For Passion Horse Ranch

This is a little miniature 2 1/2"X3 1/2" acrylic on gesso primed masonite ACEO painting I did awhile ago and have been waiting for the right opportunity to list it for a horse charity. I just listed it for Passion Horse Ranch to help them raise the money to rescue 2 horses that are in need. It is listed through AUAR - Artists United for Animal Rescue which is a group of ebay artists with a commitment to help animals through the sale of our artwork and photography. 100% of the proceeds will go to Passion Horse.

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Can't stop painting my sweet girl Rainey...

I got out my very unusual rough thick handmade watercolor paper today and painted Rainey sitting in her corner of the couch. This paper is definitely NOT for control freaks - it's like painting on cotton balls... for most of the painting I used a very wet on wet technique and the paint just shot out wherever it wanted to go - a very interesting and for me - fun process. I think it made for some nice shapes and textures and I'm pretty happy with the result. This one is 8"X8" and I also cut out some little 4"X4" squares that I haven't decided what to do with yet.

Speaking of Rainey - it's goreous outside this afternoon and she and Dusty are itching to get out in it so off we go...

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Psalms on Sunday morning...

I started yesterday painting over the experimental preparation I did for this piece. It is on Richeson 275 lb watercolor paper which I primed with gesso and tried started to paint over but it was so slippery that the paint had trouble adhering so I just randomly put some oil color over the gesso and let that dry completely before starting this painting. The blue in the sky and the dark blue/green of the distant mountains are part of the underpainting showing through.

When I finished the piece I was looking for a title and decided it would be appropriate for a Sunday morning to go through my favorite passages in the bible - Psalms and I found a verse that seemed so right for the feeling of this piece -

In the morning, O Lord, you hear my
voice;
in the morninng I lay my requests
before you
and wait in expectation.
Psalm 5:3

Welcome Sweet Avery

My friend Stephanie and her husband just sent me some photos of their beautiful baby girl - Avery Lorraine. I couldn't resist doing a little watercolor sketch of her on a card to send to them. She was blessed with her mom's beautiful dark thick hair -lucky girl!

Windsor & Newton watercolors on a watercolor notecard.

One Moo Moon

I tried yet another new product this morning - Aquabord. It's watercolor paper mounted on an ampersand board. It was really different than painting on regular watercolor paper and I really liked it! No worrying about needing to prepare it or tape it down...very nice.

This is my entry for this week's Different Strokes Blog by Karin Jurick. I was so pleased to see it was an animal photo this week...ahhh a little more comfortable subject matter for me:)

Ok - off to do the necessary Saturday morning housework and a birthday party this afternoon but I hope to fit some art in there somewhere...

Thanks for looking at my blog!

Different Strokes painting for this week

This was actually a two week project instead of the usual one week on Karin Jurick's Different Strokes From Different Folks blog. I just did a very small bit of the reference photo and put it on the front page of the newpaper. I really had a hard time knowing what to do with this one. These assignments are really challenging:)

Nibblefest time!

The theme for October's Nibblefest is Tribal. I painted "Tribal Dusty" - a new look for my Australian Cattledog Dusty - but filled with red balls and milkbones to make sure he's comfortable with his new look:)

Nibblefest is a monthly contest on ebay - with every piece of art starting at only 99 cents. The idea is to get as many individual unique bidders to take "nibbles" and get as many bids as you can.

This piece will be up on ebay tomorrow morning at 10:00.

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Asleep in the Hay

I showed the reference photo for this painting in an earlier blog. I've been wanting to paint it ever since I took the photo at the Washington Fair in Puyallup. This little cowgirl just looked so peaceful and sweet sleeping in the hay next to her cows. I really enjoyed the day painting her:)

Graphite drawing for Humane Society of the US

This morning I couldn't resist drawing sweet baby Boomer - safe in his dad's arm. They are all so lucky and blessed to have found each other:) My friends just adopted him from our Whidbey Island animal shelter and he is just the sweetest guy... I just listed it on ebay to benefit the Human Society so they can help some other sweet animal kids find their homes.

Commissioned work

This is a portrait I just finished of my dear friend's grandaughter. It's Windsor & Newton watercolor on Fabriano hot press watercolor paper and will be matted to 11"X14". Crossing my fingers she likes it:)

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Hanging basket from Whistler

I went with some friends to Whistler - north of us in Canada - a few weekends ago. This basket was in the Upper Village - right next to the wonderful outdoor Sunday market. I was actually taking a picture of some dogs (my friends who were there with me will vouch for the fact that few dogs escaped my picture taking efforts:) but above where the dogs and their owner were standing was this lovely basket.

