The Light of the Moon

Moonlight fascinates me.  I'm always trying to take a great photo or paint a lovely moonlight painting, but Moonlight is an elusive thing.  When I was a child, I would sit out on the back porch with my Grandmother while she told me stories about the faeries and we would watch the big old summer moon together.  Now every full moon that arrives finds me out watching, or at least watching from the sun room windows if the weather is way too cold to venture out.  Did you see the spectacular moon these past few days?  So bright and big!

Last Full moon, there was a dance at the other end of the village, and the music flowed up along the riverbank to our garden.   My Sweetie let the dogs out for their night time business, then came in and asked if I would like to go outside and dance, and that is just what we did.  We had a lovely time, just the two of us, while we danced by the light of the moon.  Romance is alive and well at Sheltie Hollow :)

I hope all of you enjoy the rest of the summer, and remember, there will be another full moon in September, so get out your dancing shoes!
Cheers,
Heather Anderson
www.sheltiehollowart.com

JOY

It's been a month of upheaval with no time or no computer to do my blog, but for today at least, I can post one.  Today, I thought I'd talk about JOY.

 

Joy comes in so many ways.  Doing something fun fills us with joy.  We laugh and smile and generally feel great.   Dogs are very good at expressing Joy - there's just no holding back.                                 Joy also comes with being with your best friends.  You can relax and laugh and be yourself.                                                             

This week, I was watching one of our dogs standing back and looking a his buddy playing fetch with a ball.  We had tried to teach him the game, but we hit a blank wall every time, so rather than keep stressing the little guy, we just let him watch while someone else played.      Something else distracted the ball player and he ran off, just as I threw the ball, and the dog watching, suddenly became lit from within, and with a huge sheltie smile thrown back over his shoulder to me, he took off after the ball, picked it up and did a flawless return.  I wish I could show you the overwhelming joy on his little face!   "I DID IT!!"   Now we are all happy - Darcy is in the game too.    It made me think of the joy we artists feel when we get something right, something that has up to that moment been elusive and difficult.   I also thought about the joy I get in learning.  When we  were all tender young artists, unsure of ourselves but not  wanting anyone to know, I think most of us were reluctant to           share what we knew about techniques and materials, and hesitant about learning from others or (gasp!) asking for help.     Happily, most of us now have gained the confidence in our own unique gift to share things with other artists when they ask  and sometimes even when they don't.  As this blog so often proves. :D    I Hope all of you will take joy in whatever it is you are doing today.  It costs nothing, spreads like wildfire, and makes your world a much more inviting place to be.                                                                               

    

Cheers,                                                                                         Heather Anderson              www.heatheranderson-animalart.com                        

Realizing a Dream

Today is Canada Day, and as I was enjoying a peaceful breakfast, looking out at our little haven, I thought again, as I have so many times, how lucky we are, those of us who live in a country where you can make a dream come true.  I'm talking about all the countries where this can happen, not just Canada, although I have to admit that I do love my homeland.

My big life dream arrived when I was about 12 years old, when I was given my first Albert Payson Terhune book about his Collies and Sunnybank.  He had passed on  years before I was born, but his books were still popular and easily available at the bookstore.  I became entranced, and as soon as I finished one book, I'd be off to the most wonderful bookstore (I'll tell you about it one day) and select another one.  Happily, I had a very indulgent Grandmother and Aunts who all wanted to encourage me to read!  About half way through those books, I decided that when I grew up, I wanted to live in the country, work at home, painting and writing, (even then I knew I had to paint), and have lots of dogs, cats and a horse.  And with lots of help from above, it happened.  

Granted, we have half an acre in a tiny village instead of 40 acres on a lake, and after my first couple of dearly loved Collies, we made the life long switch to Shelties, but making a dream into reality calls for a little compromise here and there.
And the odd thing is that over the years, I have come across many people who have had the same dream. Some have tailored the dream to suburban living, some have managed the whole acerage, but I know these people at once - the Clan of Terhune.  They have Collies or Shelties, their homes exude peace, there is a beautiful garden, and when we first meet, there is an instant friendly attraction. Some of them have become wonderful, loved friends.
So lets be sure to celebrate today and again on the 4th of July and give thanks for living in a country where dreams can come true.  And Thank You Bert Terhune, for giving a reachable dream, a wonderful way of life as a pattern for living, to all of us who have met you through your books.  

