New Art: A Highland Walk

Hello there, friends!~
I am back with new art….although these last couple of weeks have been…crazy! Just after school was out, the weather got rough here in OK. One evening a tornado tore through my hometown, and we suffered some pretty terrible damage in the yard— luckily the house was fine aside from some repairs needed to the roof. All in all, we were really lucky, but it was traumatic. And it’s not something I want to dwell on too long at the moment, so instead let’s go to Scotland 🙂

This was one of those rare paintings where I sat down and painted it in a day! That rarely— RARELY— happens! But this lass wouldn’t wait! The inspiration for this piece has come from some daydreaming a friend and I have been doing about Scotland….she wants to see her ancestral castle, and I am always willing to fall in love with a place and go on an adventure!

I love the landscape of Scotland, the tradition of fiber arts— they are amazing weavers and knitters! And the wild beauty of the land.

Out of curiosity, I began to scan my own family tree to see if I had any traces of Scotland, and lo and behold! I found 3 times great-grandmother named Millie McGregor! Let’s just take a moment and enjoy how fantastic that name is…you know she had to be spunky! She was from the Kentucky region and married a Van Winkle, which was my maiden name. I have her grandson’s wedding photo framed and hanging above my mantle. How thrilling to find my own Scottish line, and to discover that the McGregors were a very old and prestigious clan. Their motto is “royal is my race.”

‘nough, said, right? 😉

Perhaps I am a descendant of beautifully freckle-faced Celtic princesses? I mean, stranger things have happened, right? It’s thrilling to think about! One of the things I love about genealogy is that it is so much more than dry dates and names, they are stories— stories that literally run through your veins. Sometimes those stories are happy, and sometimes those stories are very sad. But they are worth learning about, and learning from. I am very curious to know more about my McGregor ties….and their story of coming to America. Everything I’ve found online has had them coming sometimes around the American Revolution, but I know you can’t trust everything you read online (ha, understatement!)But there IS a story there, somewhere. And perhaps one day I’ll get to know it!

In the meantime, I’ve had lots of fun painting this pretty Scottish girl, wandering through a highland meadow picking a bouquet of heather and tramping through the thistle. I even added the Scotch pine, especially since it is the ‘plant badge’ of the McGregor clan (I’ve always loved pines! Is it genetic?! hehe)

This painting is currently available in my etsy shop, and in need of a good home!
Thanks for coming by and have a wonderful week–
Take Joy!
H