An artist I know put out a challenge on Facebook for other artists to work on their sketching skills for the month of March. I thought, why not? I'm not painting as much as I have since I'm spening more time with my writing, but I miss painting and since each weekly challenge takes a mere 15 minutes to complete, I knew I could do that. I'm a little rusty, especially with my pastel pencils which was the first challenge (sketch a food item) so I then did a pencil sketch, which came out better than the first sketch. 

Just when we thought spring was going to arrive early in the Northeast, we had another snow storm. Not a big one, certainly not a Nor'easter, but my husband had to plow and shovel so about 4-5 inches. And the cold wind is back, too. 

One of my favorite winter birds is the turkey. They usually come in flocks; we've had as many as nearly 50 come at one time. When this happens, it is usually 3 or 4 flocks coming together. With the ground covered by several inches of snow, they are hard-pressed to find any food to eat. So I give them some corn and maybe even throw in some black-oil sunflower seeds. They gratefully eat whatever I throw out to them since as ground-feeders, food is so scarce at this time. 

Some people who come to my websites might not be aware of all the other websites my husband Jim and I maintain. Two of them were created to help animals; one for wild life (www.EyeHelpAnimals.com)  and the other for shelter animals (www.HelpShelterPets.com). So at this time I'm going to promote these sites by sharing a painting because they were founded by using my paintings that we've put on cards, t-shirts, mugs, canvas bags, and a few other items. You can find out more by visiting the websites above.

My second slate painting for the fund raiser that my friend Vynnie had at his gallery is of a beautiful farm cat. Jim and I went apple picking and waiting for us was the orchard's mouser. He followed us up and down the fields as we picked apples. In this pose he looked determined with his tail held high, walking at a good pace to keep up. When we stopped to pick he would lie down, keeping an eye on us while at the same time, dozing and relaxing on the gorgeous fall day.