Cheers,
Heather Anderson         www.heatheranderson-animalart.com

Just For A Change

I guess everyone knows by now that I love working in watercolour. It's always been my favourite medium and it always will be.  But every so often, I think a change is good.  I used to work in pastel, but the dust really triggered an asthmatic response, so I had to let that go, and the same thing with oils.  I have to admit that I enjoyed both those mediums, but I'm not going to make myself ill for art.  Especially not when there are other medium choices.   For a long time, I would switch to Coloured Pencil for a little break, especially for animal portraits, and I loved using them.  But Coloured Pencil eventually gets very hard on the hands, so regretfully, I packed them away.  I have to say too, that the quality of the pencils I most often used, fell quite badly, and that had a little something to do with my decision.

       
                                    Cairn Terrier                Coloured Pencil


So now when I want a little break, I choose Acrylics or Graphite.   There is a lot about Acrylic that I don't like.  I find the paint stiff to work with, I hate the smell, minor as it is, and they do dry very fast! But the painting builds up quickly, mistakes are easily fixed, and the fast drying time adds to the speedy completion of a painting.  So I'm hanging in with this one, trying to understand it's secrets, and make my peace with it.

                                      Jack Russell Terrier       Acrylic

Sometimes I love the challenge of Graphite.  Black and white is so elegant.  But it is nearly impossible to recover from a mistake, and all too easy to make one.  Still, I enjoy the focus required, and the way I have to distill colour into Black, White, and Shades of Grey.  Even a small graphite piece can take a very long time.

                                      Border Collie             Graphite

But when all is said and done, I always love coming back to the watercolours, feeling refreshed from my 'busman's holiday'.

                                    Hasten On Home      Watercolour

Cheers,
Heather                   www.heatheranderson-animalart.ca

Splendour

It's nearly Midsummer.  You can feel that Midsummer magic all around you if you stop, look, and listen.  The birds sing their lovely chorus early in the morning and then a quieter version in the evening after their busy day of food gathering and chick watching is over until tomorrow.  The air is soft and sweet with the fragrance of flowers, both garden and wild, along with the unique scent of newly mown hay.  The little sheltie noses here at Sheltie Hollow never stop twitching, trying to take it all in.

Everywhere, wildflowers are springing up, almost as if everything has suddenly answered a Faery trumpet call.  Overnight there are huge drifts of wild phlox, billowing in the breeze, and frostings of daisies are appearing along the fence lines and road sides.  And don't forget to look for the Fire Flies flickering across the darkness of a mid June field or garden.  These little characters always thrill me.  I like to think they are on their way to light a Faery Ball.

This is a beautiful and bountiful time of year - think asparagus, new lettuce, and strawberries.  Take a moment to stand still in a quiet spot, look around you, listen carefully, and take a deep breath.  The rewards are great.  Oh, as to the name Mid Summer, when it is really the first day of  summer?    The ancient Celtic calendars had Spring arriving in February, so by June, it would have been mid summer by their calendar.   Some things are just too much fun to change.                                                           

Cheers,                                                                               

Heather Anderson                                        www.heatheranderson-animalart@sympatico.ca                                                                            

                                     

FOUR PAWS GOOD

I believe I was born loving animals.  I'm pretty sure that a deep love of these four legged creatures is born in you or it isn't.  People can be neutral about them - " animals are fine if you like them, but not for me thanks ",  or they can enjoy having a pet that remains a creature, something to treat kindly and responsibly but as something that you don't really communicate with other than to train it and make it do what you expect of it. And there's nothing really wrong with that if that is the way you connect with other species.  But there are many people like myself who see animals as fellow travelers on this planet, as creatures with their own way of communicating and doing things, and with thoughts and feelings.  I love learning to understand how they think, and how to communicate with them, using both my language and theirs.  
While I respect and enjoy the wild ones, especially the small ones (birds, squirrels, chipmunks etc) that come to my garden, it's the domestic animals that I feel a deep connection to.  There has always been a deep love of dogs, cats, and horses within me, and from the time I could talk, I begged for a dog of my own, a cat and a horse.  It took a while, but I got all three.  Since I was a teen, there has been a dog -at least one, usually three or more at a time, and as an adult, I added cats, and finally, my longed for horse.  All during these years, I read about them, learned about them, and painted them.

