ORANGE TIPS

8x10 oil on canvas

Last Saturday was my first painting class with Jerry Hunsinger, an artist I've admired for a very long time. Ann Rogers and I drove an hour North of Dallas to Howe for Jerry's class. The countryside was beautiful and filled with lots of grazing cattle. I had forgotten my camera, but Ann assured me she would take all the photos I wanted with her camera, that is until she took it out and realized she had a dead battery...so, there we were in "cow country" with not a camera between the two of us!

Jerry's class was wonderful, I began this painting there, then finished it up when I got home. Among other things, I know that foreleg is too small and need to go back and make some adjustments.

After our class Ann and I enjoyed lunch together about 3 miles from my house, as I was leaving the restaurant I saw a sign that said "Cattle Collection" pointing to the Hilton Hotel. As you probably already know, I made a quick U-turn and crept along the service road of the freeway and discovered longhorns in the parking lot behind the Hilton. My husband and I went right back, with the camera, ignored the private event signs and pretended to be a cattle buyer, all the while taking a ton of reference shots. The light was beautiful and many of the longhorns had brand new baby calves...score, a perfect day...painting a cow in the morning and discovering longhorns 3 miles from my house in the afternoon...most definitely a perfect day!

MIA

8x10 oil on canvas sold

A few postings back I began to share 5 commissions I recently did for Cowgirl's foster mother, this is the 3rd one in the grouping. Mia is a petite little poodle, but big on spunk and joy. She came to live with her foster family, but they soon became a "foster failure" and welcomed Mia into their home forever.

ZOE, AGAIN

8x10 oil on gessoed moleskine paper

Some of our Some Texas Artists Like to Paint artists have decided to exchange moleskines. I still have two moleskines to paint in for The Flying Moleskins and am sad to see it come to a close, but so excited to be a part of these wonderful Texas artists. If any of you are interested in doing this yourself, I strongly encourage you to get a group together and do it, you will not regret it!

In trying to decide what to paint on my introduction page of my moleskine, I thought it best to stick with a subject I knew and knew well. One year ago this month, we lost our sweet schnauzer, Zoe. She had been our family pet for 15 years and was most definitely a loved member of our family. She had many funny ways and expressions, this was the look I got from her when she knew she was in trouble. I thought there was too much contrast between Zoe and the background, so I warmed up her beard a bit, but forgot to re-photograph it before mailing my book to Jean Townsend. I am thrilled to begin this new project and cannot wait to see the treasures you all create! You can follow our moleskine exchange at Texas Moleskin Round-Up; please join us!