STARRY NIGHT COMPLETED

We did it and we are all patting ourselves on the back! I posted a few pictures of our Starry Night in progress a few weeks ago and now that it is finished and installed, I am thrilled to share our accomplishments. 

We painted (64) 9x12 canvases using the new Golden Open Acrylic paints, altogether there were (40) 6th, 7th & 8th grade students and (24) members of administration, faculty, and staff joined in on the painting, as well. From start to finish, this was about a 6 week project and the completed project is about 6'x8'. 

Please pardon my flash in the photo, I know it is not the best photo, but I could not wait to share it with you. In an earlier post, I showed a few students working diligently on their individual paintings and here I've added photos of some of my "big kids" working just as hard! Pictured here are Tom Neuhoff, our Headmaster and Kathy Stewart, our Assistant Headmaster. If you would like to learn a little more about our school, click here. 

I received a blog award!

I received two art blog awards (is it ok to combine) from the very kind and generous artist, Edward Burton and from the ever so positive and sunny, Sheila Tajima. Well, still being new to this internet blogging thing, I'm actually afraid to write stuff about myself and share, but I will try. 

You probably already know how this works, as I understand it I am to list several things about myself and then tag others to do the same. So here are some things about me:

1. I have the best job in the whole wide world. I teach 1st-8th 

grade in the inner city in Dallas, an area that is known as one of the 8 poorest areas in the U.S.  I love to go to work everyday.

2. I have 1 husband of 24 years, 1 daughter of almost 19 years,and 1 dog of 14 years. I am incredibly blessed to call them my family.

3. I'm originally from SW Louisiana and am known for visiting with an ice chest to bring back fresh seafood, cajun sausage, and lots and lots of cayenne pepper and Mello Joy coffee.

4. I collect old/interesting bottles to hang on my bottle tree that was designed and built by my 2 very talented brothers. And yes, the occasional great bottle of wine is placed on the tree, front and center.

5. I love cows of all kinds and wish I could have one, but that's not going to happen in the city, besides my husband says NO. A few weeks ago I got to climb up onto a longhorn and pose for some pictures...yes, the picture is on the refrigerator and above.

6. There are several great masters of long ago whose work I admire immensely, they are: Bougereau, Cezanne, Sargent, William S. Johnson, Augusta Savage, & the amazing quilts from the artists of Gee's Bend.

My job here is done and now I am to tag some of my favorite and incredibly talented artists:

1. Nathalie S. Davis - inspiring portraits.

2. Sally Tharp - an amazing painter of bottles and glass.

3. Helen Parkhill - wonderful artist, hasn't posted in awhile, but I hope this encourages her to post some new animal portraits!

BISCUIT

8x10 oil on canvas sold
This was one of my first commissions of 2009. Biscuit is a petite little Chinese Crested with golden locks; she certainly knows she has great hair.  Although beautiful and elegant, she's all dog, one of her favorite activities is chasing squirrels. My very dear plein air painting buddies, Dave & Paula (Mele) Weatherbie, are the proud parents of Biscuit.  

In addition to an accomplished plein air painter, Paula is also a graphic designer. One of her most recent accomplishments was the design and production of a new edition of a book on the artist, Clark Hulings. You can see examples of his superb paintings here. 

WITH ATTITUDE

8x10 oil on canvas
This one scared me in the beginning, and then once I began I really had a good time painting the mannequins. Once again I appreciate Karin Jurick's challenging subject matter and hard work and dedication to all of us. Please check out the DSFDF blog to see incredible artwork from some very talented folks.

EMMETT, LITTLE SWEETHEART

Meet Emmett, 8x10 oil on canvas. His parents know him best, so here's their story...sold

"Emmett is an alien. No really I swear he is. He'd try for world domination if he just didn't get so cold, and if he was just a little taller, but being a 4 lb Chihuahua...he'll settle for dominating the living room sofa. 

My husband and I are actors living in NYC, and we never thought we'd own a Chihuahua. I've always thought that they were ugly and buggy eyed, and not nearly as pretty as Pomeranians (one of which we are the proud owners), but here we are...alien parents. When Brian made his Broadway debut in Spelling Bee and I had returned from the Annie national tour, we began casually looking for another dog to keep our sweet Winston (the aforementioned Pom) company. One of Brian's cast mates had a friend who places dogs, and after looking at an e-mail with pictures, the little black and white Chihuahua with a  heart-shaped mark on his head was so amazingly cute that we had to bring him home. We have never regretted it. Emmett weighed just about a pound and had to wear a bell so that we could find him when he decided to crawl into tiny spaces. He has turned out to be such a funny and amazing little guy. Though he does have that Chihuahua edge, and often tries to let the pit bulls in our Washington Heights neighborhood know that he owns the street (we're working on that) he is actually very loving and snuggly, loves people and loves to play.

Emmett also can talk and loves to sing. Though I am still working on understanding his alien language, he will often jump info my lap and growl and whimper the days events to me. And if I begin to sing, watch out cause Emmett will be joining in momentarily, tail wagging, head thrown back and eyes bright. He is a boy soprano by the way, and the higher you sing the better he likes it. Emmett sleeps under the covers in the bed and shivers if it is less than 70 degrees outside, two things that our very furry Pom cannot understand. He gets scared when my husband watches horror films, yearns for his people when we watch X-files, and LOVES the doggie heating pad that Brian bought for him. So...next time you are in the neighborhood, maybe you'll catch us out for a walk and Emmett can tell you about his plans and give a command performance of his favorite songs...and if, by chance, you speak alien maybe you can tell me what he's saying."