For a long time, I focused on painting horses because I wanted one so desperately, and then there was the giddy celebration when I finally achieved my dream.  Now that my dream is over, I still love horses deeply and still paint them once in a while, but it was time to give the other dearly loved animals the spotlight.             When I started painting animals, outside of Western Art and     Sporting Art, there wasn't much respect for painting the companion animals - the dogs and cats.  But they were what I was driven to paint, and so I did.  

                                                                  

I love painting dogs and cats, especially dogs, with all their various looks, personalities, and histories. There are so many coat colours and textures, so many body shapes - there are even three different skull types.  So much to love looking at and drawing, so much to learn!    And most especially, I love Shelties.  We have had Shelties for over 30 years and hope to always have at least one by our side.                                               

         

                     

When it comes to animals, the title of this painting says it all:  It's About Love.

Have a lovely day, anyone who is reading this!                       

cheers,                                                            

Heather                                                                www.heatheranderson-animalart.com                                                   

Busy, busy, busy!

SO many things to do today!  I need to put some time into my new watercolour - I really want to be finished it by the end of the week.  It's a fairly simple one, so I should make my deadline.                 I feel the need to do some house tidying too.  Nothing drastic, just a polish here and there, but the mood is on me and I must clean.
There's a lonely lemon languishing in the fridge that is dreaming about becoming a lemon cake, so I should see if I can get to that too.      
And my delightful student is coming today.  She really brightens any day with her enthusiasm and work ethic.  AND, she's a delightful lady.  All good :)
I should also find a little time to work with our young sheltie.  He's going to school and needs to practice his homework . . . . a lot!!
So I should get going and get busy.  Wishing you a wonderful day!

Cheers,
Heather
www.heatheranderson-animalart.com

Basic Respect

 In the spirit of being respectful to all, I'd like to politely point out that Artists are people too.    Do non artists understand for one single moment how insulting it is to hear "Oh, so you're a lady of leisure.  Must be nice to not have to work."  Do they really think I live in Fantasy Land where a flick of a hand causes paint to leap onto paper while I sit back with a glass of lemonade and file my nails?  I wonder if they have ever done a 4 day outdoor show?  We artists rely on our incomes to pay bills, buy art supplies, and other needed things.  Many artists are supporting themselves and need to buy basic luxuries like food and pay rent/mortgage.  I'm in the fortunate position of just needing to pay my own personal bills and help out with household/pet/garden stuff.  My husband and I have always operated as a team.
I don't mean for this to be a rant, but I see over and over again, that basic disrespect for painters/sculptors pop up, and while we artists don't do the big super important stuff like those who go into medicine, the military, the law/law enforcement, fire fighters or teaching, (and I'm sure I'm missing some professions that should be included) we are generally people who work hard for very little return.  We deserve  respect for being people who are willing to work hard and follow our dreams.  It takes a bit of courage and commitment to step out of the general stream and do that.  We deserve to be paid for our work, and treated like the contributors to society that we are.

Cheers,
Heather
www.heatheranderson-animalart.com

EASTER

Easter is one of my favourite times of year.  Spring is either on the way or we are enjoying the first flowers of the year.  I love getting the house ready, making sure that the Easter wreath is on the door and the house is decorated with my Bunny collection.  It has sort of multiplied over the years, but as you  know, that's what bunnies do best.  I get some fresh flowers for the house, and get busy with our traditional Easter foods.  There will be a ham for Easter Monday, fish for Good Friday, and in our family, Chicken A La King was always served on Easter Sunday, and I continue that tradition.  Holy Thursday needs home made Hot Cross Buns, lovely spicy little tea biscuits with a sweet icing cross that I only make once a year.  I like to go out early on Easter Morning (around here, that's weather permitting) and walk around the garden saying a quiet Thank You for our blessings.
So, lots to do in the next few days, and I'd better get to it.  I'd like to wish all of you a HAPPY EASTER, and if you are celebrating Passover, I wish you peace and happiness.
Cheers,
Heather
www.heatheranderson-animalart.com