LONGHORN LADY

8x8 oil on board nfs
It's my turn to paint in Sheila Tajima's book for The Flying Moleskins and Sheila has requested we paint something that we love, for me that would be cows! I have always loved cows, but it was not until we moved to Texas that I fully appreciated longhorns. Of all the different cattle breeds, the longhorn breed is one of my favorites; they are massive in size and so elegant with their huge set of horns, to see them up close and in person is amazing. Thank you for visiting and please visit here to read more about this particular longhorn lady.

THE COWBOY ARTIST

8x10 oil on canvas

I'd like to introduce a new blog called Some Texas Artists Like To Paint . We are a small group of Texas artists who have agreed to paint and post monthly challenges established by each other. This month, our first month, has 2 themes, I have chosen to paint something for our Anything Texas theme. We'd love for you to visit our blog and become a follower to see what else we will be painting in the weeks and months to follow.

This Cowboy Artist was quite the character, he was dressed in complete cowboy attire, all the way from the spurs on his boots to a turkey feather in his cowboy hat. In addition to his beautiful art, he even had his white horse saddled up right next to him at his booth. He definitely knew how to draw a crowd to his art. I have quite a few references of him, so I plan on painting a little series of this cowboy artist. Thanks for visiting!

GOLIATH & SCARLETT

8x8 sold

I don't have the opportunity to paint a lot of cats, so when my newest client approached me about painting her 6 cats, I was more than pleased! So as not to overwhelm you with all 6 paintings, I am showing you the first and the last one that I painted.

At 3 weeks of age Scarlett, with the olive green background, was an itty bitty thing living on the side of the road at a vacant general store. My client's family was passing through Kendalia, TX as a major thunderstorm was approaching when Scarlett and her brother, Paxton were discovered. Too tired and weak to even try and run away, they were rescued and are now 3 years old.

Goliath (light blue background) came to live with this family only 6 months ago. Goliath is about 12 years old and came to live at a local vet's office after his owner died and his foster mother fell and broke her hip. He is arthritic and has several medical issues, but he can rest easy because he has found a wonderful forever home.

There were many challenges I had to balance in this assignment. Because I do not have as many cats under my belt as I do dogs, I really had to concentrate on the individual and unique features of each cat. This collection will hang as one group and the client requested that each background be a different color. In addition, I had to make sure that the cats were all about the same size so one would not stand out from another. Whew, I learned a lot about cats and certainly fell in love with each of these precious babies.

Thank you for visiting and commenting on Gus' portrait. I will post and share the companion portraits to Gus one day soon. If you hear any whooping and hollering in NE Texas, it's only me celebrating because school is out and I can be a full time painter for a little while!