HE'S MINE

8x10 oil on canvas

Just recently we were in Canton, Tx for First Monday Trade Days and we saw this little boy proudly holding his new beagle puppy. Hiding behind his new best friend, he happily posed for us. 

WEST DALLAS COMMUNITY SCHOOL PROJECT

My students in classes 5-8 are recreating Starry Night on 64 canvases. We are using the new Golden Open Acrylics, which I highly recommend if you are looking for a slow-drying acrylic. As we work on the painting, I will continue to post in-progress photos; we hope to be completed with all painting within a month. When completed the painting will be approximately 6' x 8'. Pictured here are Chantel, Sydney and Victoria working on their individual sections. 

SANTA JESSIE

8x10 oil on canvas sold

At the end of last year, I was sent a couple of photos of Jessie, along with a you tube video of Jessie in action at one of her most recent flyball competitions. My client explained that she was not interested in having a painting of Jessie wearing the Santa hat, she just wanted me to have a selection of photos to see if any of those might work for a painting. I asked permission to paint Jessie with the Santa hat for my portfolio and just because it was one of those exercises I just had to paint. I sent an e-mail attachment of Santa Jessie to the client for her "just to see" the finished painting, letting her know I would begin working on her portrait of Jessie as soon as we had decided on photos...well, long story short, she asked if she could buy this one, too...a very nice surprise. You can see Jessie in action here.

SAN FRANCISCO CRAYON

4" x 8" oil on canvas sold

This is my San Francisco Painted Lady painting for Karin Jurick's blog, DSDF. Once again the challenges were mighty, not just architecture again, but pastel architecture, hmmm.  I liked the 4"x8" crop because I was able to emphasize the giant crayon. My goal here was to keep the brushstrokes loose and not get hung up on making it perfect. 

ACE

8x10 oil on canvas sold

Meet Ace, our neighbor's little malti-poo. I know everyone thinks their dog is the most special, but Ace is pretty unique. We love to have Ace over when Tim & Trish are out of town. He is a constant ball of energy, if anyone comes over, he immediately runs figure 8's in the living and dining room. He must bury everything and then the minute he has hidden his "treasure" he looks around the room and "digs" it up and then hides it all over again. When Ace goes for a walk in the neighborhood, our neighbors avoid the front of our house because Ace will make an immediate detour down the sidewalk to come over and say hello. He's a funny little guy, we like to say he's all poo and no malti!

This is actually my 2nd version of Ace, the first try was a painting that highlighted his little snaggle tooth smile, but it just wasn't a happy portrait. I felt like this version really showed the happy little Ace we love. 

JEFFERSON MEMORIAL

5x8 oil on canvas board

My contribution to Karin Jurick's Different Strokes for Different Folks blog. I've decided architecture is not my thing. To enjoy more beautiful interpretations of the Jefferson Memorial, please visit the DSDF blog.

INDY

8x10 oil on canvas 

For the last several months I have been very busy with commissioned portraits, this one was so much fun to paint of Indy, a very pampered and well loved Springer Spaniel. sold

HELEN

9x12 oil on canvas board

From the DSDF blog, Karin Jurick partnered us with another artist and we painted each other. nfs

TA, MY OTHER GRANDMOTHER

12x24 oil on canvas nfs

This was my grandmother, everyone called her Ta which is a nickname for, Letia (pronounced with a strong french accent Lee-Ta). She was a hard worker, loving, but firm...a no nonsense kind of person. I remember the "drop-in" company and how she loved visiting with her rural neighbors. Visiting with her friends and family on a daily basis took on significant importance in her later years. When I think of my summer visits, several things come to mind,  feeding the cows and chickens, picking eggs, and in the late afternoons, before I knew about plein air painting, taking my sketchbook out to draw and paint in the pastures.

ZIBILICH RESIDENCE

11x14 oil on canvas

This landscape is from our July '08 plein air paint-out.

WALDEN

8x10 oil on canvas

This is Walden a beautiful rescued Boxer.

LOLA OF LOUISIANA

8x10 oil on canvas sold

Meet Lola, a chocolate labrador. This was painted from the client's reference photos as a birthday surprise for her brother. I understand Lola has a loving and loyal disposition; with paint and brush I tried to capture her sweet  nature.

IN MY SISTER'S ARMS

11x14 oil on canvas nfs

I am hesitant to post portraits because I am not a portrait artist; however, I do want to learn, so what better way to learn. In My Sister's Arms was painted for our friend, Jay Abney's 50th birthday. Jay has been to Chad, Africa several times to help with an ongoing building project on a church and school. He gave me many reference photos to choose from, but I kept coming back to these two little girls because they were especially meaningful to him. Happy Birthday Jay. 

LABRADOR

12x24 oil on canvas sold

Typically I paint 8x10 pet portraits, but occasionally a larger painting will come along.

CRICKET

12x16 oil on canvas nfs

This was my grandmother; the woman whose face lit up when she spoke about Jesus. I have such beautiful memories of this precious woman and could fill up many pages writing about her. Mom-Mom loved her vegetable garden and you could find her in it from sunup to sundown; she could grow anything in super abundance and always shared her bounty from the garden. My grandparents were quite the gardeners, in addition to the overflowing vegetable garden, there were lemon, pear, fig, tangerine, orange, kumquat trees...and I'm sure many more types that I have forgotten through the years. 

She had a precious servant's heart and lived by example always putting others before herself. In her portrait, I tried so hard to portray the kindness and gentleness she always showed us.  I asked her one time how she came to be called Cricket and she told me that it was a nickname she was given because when she was little she hopped around all the time.  After she told me that, she shrugged her shoulders and said "That was a long time ago, I think that's why they call me Cricket."

I miss her.