SHEP WEST

8x10 oil on canvas sold
This is one of three commissions I recently completed for a new client. Shep is a beautiful rescue German Shepherd and I think one of the largest shepherds I've ever seen; he is such a happy guy. The three paintings will hang as a group in their breakfast room; you can see the other two paintings of MiMi and Ollie on my website at angelaelledge.com. All of the West's dogs are rescues. MiMi's story of how she came to live with Sally & Dale is heartwarming, but first you have to have a little picture of her. She's a little black terrier mix of some kind, has lots of straggly white hair growing all over the place, black wide lips, and a little snaggle buck tooth. After seeing MiMi, Sally cried for days begging Dale to let her have her because "no one would love MiMi like I would". End of story: MiMi lives happily ever after with Sally & Dale!

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Sally and Dale on these paintings, not only did they pay me, but I walked out of their home with a brand new printer they thought my school could use (and yes, we did!) and an awesome bottle of wine! Sally and Dale came over to my house to preview the paintings while they were still wet and they spied my bottle tree loaded with colorful bottles I have collected. This wine is a Meeker Merlot and is known as the Handprint wine. As I understand, one of the two owners of the Meeker vineyard paint their hands with bright and colorful paint and they add their painted signature handprints to the bottles, really cool. After we drink the wine, this is one bottle I can't wait to add to the bottle tree! Thank you Sally & Dale!

HACKBERRY CREEK

This is the plein air I did last weekend at Hackberry Creek near Turtle Creek in Dallas. Because this area is so beautiful and bursting with Spring everything, I had great difficulty in selecting a scene to paint. If I were to be honest, I would admit I can never decide what to paint. Thank goodness for my plein air buddy, Paula Mele, who finally said, paint this! A couple of posts down is a photo reference to this painting.

We were unable to paint today because Winter decided to visit North Texas at the end of March, hopefully we can revisit Hackberry Creek next weekend. So instead of a little plein air painting, I was able to deliver a painting for an exhibition, paint a pet portrait commission, and bake a chocolate chip cheesecake for my daughter's 19th birthday, another busy weekend. Tomorrow will be a non-painting day, we will celebrate Taylor's birthday in Tyler. 

A Passion For Painting Award

I have to tell all of you how much I appreciate your comments and e-mails; I love the way blogging helps us to connect with artists and people who may be interested in each of our unique style of painting or subject matter. The connection that has happened in such a short time with many of you has been inspiring and moves me to want to learn and grow, not only as an artist, but as a person.

The oh, so very talented, Liz Holm surprised me with an award called, "a passion for painting award", designed by Kim Ratigan. Liz is one of those artists that is unafraid to share her heart, through her art, as well as her life. Thank you very much Liz, I am honored that you included me with such talented artists.

The award states that I am to list 7 things that I love and pass the award onto other artists whom I admire. 

In addition to painting, here are 7 things I love:

1. God's Word.

2. My ever so patient and kind husband and the precious daughter he gave me.

3. Teaching my students at West Dallas Community School.

4 .Very cold, wet rainy days, but only if I can stay home. 

5. Cows.

6. Clients who become emotional upon receiving their pet's portraits.

7. The smell of a clean house, Sparkling Wave Pine Sol is my new favorite clean house smell. 

Here are a few of my artists picks:

1. Nancy Medina

2. Olga Wagner

3. Sam Dolman

4. Judy Mackey

5. Steve Conrad

A VERY BUSY WEEKEND

In addition to painting up a storm during Spring Break, I ended my Spring Break week with a plein air outing on Saturday morning. The 2nd photo is a shot of Rex Morgan amongst the red bud trees in a beautiful area of Dallas called Turtle Creek. 

Sunday was a very busy day, as well. We visited the Dallas Arboretum (3rd photo), which is on White Rock Lake and I got to meet Nancy Medina and see her awesome paintings in person. In addition to meeting Nancy, she introduced me to her blogging/painter friend, Judy Mackey, who just happens to be a long ago high school friend of our very own, Sheila Tajima. I love the way this blog community works...who would have thought the internet, the DSFDF blog, and a whole bunch of great artists and people could connect through a   laptop... WOW! 

Nancy and Judy are planning on painting with us this Saturday at the same Turtle Creek location. If any of you are in the Dallas area and would like to join us for some plein air painting, please e-mail me and I'll forward the info to you. 

GREAT AUNT TEE

8x16 oil on canvas panel, nfs
This is my father's aunt, a Catholic nun with the Sisters of Charity in Evansville, Indiana. Her given name was Charlita, we know her as Aunt Tee, but at the convent, she is affectionally called Charlie!

In a much earlier post, is a painting of my late grandmother, Cricket, Aunt Tee's sister. She is now in her late 80's, and is the last sibling from my Grandmother's family. Aunt Tee loves to fish and rarely misses a day of fishing at the convent. To get around the grounds of the convent, she travels by scooter with a license plate that says, "here comes trouble". Every year, Aunt Tee returns home to SW Louisiana and is honored with a family reunion and a catfish fry. One of my brothers has a large, well-stocked catfish pond and at the party, Aunt Tee spends her entire time fishing. My other brother, was able to set his camera up on a tripod on the opposite side of the pond and snapped hundreds of pictures of Aunt Tee, each photo portrays a very serious little nun, dressed in a light blue habit, fishing until sundown.

With it being Spring Break this week, I was quite the prolific painter. Most of the paintings I painted were commissions, but I managed to fit a few in just for me. This is a study for a larger painting I have planned of Aunt Tee, perhaps this summer.

ANOTHER SUSHI PAINTING

6x8 oil on canvas
My first sushi painting, and now I can take it off my list of "things to paint". For other artist's interpretations, please visit DSFDF.

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.