END OF THE YEAR SELF-PORTRAIT

6x9 oil on canvas

Because a few other blog artists recently painted their self-portraits, I thought I'd try the same exercise. It's hard not to fix what you want to change (erase, smudge, de-emphasize, lighten or darken, in my case) as you paint yourself, but a worthy exercise nonetheless. If you have not painted yourselves lately, I would strongly encourage you to do so.

Thank you so much for viewing, reading, and taking the time to leave comments on my blog. This is a community of incredible, committed artists and I am happy to "know" each of you.

I wish all of you a very happy, healthy, and safe 2010.

Happy New Year!

SULLY

8x10 oil on canvas sold

This is one of several commissions I've been working on before Christmas. Sully is an English Labrador Retriever, otherwise known as a "Blockhead" Lab. They are given this name because of their square or block shaped head. I understand, Sully works hard, plays hard, and in-between, naps hard. At the end of his hard day, I've been told he sleeps hard!

I wish you and your families a very Happy New Year, one filled with lots of art: buying, selling, collecting, and most importantly creating!!

DSFDF PORTRAIT & MY 100TH POSTING

6x9 oil on canvas

So much to say, I've been overwhelmed with painting commissions, but cannot post much until after Christmas; however, I can post my DSFDF portrait painting. I was VERY intimidated when I first received my photo and then literally just threw my hands up in the air, and remembered it's just paint. Slowly my intimidation turned into fun, and I hope the end results show that I enjoyed myself through the process. I do not know who this fella is, but if you recognize him, please let me know!

Yesterday I had the most wonderful day. I met a fellow blogger and now friend, Ann Rogers, for an afternoon of drooling over the most spectacular plein air paintings. After a couple of hours of oohing and aahhing, we had lunch together and continued our conversation about the gallery exhibition and everything else we could possibly visit about...this may surprise you, I am a talker and so is Ann, there was never a moment of silence throughout our visit. Thank you Ann for a delightful afternoon!!

For those of you in the Dallas area, I would encourage you to see Southwest Gallery's Outdoor Painters Society exhibition (open through January 4th) and for those of you not in the area, here are some of the Texas artists I greatly admire, please take a look at some of these sites, you will not be disappointed!

John Cook

John Potoschnick

Laurel Daniels

Bob Rohm

Jill Carver

Rusty Jones

Ann Hardy

This is only a sampling of the artists whose work we viewed, but definitely these are some of my very favorite Texas artists. In addition to all of these links, here's another one for you: Outdoor Painters Society, there you will see all of the members and their incredible works. Ann, thanks again it was a wonderful cold, wet, and rainy Saturday to meet a new friend and talk art!

Thank you so much for visiting and commenting; I truly appreciate your visits, take care!!