AZALEA

8x10 oil on canvas

This is my first painting for the Art for the Animals blog. Meet Azalea, a sweet happy little girl looking for a new family to adopt and love her. She was removed from a Dallas shelter after being there for over 100 days. Azalea is in a foster home and is described as a 2 year old Lab/Shepherd mix that is most affectionate, loves playing fetch, and gets along with her foster family's pets.

I fell in love with her happy girl face and love the one black polka-dot on her tongue. This portrait is my gift for whomever adopts Azalea.

PURE SWEETNESS

8x10 oil on canvas panel

The original photo for this was quite fuzzy with a lot of detail absent, it was taken with a camera phone with a soft source of light in the background. The photo, borrowed from another friend on Facebook (thanks Beth!), brought back wonderful memories of rocking my daughter 19 years ago-pure sweetness!

In addition to the fuzzy photo and the fact that this is another figure painting, I had a new challenge here and that was painting the baby's skin contrasted with the Great Aunt. My favorite part of this are those itty bitty legs and that itty bitty little foot. Painting that part was one of those rare moments where the paint goes down one time and it's done! Thank you so much for visiting; I appreciate your comments!

PERSIA

8x10 oil on canvas

For some reason I have become a painter of dogs and not a painter of cats, when I saw Persia posted on my friend's Facebook page a couple of months ago, I knew I just had to see if I could paint a cat. According to Jacque, Persia's favorite napping spot is on this embroidered pillow, with one little eye slightly open.

Several months ago, Jacque (an artist friend) gave me permission to use her photo, but I had to wait to paint Persia when I had time. On Wednesday I decided I could not paint another commission until I did something for me, or in this case for Jacque. I am so sad to say, Persia died just yesterday from kidney renal failure. I hate to end this blog post so abruptly and sadly, if you would like to see Jacque's beautiful graphic art, you can check out her website here.

Thank you so much for looking, reading, and listening; I appreciate the time you take to visit my blog.

FARM TO MARKET

8x8 oil on canvas panel

This is Karin Jurick's newest challenge on the DSFDF blog. Because of Karin's beautiful figure paintings and her biweekly challenges, I am practicing painting figures much like this one. We were to focus on the entire figure; however, I cropped this a little differently. It is evident I have so much to learn, but that's why I'm here. Thanks for visiting!

HAPPY HANNAH

8x16 oil on canvas panel

It's an overcast morning here, a little rain and the promise of more this afternoon. We have been so lucky these last few days to have rain come our way; I am very happy to have relief from the 100+ temps.

And speaking of happy, here's Happy Hannah, my final painting for James Parker' Windows to the World Art blog. The challenge for me here was to make her appear to be stepping forward and to keep her feet "grounded" so she did not appear to be floating. Some dogs are made to smile and Hannah must be one very loved dog to be grinning from ear to ear.

Now, off to my little studio closet for a serious day of painting. Thank you for visiting; take care!

TWEEDLES

8x8 oil on canvas panel
Another painting for James Parker's, Windows to the World blog. This was fun to paint, but challenging because of the unusually adorable features that make pugs so special. Thanks for looking.

THE LONG WAIT

9x12 oil on canvas panel

This is my first painting for James Parker's Windows to the World blog, please check out the variety of talent from other fellow artists. Maggie Mayer submitted this photo to James' blog for us to paint, please go by and see her incredible paintings. Thank you for visiting; I appreciate it!

THE LOVE OF CHRIST

11x14 oil on canvas sold

This painting is a companion piece to Adore His Sacred Name that I posted a few months ago. If you recall, my school opens our day with a morning assembly where we pledge, pray, and sing the hymn of the month. As we learn the new hymn of the month, one of our teachers teaches all of us how to sign the hymn. It's incredible to see children of all ages, along with teachers and staff, learn sign language to accompany our voices. After we have mastered both song and sign language, we sometimes sing with our hands only...a truly beautiful event!

This is 5 year old Ivan, signing the word love in the hymn, Lift High the Cross. Ivan's arms are crossed over his chest to sign the word love. Lift high the cross the love of Christ proclaim, till all the world adore His sacred name.

So, two paintings are now finished, I have several more to complete the sign language series. Thank you so much for visiting my blog, your visits and comments are most appreciated. Take care.

LUCY, FOUR ON THE ROOF

8x16 oil on canvas panel, nfs
Lucy is my brother's dog, a weimaraner mix, she loves to catch tennis balls. When my brother sent this picture to me, I knew it would become a painting.

I don't know what it is about men and their jeeps, my husband owned a CJ7 for a very long time and had great difficulty parting with it. This one sits abandoned in Shane's backyard and has become quite the work of art amongst other works of art built by his hands. Anyone that can take a rusted worn out very old mattress box spring and turn it into a trellis for climbing vines is an artist! He has built a beautiful curved sweeping deck, surrounded by a fountain of stacked cylinders that were once livestock tanks, and a stunning shed made from recycled tin and cypress barn wood. Hanging from the ceiling of the shed is a crystal chandelier, ecletic yes, but that's Shane! Take a close look at the jeep, amongst the lovely green moss that has grown on it, is a fleur-de-lis painted by him, as well. Oh, and he now has another jeep, a brand new red one!

Thanks for looking and visiting; I appreciate it so very much.

LADY IN WAITING

12x12 oil on canvas

I rarely paint in a square format, but I thought I would try something a little different. This little lady's photo came to me through an e-mail support group looking to place pets in new homes. I hope she found a home, she appears so sweet and lady-like, hence the name I gave her. 

PLEIN AIR IN NE TEXAS

A couple of weeks ago we spent the weekend in Scroggins, TX at a friend's lakehouse at Cypress Springs Lake, more than likely this is probably our last plein air painting for the summer, at least here in Texas...it's hot! I painted 3 small landscapes, the last one was my first time to try painting with a palette knife. I think I'd like to try it again, it was fun. 

My husband does not paint, but managed to find plenty to do fishing, shooting pictures, fetching ice and beverages, and so on... We missed Jay for a very long time and just assumed he was out taking pictures or something. My friend, Paula found him happily snoozing away in the hammock. 

I normally paint with my pochade box and a tripod, but I had just received my "new" french easel a couple of days before and thought I'd try it out. I really wanted an older french easel and found this one on Ebay. The seller could not find any markings or anything on it, but had been told it was purchased in the early 60's. After I scrubbed it and put linseed oil over it, this beautiful patina appeared and then I found the name of the artist carved into the box. I have learned that she was an actress and is now a full time artist in NY (beautiful paintings). My husband would like for me to contact her to let her know where her french easel has ended up and to learn more about her and her outstanding paintings. 

I hope you are all having a great summer, thank you for looking and commenting! Take care.