For the month of April I had the honor of being the featured artist at the Gilmer Arts Gallery in Ellijay, GA. I had around 30 paintings on display. The show is over now, but the day before it was removed (because I do like to procrastinate) I went over to the gallery and made a video. If you are interested in seeing it, please click on the video below. 

Several years ago my husband and I made the decision to move to the country. We were living in the suburbs of Atlanta, so we sold our house, and after months of searching, we found property we love in the north Georgia mountains. Almost thirteen acres of land with a tiny cabin on it, in the middle of now where. It had a small rundown cabin on it that we tore down to built a bigger new cabin, which, believe me, is still a work in progress. Much of the work we did ourselves so it was truly a labor of love. And through the many trials and frustrations we faced, we've lived here for a year and a half now, we haven't regretted our decision for a minute.

I was excited to live in the country many reasons, but one thing that has been unexpected was how much more inspired I am to create art. Maybe it's this happier, calmer life that makes me inspired to paint more, or maybe it's being surrounded by so much beauty, I don't know, but I do find myself painting more. And my subject matter has changed too. I guess that's to be expected, I'm painting more of the scenes around me, also spending much more of my time painting plein air. I've have a farm nearby that let's me paint their whenever I'd like. Definitely a bonus. 

The painting above is actually one that I painted last year during the Blue Ridge Paint Out. The scene is much like many of the places I see near me when I'm out and about. This one is a wedding venue that I've painted at a couple of times, I love this place. When I painted this 8x10  there was a heavy mist on the top of the mountains, I set up my easel as fast as humanly possible to try and capture the scene before the mist left. I've also painted a larger painting of this scene in my studio. There are typically cows roaming near the creek, but they left before I could get them in. Maybe next time you beautiful cows!

I started this painting of Missy, my mother-in-laws dog, about a year ago, I set it aside to work on other projects, but after looking at it from time to time in my stack of "still working on" paintings, I decided I needed to finish it. My mother-in-law loved this dog. Missy passed away a couple of years ago, but she was such a comfort my mother-in-law when her husband passed away over four years ago, I decided to paint this painting for her. I took the reference photo of Missy when we were visiting my mother-in-law a couple of years ago, and I loved the backlit lighting. There was a large window behind her and the look on her face seemed to be saying, "I look sweet and innocent now, but I'm just plotting what else I can get into." She was a sweet dog, but also had a mischievous side to her, that was what I was trying to capture in this portrait of Missy.