The view of a frozen Smoke Lake sketched from inside our nice warm car.

A short break from engraving the six plates for my next print. I engraved this from a decades old sketch of a cat who had moved in, claimed the couch as his own and earned his keep catching mice. He gave me a mouse once, the only mouse I’ve ever received as a gift.

My dad raised beef cattle but he also had sheep. I never warmed up to the sheep who, I felt, were some of earth’s dumbest animals. That being said, this silly engraving of a sheep is sooooo popular that I almost (almost!) feel bad about thinking that way.

I’ve only worked from a photo a couple of times but was always fond of this one of my brother taken during our farm boy teens. I always imagine him looking at the rain, wishing he’d gone with his girlfriend to her parents’ cottage because we sure as hell wouldn’t be bringing in hay. Weather forecasting just wasn’t all that great then :- (

At any rate, during today’s Studio Tour, a woman bought the last print in that edition. Glad I kept a proof stashed away.

We had a hired man in those days who, if the weather was nice for more than a week, would predict that a storm would happen soon. “Well boys, (we were always ‘boys’) there’s a big one coming!” The longer the nice weather stayed the worse that impending storm became until, in an especially nice summer, that nasty storm over the horizon would reach cataclysmic proportions. Eventually, as you might suspect, it would rain and he would bask in his self induced glory knowing that, once again, his prophecy had been held up to the light and once again had been proven to be true.

I don’t think he ever enjoyed the sunny days.

THE GUELPH STUDIO TOUR!!!

The Studio is as clean as it gets, the wine and cookies are out so…. drop by!!!!  :- )Tonight, tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday.

Near Damascus, Ontario. This barn came down a few years ago, glad I took the time to do a proper sketch. Their architecture has a magic of its own so it’s sad to see them fall into ruin and then dissapear.