Friday and Saturday, April 20 and 21, will see me at historic St. Paul’s churchyard in Edenton, NC.

I’m doing the biennial benefit, Easels in the Gardens, featuring three dozen painters, 18th- and 19th-century architecture and gardens, views of open water, a lovely jazz band, and great food. http://cupolahouse.org/easels-in-the-gardens.php

And, it’s the only regular event where I sell loose drawings right off my board.

Part of the proceeds benefit the 1758 Cupola House, a part Jacobean, part Georgian gem.

Both church yard and house are on Broad St., the main drag through town.

It’s free to visit artists and buy before Saturday’s ticketed event.

AND, if you bring a vulture quill from the churchyard, I’ll give you 10% off a loose drawing!

I am pleased to show five pieces at the 32nd annual Nansemond Suffolk Academy Art Show and Sale. I’ll be there today at 10am.

The show opens today and hangs for two weeks.

Deets here: https://visitsuffolkva.com/Calendar.aspx

And here: https://www.nsacademy.org/page/arts

What’s more, a five minute drive along Main Street is a great tour of local architecture: Federal, Greek Revival, and even a Second Empire gem.

Oil on paper. 14 x 18.

This house sits on the Broughton Hospital campus, under the water tower.

Worth a visit.

North Carolina rewards the hydrophile.  Whether it tumbles to the lowest spot or seeks a level and makes peace with it, water can reflect–or create–a mood.

The Breaker. Walnut ink on hand-prepared paper.

These three water studies we’re drawn from life with walnut ink and body color, vulture quill and native cane pens.

Last week, we had a blackberry winter. In Western NC, that’s a cold snap that threatens the blackberry flowers.  Two firefighters I know got hypothermia as they rescued a hiker with a broken ankle only two miles away from the fire truck.  It hailed on them.

The bad news is that you might die in this stuff. The good news is that when the weather’s murderous, you can stay indoors.

I did and framed this picture of the mouth of the Swannanoa River.  The frame is handmade by Mark Henry of Weaverville, NC, who is an excellent painter, too.

I’m proud to continue the centuries-old practice of drawing from plaster casts in my studio.

Student work; shall update as she progresses:

Virginians (and I’m one) used to be told that Virginia history began when Walter Raleigh bought a new cloak for an audience with Queen Elizabeth I.  Virginia almost didn’t happen because when Raleigh saw the Queen about to step into a puddle, he spread his coat before her.  When she later chastised him for showing up under-dressed, a witness to Raleigh’s gallantry spoke up on his behalf, and Raleigh goth three ships by way of thanks.

Virginians don’t learn that anymore, and North Carolinians never did.  To be propagated, history requires a certain density. In an effort to thicken up the past, note the following photo and two studies, done off Okisko Road in Pasquotank County, NC:

I know Virginia claims the first representative assembly (the House of Burgesses, 1619), but look who commemorated the birth of North Carolinian self-government.  That’s right, the Sir Walter Raleigh Chapter of Daughters of the Revolution.

Such self-confidence is inspiring. And it lasted longer than people think.  Two hundred yards from this marker sits this house, whose front porch in the Federal style is an example of the high tide of American architecture  that washed over even our distant countryside from 1750 until about 1830.  I got two studies of it–one in walnut ink and one in oil–and I intend to revisit it this spring and summer and make a large format work.

Like the Elliott barn and stable in my masthead, this home deserves to be known.

Oil on paper. 18 x 24″

Visit me at # 249 in Riverview Station today from 4 til 8pm, as well as three dozen of my neighbors.  Christmas is coming; support locals who make things with skill, and honor your loved ones with gifts of real beauty.

When you get right down to it, you’d rather be eating ginger snaps while I sell you a handmade walnut ink drawing than fight for parking at Wal Mart.