I believe I have mentioned - maybe 1,000 times - how much we love living in Clarksville!  I recently joined the Chamber of Commerce as a Business Member and attended their 45th Anniversary Celebration.  The fellow members are fantastic and each and every one of them truly loves our community and does their part to help make it better.  They recently had this incredible video made and I just love it!

If you've not yet visited the Clarksville Regional Museum, please stop by - rich in history and culture and makes you proud to be a small part of it by living here.  This is for Jackie Lilly, for whom this Museum would not exist nor survi

Proud to say these are my paintings on the wall of the "Community Room" in the new Library Addition.  They did a fabulous job designing and building the renovation so that it is seamless and looks like it has been that way all along!  So wonderful for this great little town of Clarksville and thrilled to be a teeny tiny part of it!

I finished 4 more paintings for this series.  I now have a complete set of all the activities that happen here year 'round in this sweet little town.  I have an opportunity to donate some of them to the new addition of our library - which is really where they belong - in the heart of the community.  I meet with the decision makers on Wednesday morning to decide which ones and how many!!

Here are the new additions:

Out early again this morning in hopes of catching the balloons flying over the lake.  The weather was fabulous this year - NOT hot and NOT humid....winds were slight, but strong enough to keep the balloons in the background over downtown Clarksville and didn't take them over the lake!  Still awesome to see, and loved every second!  AND, the sand sculpture was finally finished!  They named him "The Lakeness Monster" - just incredible!!!  Now I am faced with task of picking out 6 or 8 BEST photos from Lakefest to paint!  Yay!!!

I think this was our favorite event of Lakefest - spent with wonderful friends on the best seat in the house!  Thank you, Barb and John!!!

Beautiful route across the bridge, through the first block of vendors, around the backstreets and back down Virginia Avenue and across the bridge!  Our dear friend Carolyn Wood was in the race and finished 2nd in her age group AND raised $1300 to donate to SPCA.  She is our neighborhood heroin!!!

This fabulous day began at 5:30 am, standing on the bridge with camera in hand waiting for the hot air balloons to appear - maybe over the lake, maybe downtown, sometimes maybe not at all (depending on the wind).  As you can see, they did finally appear, over lovely downtown Clarksville as the vendors were getting ready for the huge juried arts and crafts show!

Official kick-off for Lakefest!  The balloons were beautiful and I bet these kids had a blast going Up, Up and not too far Away!!!

Time has just flown by this month and I've been remiss in posting photos of the "happenings" in Clarksville - beginning with the 4th of July Parade!  As with all events here, I am continuously blown away by the heart and soul of this teeny tiny community!  My apologies for posting this so late!!!

I'm so tickled to have a show at this incredible place!  Show runs through July, possibly August, too.  For more info about the museum, please click here to visit their website. 

It's been kind of a gloomy winter, and found that painting flowers and butterflies brings Spring into my heart a little sooner!  And I  will be including these paintings in the Sep-Oct show at the MacCallum More Museum and Gardens!  The official first day of Spring was yesterday at the Women's Club Spring Luncheon!  Here are some pics of both - enjoy!

I've been taking a "Mini Master Gardener" class - "Landscape for Life".  It has been such a wonderful class and I have learned so much!!!  I've never had time to garden and finally do now and really know nothing about it.  We have clay soil, a lot of shade and tree roots as we are surrounded by a forest, and deer freely roam in our yard.  Right now we get plenty of sun in the backyard because most are deciduous trees.  Without knowing what the sunlight and shade is going to be, I really can't plant anything yet - darn!!!  But I can go through the steps and find native plants that will feed the birds, bees and hummingbirds; identify which months plants will bloom and make sure I have color all year long.  And identify growth potential so that I have tall plants in the back down to short plants in the front of each area.  Apparently deer do not like Boxwoods and will not cross them, so what I can do now is plant a Boxwood hedge around the front entrance of the house and at least get them established to protect whatever we decide to plant.  And I can collect big rocks to surround the 2 flower gardens in the backyard; paint the shed; lay down some paths; and amend the soil.  I'm very excited - can you tell!!!




Anyway, went to the Hellebores Festival with two girlfriends yesterday.  Such unique little plants that bloom in the winter!  They also had several other flowering plants and bushes that were so healthy and colorful!  You can visit and order on-line anytime:  http://www.pineknotfarms.com/




Here are some pictures of this incredible place:

I'm so excited!  I finished the first 6 paintings in my new series, "Life on the Lake" and took them to the Galleria on the Lake in downtown Clarksville to see if the owner would be interested in selling my artwork.  She just loved them and is going to offer them for sale in her lovely gallery.  She also wants the train paintings I have left from "Full Steam Ahead" show, and I'm making boxes of cards to sell for both series.  As I left she said, "please keep painting!"  Life has a way of working out so beautifully if you follow your dreams.  I just couldn't be happier here - the small town of 1200 people goes out of their way to meet, greet and welcome newcomers.  Our neighborhood is fabulous - never lived in a place where folks love to get together at the drop of a hat and entertain as often as possible.  Our kayak is waiting for Spring to go out and play.  Every morning we wake up and think we have died and gone to Heaven!   

This is the first painting of  my new series "Life on the Lake" in Clarksville, VA.  This was at the Harvest Festival downtown this Fall.  I love this town and have so many paintings lined up to do - and will continue as we go to more events.  Especially their most popular "Lakefest" in the Summer!