What a beautiful white world out there. A friend who spends the winter in the Virgin Islands wrote that she heard we were having bad weather again. Thankfully, a beautiful snowfall in February is not bad weather to us. It is a pristine, silent, amazing phenomena of the natural world that we are fortunate to witness. Also, we love to ski and be out in the snowy woods and that helps!

We just had our oldest son and our older two grandchildren here with us for a week and we had a grand time skiing with them. At eleven and thirteen, they sleep in, they help clear and wash dishes. We have lively dinner table conversations, and we try to keep up with them, (unsuccessfully), on the mountain. We feel so fortunate.

While they were here, they all wanted to visit my new studio that I began renting in February. The small, private, studio is housed in the Middlebury Studio School. Middlebury Studio School, founded in 2009, offers classes in many media including pottery to adults and children of all skill levels. In their new building they have studios available for rent and I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time to sign on.

I have never had a studio. I’ve kept a sketchbook journal for as long as I can remember. I grew up painting alongside my mother, who painted in small sketchbooks especially while traveling and she always had one for me. I have been an art educator my whole working life and therefore have worked alongside children in graphics, collage, paint, clay, wire sculpture, and printmaking. It has been such a wonderful ride for me. Again, I am delighted to have spent my days with children and art materials. I can’t think of anything I would rather do.

My new studio at Middlebury Studio School

About ten years ago, I started to take classes in oil painting. I had never worked in oil before, and it is challenging. And I also love it. I love the feel of it, the rich colors, how it goes down on the canvas, one brush stroke at a time. My first classes were with Stanley Bielen at Mass College of Art and Design summer program in Bennington, Vermont. They were week-long residencies that I attended in 2015 and 2016. Stanley is a Philadelphia based artist who primarily paints still lifes that are enchanting to me. After that, I took a series of five week classes with Mary Lower at Middlebury Studio School. Mary helped me to become more confident in oil over time.

Another painter who I have taken online workshops with through Winslow Art Center is Sarah Spackman. In many ways her style is like Stanley’s. I love them both and aspire to paint with their freedom, skill, and joy. Some of the favorite things I have heard them say while painting that I wrote down to remember are:

“This is getting fun now. Isn’t this fun? “

“I try to paint so the colors sing. It doesn’t always happen, but that is what I am striving for.”

I have taken plein air workshops with Susan Abbott in Plainfeild, Vermont, one with Philip Frey from Maine, in Shelburne Vermont, sponsored by Edgewater Gallery, and just a few weeks ago with Haidee Jo Summers and Jo Gyrucsak sponsored by Modern Impressionist Magazine.

I love Plein Air painting which I have heard one painter call “an extreme sport,” because of carrying all your gear, setting up in sun, wind, cold, heat, preparing for insects and other such things. Last summer while painting overlooking Lake Champlain from the front lawn of Shelburne Inn on Shelburne Farms, I had the feeling of being a part of everything…one of those existential moments when boundaries disappeared between me and the lake, and the sky, and the paint, and the canvas. I was swept away.

After Ashley and I closed the doors of our consulting business, Cadwell Collaborative, I launched a new website in the fall of 2025. I used the plein air painting of Shelburne Bay for the head banner for my new website. Hurray that I still get to write and send missives out into the world.

Back to the studio and the winter vacation week for our grandchildren. Delilah, who I have written about often, painted tulips with me there last week. I have our paintings up to inspire me.

Delilah brought a finished embroidery piece that she wanted to make into a baby pillow for her teacher who is going on maternity leave in about a month. Together, we designed and fashioned a pillow out of her embroidery.

What could me more fulfilling and fun than skiing in the beautiful white world with beloved grandchildren, painting tulips together, and making gifts for teachers? Nothing, in my book.

One last thing…I sing with the Middlebury College Community Chorus . We are rehearsing a song for the spring concert by Harry Belafonte called The Wave. The chorus is:

”We are the wave. We are the flow. We are the wind. And soon, the rock must go.”

There is such joy in a rousing protest song, written many years ago, that we will teach the whole audience. Thank you, Harry Belafonte.

Heather Cox Richardson says that we all have a torch and they are all different based on our skills and passions. She says, we need to pick those torches up and carry them forward. Protest rooted in song, in color, in the written word, and in joy is my torch.

I hope that you are enjoying February, wherever you are. I hope that you are celebrating the return of the light. I imagine all of our torches burning brightly together and it is an uplifting image!

February

Grounding and Gratitude