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.

BOAT AFLOAT

5x8 oil on canvas panel
Let me first say I found this DSFDF subject to be particularly difficult. I am not much of a water person, I don't mind looking at water, but actually being submerged in water or in a boat is not one of my favorite things. I almost scrapped this one, but remembered Karin's words about not painting this as 2 separate subjects (water and boat/boater), but instead to see this as a whole. 

I don't paint many figure paintings and I found this to be very difficult, as well. Many of you paint beautiful paintings of figures and in such small formats...I now have a different level of appreciation for those of you who do small format figure paintings, it is absolutely incredible the way you make each stroke count. So many lessons learned, but I don't think I want to take a ride in a boat any time soon!

JESSIE, FLYBALL CHAMP

8x16 oil on canvas, sold
I normally do not do this, but I am posting this commissioned portrait before my client has seen it for herself (hope she does not mind). I painted Jessie this afternoon and am very happy with this portrait, she has the most beautiful fur and very bright watchful eyes. I apologize for the glare on the picture, I'll have to reshoot it after it has dried. 

Not too long ago this same client sent me pictures of her dog wearing a Santa hat, she did not want a painting of her dog wearing the hat, but I loved the shot and she gave me permission to paint it for my portfolio...long story short, she loved it and bought it anyway.

Last week she sent me more pictures of Jessie and requested a painting of Jessie with her all time favorite toy, a frisbee. Lee was so kind as to allow me to select the canvas size and gave me free reign to change the color of the frisbee, it seems Jessie has frisbees of all colors. Well, I didn't change the frisbee color because I loved the pop of lime green, what I did change was the dead grass in the background. If you look closely you can see Jessie's tongue and fur from her ear through the frisbee, that was my most difficult part of the painting and as scared as I was to attempt the translucent feel of the frisbee, it was actually very easy. I hope it comes across as translucent...it does to me. 

I've also posted a photo of Jessie from one of her most recent competitions, doing what she loves best! Somewhere below in an earlier post, is the post of Jessie wearing her Santa hat. Just recently Jessie placed first in her division and will be attending the Skyhoundz World Canine Disc Championship...way to go Jessie!

OLD EYEBROWS

16x20 oil on canvas, sold
This is Old Eyebrows, a Texan longhorn with not only a beautiful set of horns, but an unusual face, as well. This was a commissioned portrait for a Father's Day present. From his livestock, Old Eyebrows is his favorite, more than likely because of his pronounced and distinguished eyebrows! 

MOCHA

12x24 oil on canvas
This is the portrait I've decided to submit in a pet portrait exhibition. Mocha's portrait came about from another client who makes the most amazing jewelry for pets, so beautiful and "un-pet-like"that I want to wear the jewelry myself! Stacy was kind enough to loan me a variety of pieces and when I saw the turquoise, I knew it was meant for Mocha. Mocha, a Great Dane, was lovingly rescued by the Bissell family and has the sweetest disposition...she's just a great big lap dog! Elise Bissell is an incredible photographer and a full-time rescue/foster parent. Note to Sheila:  I will be working on a portrait donation for Elise's Take Me Home Pet Rescue and will be submitting it to you for your new website, look for it later this summer. Thank you all for looking and visiting my blog; I appreciate it very much.

The Pathetic Blogger Award

Thank you for visiting and commenting and for those of you who have e-mailed me recently, I will be returning those e-mails shortly. Although I have never heard of a "Pathetic Blogger" award, I thought I would go ahead and award myself the P. B. award. In the last couple of weeks I have not had time to visit blogs and comment, much less post anything on my own blog. Instead, I have managed to wrap up the end of the school year with a beautiful art show of my student's artwork, deal with the dorm room explosion (miles and piles of dirty laundry) that returned to my home, celebrate my 50th birthday last week with a dinner party for about 40 people, teach a 4-day workshop on Henri Matisse to little ones, come down with, what we in Texas refer to as, the crud, and work on a couple of paintings for a pet portrait contest...and to think, I'm supposed to be on summer vacation! Hopefully I can catch up with my blogging and posting and maybe participate in a DSFDF painting challenge one day soon. Take care.

SOULFUL GUS

8x10 oil on canvas sold
Gus, a black labrador, was a fun little commissioned portrait. There's something about labradors that make my heart melt, with Gus it was his soulful eyes. In the photo references I was given, Gus' expression never changed, he just had that loyal and meaningful "I'll stay by your side and be your best friend" look that I love so much from labs. 

ZIGGY MARLEY

8x16 oil on canvas panel
This is Ziggy Marley and if you recognize him it's because you've probably seen and read about him on Beth Connolly's blog. On Beth's blog, her latest post shows a photo of Ziggy proudly wearing his well deserved blue ribbon for mastering an advanced obedience course. The photo I used for this painting was taken by an incredible photographer, Lisa Prince Fishler who, along with Beth, granted me permission to paint Ziggy. Please visit both of these sites; I appreciate this community of bloggers and artists so very much, everyone is very willing to share, support, and encourage.  Thank you so much Beth and Lisa!

This was one of those rare paintings where the time flew quickly and before I knew it Ziggy was signed and ready for posting. Thank you so much for visiting and commenting; it means so much to me!

TWO MORE SMILING PETS

K.C.

8x10 oil on canvas sold

This is K.C. showing off his special little grin. This portrait is a birthday gift for the "grandmother" of Shep, Ollie, & MiMi West (see earlier post). In the photos I was given, K.C. has the exact same expression in all of them....only a smile a mom could love!
WILSON 

8x10 oil on canvas sold

As I was working on K.C.'s portrait, I received a phone call for a special birthday present for Wilson's dad. Imagine my surprise, when I received the photos of Wilson, again another unique smile, and the same expression in all of his photos, as well...only a smile a dad could love!

PHOEBE LOVE

8x10 oil on canvas sold
This is one of my most recent commissions, painted within the last couple of weeks. Phoebe is a beautiful lab, loved dearly by her owner, Mrs. Love...don't you love her last name? 

When Mrs. Love described Phoebe to me, she talked about her alert eyes, apparently Phoebe smiles not only with her great big grin, but with her eyes, as well. When Mrs. Love picked up Phoebe's portrait, she loved everything about it, especially her eyes. She left smiling and left me smiling.

MY WEEKEND WITH HENRY FINKELSTEIN

6x12 oil on canvas
16x20 oil on panel
8X16 oil on panel

Another great weekend to talk about, but I will keep this short because I have so many photos to post...I spent a long weekend studying with Henry Finkelstein, an abstract expressionist from New York (3rd from left on back row in group shot). Our plein air painting days consisted of 30-35 mph winds, very gray days, rainstorms, and the occasional burst of sunshine. Our days began painting in the morning, breaking for lunch with a critique, and then back to painting into early evening. Before we sent Henry back to New York, we celebrated with a wonderful party last night. Artists are just the best people, I have made so many new friends, here in blogworld, and through workshops. We had so much fun painting together and plan on painting again very soon. I love seeing photos of artists at work and hope you enjoy seeing these amazing artists and their incredible paintings. Please keep in mind these landscapes were pretty quick, but hopefully I have some good studies that I might develop into larger works soon.