Hare as Herald for Spring

Time in the studio has been passing by quickly, a bit like the start of this year which seems to have disappeared. The top brown hare is my Herald of Spring,  and below is the Blue Hare of Winter beating a hasty retreat....I suspect we will have a few more days of snow before winter is over though! Last Saturday was spent in the mountains at Lochnagar. It was a beautiful day matched by the wild life we saw-  woodpecker, red grouse, black cock, buzzard, short eared owl, hen harrier and two golden eagles plus both red and roe deer.  Fabulous!

Foxy

It's been snowing on and off all day. I put the heater on and holed up in the studio this afternoon and managed to finish a fox that has been waiting patiently in my sketchbook since before Christmas. I did a larger than usual mountain hare too, sometimes you get in the flow and next thing I know it's dark.........

In the studio today...

New things are starting to happen in the studio, this badger will be going into my etsy shop soon and the insect collection box below is in development..... The exciting news is that I have been asked to take part in not one, but TWO exhibitions! One opens in April and the other in June. Yah!  

Better get back to work then.......

A little review.....

The whole country has battened down the hatches with all this snow, but it is soooo beautiful and we have had some memorable wildlife encounters over the last few weeks including, red deer, roe deer, sparrowhawk, redpoll, goldfinch, mountain hare, an unfortunately dead pine marten on the road and a flock of 15 waxwings. I'm pretty sure all of them will be appearing in my sketchpad pretty soon.
I seem to have gotten off to a slow start this January, but I have managed to get my tax return done at least which can only be a good thing! I was busy with craft fairs in December and although I didn't do particularly well at them , I didn't do terribly badly either; plus I met some friendly people and have had repeat business through my etsy shop from one of my new customers.
 I have to admit that this last year has been very hard work, but I have learned such a lot and I have confidence things will get better.......I have had some good news today that I will share in my next post!