Sleightholm Folk Art

My friends!

It has been a good long while since I have written in this space, but I am happy to report it is NOT because I haven’t been painting! In fact, I have a new piece to share with you today that I am very excited about, called “Wool Maiden.”

This is a special piece just for Jules over at Wool Maiden for her 2024 Yule & Yarn Advent Calendar. For the past couple of years, she has selected one of my paintings as the colorway inspiration for her amazing fiber art Advent ‘calendar’, but this year we decided to do something extra special and create a custom piece just for this project.

Jules sent me the color tones she had chosen for the 2024 Yule & Yarn collection, and after conferring about what she’d like in the painting, this Wool Maiden was made! It was inspired by the gorgeous Canadian mountain region where Jules tends her flock, and the brilliant colors of autumn. I love the purples and blues she selected to go with the autumnal hues, and I can’t WAIT to see how her wooly blends turn out!

If you’d like to pre-order your own Yule & Yarn Advent Calendar, that information will soon be available on her website, so check back with her soon!

If you’d like a peek at her beautiful farm and flock, she has this video to give you a glimpse into her life as a natural dyeing shepherdess:

I will be offering prints of this painting soon as well, if you’d like to have a copy of your own. If you order the Yule & Yarn Advent Calendar, you will also receive a postcard with the image included!

As for life around here-

Things have been VERY busy. But all in very good ways- and I have more projects and collaborations I’ve been working on that I will share in the coming weeks that are really, really exciting!

This past year, I have worked for my parish as a Catechist in their Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program, which is a Montessori-based faith formation class. In the fall, I will be taking on a few sessions for the Parish’s school and my son will also be attending the school, which will be a big change for us. We have homeschooled now for the past 3 years…..it’s a bit of a bittersweet change, but also a really exciting one. We are both going to learn and grow in new ways!

I am also hoping that these changes to my days leave me with more time I can dedicate to painting. Being a homeschooling mom is a BIG job! My daughter will finish her homeschooling senior year next year- but most of her school work will be classes she’s taking outside of the home. Its hard to believe that she is launching into the world so soon- but she is really motivated and has her own dreams and plans that are exciting to watch unfold. It seems like she was just a kindergartener not so long ago….it all goes by so FAST. So these past few months (and even now) I’m trying to really be present for it all.

I hope that you are doing well and that you have some time to relax this summer! I will be back with more news very soon!

Take Joy!
H