Hello Everyone! 

July is nearly over, flying by at the speed of light as summer always does! This month, for my “project” I want to tell you about my first ever painting workshop at Sirona Falls, which of course took place during that first big heat wave in late June. The week before and after we had fresh cool air and no bugs, and the week of the workshop the temperatures climbed into the 90s with intense humidity, still air, annoying bugs, and threats of thunderstorms. You know what they say about best laid plans! However, the wonderful humans who came and painted with me all weekend bore it with good humor and we had so much fun regardless. We did our best to stay in the shade and we cleaned up about 15 minutes before thunderstorms began on both days! Saturday we spent and the wonderful ChicoryLane Farm and these images are all from Sunday at Sirona Falls. In the images above, on the left is me talking about some mixed media drawing techniques, and on the right is everyone together on one of my amazing porches at the new house! It was such a blast. Thank you all so much for coming!

These three travelled from New Jersey: Lucy, Justin, and Billy (left to right.)

And these three came from various parts of PA: Cadee, Sylvia, and Karen.

That is the big thing I wanted to share with you all this month. It was a wonderful experience to make it all feel real! Below you will find my “Nature Spotlight” and some announcements about my upcoming studio sale, plus an opportunity to be foster parents to some of my big paintings!

Much love,

Elody

A Red-Spotted Purple I found on the road

Nature Spotlight: Limenitis arthemis

I have always known and loved the Red Admiral Butterfly, but before spending time at my property I had never seen a White Admiral Butterfly. I started to see them my first summer there, and something I have learned recently, thanks to by brother Joe and the abundance of butterflies on my property (especially as I get more and more native wildflowers started!) is that the White Admiral and the Red-Spotted Purple are the same species! Red Spotted Purples have been a favorite of mine since childhood (I always laughingly called them Orange-Spotted Blues because whoever named them must have been rather colorblind!), and I never would have guessed that these two completely differently looking butterflies are the same species! The White Admiral is considered Northern and The Red-Spotted Purple to be southern, and my property must be on the boundary. There is a lot of variety in appearance even within the two groups, with some of the ones with the white bands also having a lot of the blue sheen and the distinctive red spots of the Red-Spotted Purples. Above and below I have images of the two varieties.

For comparison, here is a White Admiral that I gently captured when it got stuck inside my summer kitchen and then hung out with me a good while on my pink plastic cup before finally flying off. Aren’t they gorgeous?

Support Me:

I have set a goal for my studio sale: It will happen in November. I will have everything ready sometime before Thanksgiving, and will be prepared to mail all sales in early December with plenty of time before Christmas. There will be hundreds of items to choose from: many dozens of paintings and hundreds of works on paper, and something for every budget.  Stay tuned!

I also want to get my big paintings into homes. Since I am about to move out of my studio of ten years, there is a lot of stuff, and if I can get any of the large works homed before the move, that would be fantastic. I am open to selling them at big discounts, selling them with small monthly payment plans, and I am also open to loaning them for a year while I transition. If you don’t live too far away, you have a large wall, and think that living with one of my paintings for awhile sounds like fun, contact me and we will work something out. Below are links to parts of my website that feature large works. They are not all available, but a lot of them are!

Final thing: Moving Boxes! If anyone happens to have loads of sturdy moving boxes laying around and wants to donate them to my studio move, let me know!

Sirona Falls