Our pretty Guinevere, definitely a Momma's girl

My little Estrallita, I have a hard time photographing her as she is always coming right up to me!

Mirabelle, who is taking after her Auntie Sapphy, meaning she is LARGE

All the crias are born for the year. We thought that Tick Tock was pregnant, but she ended up not. Which was good because by the time we figured that out, she was over 390 days if she was indeed pregnant. So we have all been able to breath easy again and turn our thoughts to processing all those fleeces we just finished shearing. We need to get everything done pronto to be ready for all the fall Sheep & Wools and Stitches East.

Chris & I were dreading the task of skirting and picking over 70 fleeces (we still have last year’s to do). A thread came up on my pygora chat list about dehairing pygora which led to a member posting about her ‘fleece blowing box’ where she cleans out her fleeces with a blower. I was intrigued! We got pictures and this past weekend, Greg built our very own ‘fleece blowing box’ with a little help from me & Chris. He really wanted me to post pictures of his masterpiece which I have yet to try out since the outside temps are around 100 degrees and the humidity is making it feel even hotter. I can’t stand this weather and don’t do well outside so the debut attempt at cleaning will have to wait until the heat wave breaks.

Until then, here is the box!

Greg's fleece blowing box, the inaugural run will be this weekend

Mirabelle has those gorgeous, classic llama 'banana' ears! We think she is quite a looker.

Mirabell - 4 hours old!

I can’t believe I haven’t posted in so long, but then again, I can believe it. After finishing all the Italy paintings and getting all my deadlines for printed material done,  I had a painting and an article to write by May 1st…

Fritillaria-melagris, Kelly Leahy Radding ©2010, egg tempera on panel

we had 4 fiber festivals to attend, with all the yarn dyeing and fiber preparing necessary to have enough product,

Yarns drying on the rack...

And two classes to prepare for! Currently I am teaching a Birds in Botanicals class for the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass. We are having a lot of fun!

Last but not least, we have had one cria born so far. Mirabell, daughter of Aurora and granddaughter of our farm favorite, Joya. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Cleo’s daughter, Harmony after only aroun 12 hours of life. Harmony had multiple birth defects that she would not be able to overcome. We are waiting on NiNi & Tick Tock (both at 374 days of gestation today) and our full Argentine Isobel’s first cria. This will be the first full Argentine llama born on our farm.

Other news… I got into the 201o Birds in Art show at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin. This is a huge deal for me. I will be exhibiting alongside some of my wildlife art heros, Carl Brenders, Chris Bacon, John Busby to name only a few! I am so excited to be a part of this show. I will be going to the opening weekend where I will be participating in painting demonstrations along with the festivities.

Our show ‘Symphonies of Italy’ is now open at the Royal Gallery in Providence, RI until July 25th with our opening reception on Thursday, June 17, from 5pm to 9pm.

Now I have to get back to the painting table to finish a painting for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium. I will post scans of work-in-progress!

Last Friday I took a well-needed break from painting and accompanied my friend Deedee and her german shepherd, Taz to Shelburne, Massachusetts. Deedee & I have been best friends since we were babies and we have always love road trips together. So when she asked if I wanted to come with them, I said sure! I was ready to get out of the house and away from my paintings!

We were going to Eddie’s Wheels/Help for Handicapped Pets where Taz was picking up his own custom-fitted wheels!

Taz all fitted up into his new cart

Taz has had a few surgeries for issues in his lower spinal cord and is still recovering from them. There is a chance that his condition could be degenerative and that he will not regain the full use of his hind legs but as you can see, I don’t think that will bother Taz at all.

Taz taking Deedee for a walk/run!

I think Taz said to his Mom, what took you so long to get me my new wheels!

Taz gets a "You're Welcome" from his Mom

Taz & Deedee obviously have a great mutual love for one another and Taz is demonstrating the courage of his breed. To Taz: we wish you a long and happy life. To Deedee & Lou: we wish you many years of enjoying the love and courage of your friend, Taz.

Monica's Persimmons & Scarce Swallowtail Butterfly, ©2010 Kelly Leahy Radding

While I was drawing the study of the olive branch in Monica’s Orchard, this butterfly ‘flew by’ me. I dropped my pad & pencil, grabbed my camera and followed the butterfly. It went to a flowering hedge where I took some photos, and then flew to a neighboring tree.  A large tree, laden with this creamy yellowy -orangey -greenish fruit. Some of the fruit had ripened and fallen, splatting on the ground. Behind the tree was a little curving stone staircase that led to a quiet, private nook in the garden. It is a picture I tucked away into my mind’s eye and my memory. When it came time to choose the subject for my final botanical painting, I was perusing my photographs. When I came to the pictures of the tree and its fruit I knew I had found my subject. And of course I had to include the butterfly that led me there.

