to begin, I plan to paint one picture each week between now and the end of February. This should help me have some good new works for the Oshkosh show. If I completely succeed, GREAT! If I come anywhere close I will have built some inertia and that is not a bad thing either. The first week started slow but I finished the first painting on Sunday night. I might go back and tweak a couple rough bits but can call it done. Week two’s painting is roughed in and on track.  Happy New Year!

One of the paintings I was commissioned to do for Christmas was a portrait of a beloved pet who had passed. Painting any portrait is both a real joy and a challenge. More than merely capturing a likeness a good portrait should also capture the spirit of the subject. Perhaps it is that challenge that makes portraits of any subject such an enjoying endeavor for me.