Studio Update!

Back in January Ed and I went to our first Geneva Lake Art Foundation member meeting and signed on to become members. It is a vibrant group of SE Wisconsin artists who manage a nice little gallery space right in the heart of Lake Geneva. We have been meaning to get involved and connected; to help get our work out to the public and benefit from the camaraderie that comes with making new art friends. Monday I dropped off 2 new paintings and a print.

Spring Member Show

March 8- April 23

Gallery 223

223 Broad St. Lake Geneva WI

Opening reception is March 17 from 6-8 . Come and join you if you are local. It feels good to get these paintings out and into the public. I am currently working on a series of paintings of our farm animals and intimate scenes of the barn yard. 

Our 'Flerd'

One of our goals here at Brown Dog Farm is to raise heritage breeds of farm animals in an effort to save some of the traditional historical breeds that are too quickly disappearing from farms in this country and around the world. I am a member of the Livestock Conservancy, an organization based here in the United States formed in 1977 by a group of farmers, environmentalists, historians and scientists who shared a concern for the fate of America's traditional livestock breeds. They realized that if they didn't work together to save the endangered livestock and poultry they saw around them, the breeds would soon be gone. They maintain a list of Conservation Priority Livestock Breeds and track their numbers and try to promote breeders for increasing the numbers and building awareness for livestock enthusiasts and the general public. Many of the breeds are specific to specialized regions of the world and have fallen out of favor because they do not meet conventional market standards. Other breeds have declined because cross bred offspring are more valuable than the purebred ones, and pure bred breeding stock recruitment is declining. What ever the reason it is important for the genetic diversity of the farm animals in our world that people try to maintain these breeds before they are lost forever.

So far here on Brown Dog Farm our chickens, Buff Cochin and Buff Laced Polish are both Heritage breeds that are on the Watch or Recovery list. This spring they will be joined by Buff Indian Runner ducks. We hope to add a few more sheep from the list as we develop our pastures and continue to improve our grazing operation. Until then, our pastures are home to a Border Leicester ewe, Bella an Icelandic ewe, Maya, a Llama, Nonna and 2 Paint horses Willow and Doc Watson. Our 'flerd' runs together and seems content. We are learning how to be responsible shepherds and I have been learning the ins and outs of wool production, and spinning their fleece into beautiful yarn. It has been a joy and a challenge, we lost an animal this past year, my beloved Angora Goat, Bosco. We culled a few beautiful roosters who ended up being terrorists. Things on a farm do not always go as expected, but we continue to 'fall forward' and try to learn from these hard lessons. Pick ourselves up, dust off and press on.

Last year I sold 2 paintings at the lovely Brick Street Market. Though those paintings are no longer available, I am releasing a limited edition of 50 signed and numbered giclee prints of those images. They are printed on 100% rag paper and are both 12"x12". They are priced at 45$. I am going to take 10% of the proceeds from the sales of these prints and donate it to the Livestock Conservancy.

If you are interested please use the shop section of my website to order. Thank you and continue to check in as we grow our farm family and I add new paintings in my Heritage Breed Series.

Another beautiful evening sunset at Brown Dog Farm