The harder part was figuring out just what the tree was! The telling clue was the unique sepals attached to the fruit. Where had I seen that before? I know, in the ‘Fruiti’ botanical art book I bought at the Uffizi book shop. Sure enough, it was a Diospyros variety, which by the way means “the fruit of gods” in ancient Greek. I don’t know about that, as I have never actually eaten a persimmon, but I’ll take their word for it. They sure looked luscious enough to be a fruit the gods would like!

I took a break in the middle of working on this painting to finish a painting I had started of the heirloom apple ‘Granniwinkle’ so that I could enter it into our ASBA/New York Horticultural Society show, along with the painting I did at the beginning of the year of the heirloom shell beans.

Here is the finished painting -

heirloom apple 'Granniwinkle', ©2010 Kelly Leahy Radding

Palmerino Grapes @2010 Kelly Leahy Radding

Villa La Pietra Terracottas ©2010 Kelly Leahy Radding

Five down and one more to go… I have 5 days left to finish my final painting for Italy. The grapes were really fun, but I think I had more fun painting the iconic grape leaf. When I have a chance to breath next week I will put together a slideshow of the steps on the grape painting.

I finished the egg tempera painting Villa La Pietra Terracottas yesterday. As I was putting the shadow layer on the background, I somehow got some water on the palm of my hand and accidentally swiped it across the pot. I had already finished the pot. I remember sorta feeling like I had some water on my hand. I was working on the upper lighter wall just to the right of the pot. I picked up my hand and gasped. An entire swath of paint had been wiped off the whole pot and into the wall area. I couldn’t catch my breath! When this happens on a botanical and stuff gets into the clean background, well, let’s just say that is a bit of a disaster. Don’t ask me about the time I was working furiously to finish a deadline piece, and when answering a question from my husband, the throat lozenge I had been sucking on due to a cold, fell out and landed with a big ‘plop’ onto my painting. Suffice it to say, I salvaged it to the best of my abilities but worked well into the night to do so.

What a pleasant surprise to be working on an egg tempera on panel. The kind of painting that just takes re-working and more layers, and, voila, no more disaster! Although due to having to rework the painting, I got a later start on my final painting.

This week’s agenda is: finishing my final painting (I am keeping it a surprise and will post when it is done) and hopefully (!!) finishing a painting of an heirloom Granniwinkle apple for the ASBA/New York Horticultural Society Show, submissions due 3/26. I am submitting my heirloom shell bean painting but would like to have two entries if possible. The apple is at least a small painting!

Heirloom Granniwinkle Apple on vellum

I have to say, that I am happy to be painting so much but will be happy to have a little break; somewhere along the line I have to shear goats, sort through fleeces, get them to the mill and dye lots of yarn for all the spring Sheep & Wool Festivals I will be attending. Starting with the Connecticut Sheep & Wool April 24th and ending with the Maine Fiber Frolic June 5th & 6th with two others in-between!

This painting marks my halfway point of 6 paintings for our Italy show. I was supposed to have everything done by 3/18 but got a week’s reprieve – they are now due 3/25. It’s dangerous to give me even just a week more time! But I am confident now that I will make it. Here is where I am on my next botanical, the grapes from Villa Palmerino, one day before the harvest.

Things are starting to flesh out...

I had to leave the grapes to go work on the rest of the painting so that know where to balance the shadow detail on the grapes. I need to finish the leaf so that I know how much of the vine I need to fully paint to balance my composition. It’s all about balance in this painting; this is a symmetrical painting in my mind so I want all parts to be harmonious. This means the color palette, the composition and the shadow/highlight detail all need to be in ‘balance’. Just what that means might be different for everyone but as I work on this painting, you will be able to see what it means to me.

Here is my last egg tempera panel that I started in Italy. I sat in the beautiful sunshine and finally attempted to capture that elusive “Florence yellow” that so many of the buildings are covered with. There were a lot of conversations between all the artists as to what colors they were using to try and re-create that particular shade of yellow-orange. And there were as many different combinations as there were conversations!

Can I capture that elusive "Florence yellow" of the building?

I received the following comment yesterday;

You have to express more your opinion to attract more readers, because just a video or plain text without any personal approach is not that valuable. But it is just form my point of view.

It is most likely spam, but it caught my attention. I beg to differ with it’s stated opinion as everything I post is my own personal approach to painting, farming and yarns. I believe I do express my own opinion, however, I also believe the saying that a ‘picture is worth a thousand words”. I think the question I get asked most as an artist is “how do you do that, how do you paint?”. Showing works-in-progress is about the best way I can think of to illustrate how I work. My work is a visual example of my ‘opinions’!

I will keep updating as I work on these two paintings! I am thinking of keeping my last botanical painting a surprise. I am thinking I will post it when I am done. I am really excited about working on that one, which is good as I need to get it done FAST!

Three generations of ladies enjoying the sunshine!

Spring has sprung at TuckerWoods Farm! Our resident cardinal is wooing his lady friend starting promptly at 6:30am from the tree next to our bedroom window, our resident Carolina wrens are ‘witchity, witchity, witchity-ing’ all over the place and the goats are starting to blow their fleeces. The latter being most unfortunate timing as I am too busy with painting deadlines to stop and start shearing. I am keeping my fingers crossed the fleeces stay relatively okay until I can get them off after my deadlines end 3/25 for this month anyway. The above picture is three generations of goats enjoying the late afternoon sun on a warm 50 degree day this past Sunday. (Starting at far right going clockwise): Lacey, Lacey’s daughter Rosalee, Pearl’s daughter Bianca, and Pearl, Lacey’s daughter. Can you see the family resemblance?!!

On an even “Springier” note; yesterday I met my sisters & niece for our now annual Spring pilgrimage to Smith College for their Spring Bulb Show. All I can say, is “OH, MY GOD!”, which is about what you hear everyone say as soon as they walk in the door to the first greenhouse! Here is a gallery of pics I took for your enjoyment, but I highly encourage you to try and make it there yourself. It really is a magical breath of spring air! We then went to 40 Green Street for lunch, we highly recommend their cider donuts; they tasted just like the ones we used to get as kids during fall cider season. I can also vouch for the Tarte Normande!  And what day in Northampton would be complete without a yarnie trip to WEBS?! We all found a little something to come home with. I managed to get out the door without yarn, but how could I resist the TURQUOISE Namaste Hermosa bag. I must confess I am a bona fide BIG BAG addict. I heartily agree with the reviewer of the link I provided: as a knitter and a “I must have everything with me including a sketch pad” kinda girl, this bag could be just about perfect!

Enjoy! Oh, by the way, I found out last Friday that I have made it into the First Annual ‘Birds in Their Habitat’ Juried Exhibition and Sale to be held Oct 1-3 at the Fairfield, CT Audubon Society. I am very excited about this show; I guess I will be painting lots of birds this summer.

[View with PicLens]

all photos ©2010 Kelly Leahy Radding

Sunning in the Backyard, ©Kelly Leahy Radding 2010, egg tempera on panel

I was trying to post more than once a week, but when the deadlines are looming and the stress is building over making the deadlines, sitting at the computer is tough!

Here is the progress over the last week or so. I took a painting hiatus to work on the catalog for our New England Society of Botanical Artists  (NESBA) 2010 Boston Flower and Garden Show. I got the test book uploaded to Blurb.com on  3/2 and I am eagerly awaiting its arrival so that I can proof, make any changes, and then order the rest! After a one year absence, the Boston Flower Show is back! I will be sitting our NESBA booth on the afternoon of 3/25; I will also be demonstrating my technique of watercolor on vellum. This will be my first time helping at the Show and I am looking forward to it! If you can, stop by, it is sure to give you a break from the winter weather and a big huge case of Spring Fever. My painting of heirloom shell beans was done for this show. 

After getting that deadline done, I had to focus back on Italy! I am almost done with the 2nd of 3 egg tempera panels (above), of course the statue still needs to be done, but I left it to get started on the 2nd of 3 botanicals I intend to finish. I started on this painting yesterday;

Villa del Palmerino grapes

And here is what I managed to get done yesterday afternoon & evening;

Villa del Palmerino grapes!

I am grateful that the white grapes caught my eye; they are taking a lot less color layers than the red/purple grapes would have taken. I know that is a bit of a cop-out but with my deadline of 3/18 looming with 4 paintings to complete, including 2 botanicals, every minute counts!

I chose to do this painting on Kelmscott vellum which is pretty much the Rolls Royce of vellum, the surface is sublime and I am enjoying how it takes the color so delicately. We’ll see how much I get done today!

Heirloom Beans -Finished!

Gotcha! Can you find the real beans?!! I just had to take a photo of the art with some real beans on it! As I was designing the remaining groups to paint, I kept surprising myself  with how the real beans seemed to look like the painted beans. Without further ado, here is the finished  piece (Maybe, I still have a few days before it absolutely has to be done, I will probably tweak it just a bit…) Continue reading

Olive Branch Day 2

Olive leaves, olive leaves and more olive leaves. This painting is really taking me back. It’s hard to forget the effect of hundreds of olive trees. The wind catches the delicate silver leaves and the air seems to be magically shimmering with golden “silvery-ness”. I know that’s not a word, but it really describes what an olive orchard looks like under ‘the Tuscan Sun’ Continue reading