Card making class

Yesterday I did something kind of different for me and took a card making class. It was really fun just to play with different papers, ribbons, tools... I really had a good time - and these are the fruits of my "labors".

One Fine Day

This is one of the oil paintings I did at Stoney Beach Studio last week. It's my personal favorite - I really like the colors and the contrast between the bright sky and the dark trees - and the way the red and orange trees really jump out against the dark green.

It's so fun when you do a painting that you're really pleased with:)

New Kids on the Chair

This is a painting I did for my friend Shirley of her two "new kids"...Boomer the Corgi and Sasha the cat. It is a companion piece for another painting I did for her last year featuring her other dog and two cats. She is a huge hearted person and volunteers at our local animal shelter - where she has adopted all of her beautiful "kids". Hope she and her husband like it.

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Sleepy Boxer

This is a colored pencil drawing/painting I've been working on for the past few evenings. It was done as an experiment on hot press watercolor paper which I found worked really well with colored pencils - the best surface I've found so far and I've tried alot of them.

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Pink trees...

Yesterday I spent the day painting at Stoney Beach Studio - it was wonderful as always. We painted with oils on Richeson pastel board. I worked on this and two other paintings that I'll post later this weekend. I also started an experiment putting a coat of gesso on 300 lb watercolor paper then tried starting an oil painting on that but I didn't like the surface at all - it was slippery and the paint didn't want to adhere so I'm going to let that dry and try painting very thickly with the paint on top of that and see how it works.

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Ben Ure Island

I'm going to try to get a better photo this afternoon so I can list this on ebay (the painting is much lighter than this photo) - but here's my attempt at a little oil painting "George Inness style". It was really hard to get away from wanting to use my brush more but for a first attempt I'm pleased with it. This is the view out of my studio window this morning so I guess this counts as a "plein aire" painting - but with heat and fresh coffee:)

George Inness

George Inness - born in 1825

I watched a PBS show last night that I had recorded earlier about landscape painter George Inness. I was so inspired by his rich gorgeous color and light. He painted mostly with rags and his hands - seldom using a brush so there aren't many visible brush strokes. His later work had this kind of dreamlike quality. He is my new landscape hero - I can't wait to try his technique for myself. Time to get out the oil paints:)

Lake Steilacoom Fisherman

This painting is from a reference photo I took while visiting my mom on Lake Steilacoom. It was done with Nupastels on Senneliere La Carte sanded pastel paper. I'm doing a little commission painting avoidance this afternoon - stubornly painting what I want to instead of what I should be... I think I may even take myself outside for a little while - it's so nice here this afternoon. If I can convince my neighbor to go out for a paddle in our little paddle boat. Maybe I'll even get some nice reference photos for a little more commission avoidance this evening:)

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Different Strokes painting for this week

At the last minute I submitted my effort for Karin Jurick's WONDERFUL blog invitation to all artists to participate in a weekly painting using her photo as the inspiration. This is my rendition of "the bean". It was done quickly and late at night but I'm happy with the results...and happy that I didn't miss this week's challenge:)

Rotary auction donation

I think I already posted this painting in an earlier post. I'm going this afternoon to pick out a frame and I'll be donating the framed piece for the Anacortes Rotary auction. My good friend always stresses out this time of year trying to round up items for the auction - and also making beautiful jewelry that she will donate.

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Shady Lady

Here's my morning watercolor...this time it's Miss Marley claiming her spot in the shade. I did a graphite sketch, then added the watercolor and some colored pencil for the details on Marley.

One thing leads to another...

These are two little "doodles" I did in graphite - in my ongoing struggle to draw/paint people - so I decided to add some watercolor to them - then I cut them into bookmarks and added the background color and design...fun:) If they don't sell on Ebay I'm going to do another one and donate the set of three to our local Rotary auction. I'm already donating a large framed painting but I know they're always looking for small affordable things for people to buy too.

Penn Cove watercolor

This is from a reference photo I took during the Whidbey Island Plein Air contest weekend. I started it this morning while drinking my coffee. It was such a treat to sleep in until 8:00 - then walk the dogs with my friend Kathy - a nice long leisurely walk on the beach (for us - lots of frantic running for the dogs :) and coffee and breakfast at about 10:00. Then listing to Canadian singer-songwriters from the CBC and painting... Life is good!

Contemplating Tomorrow

The photo for this one is kind of blurry but here I am attempting another collage/watercolor painting...I have all this beautiful decorative paper to use...and I'm so addicted to watercolors right now so it seems only right to try the two of them together:)

Picking Up the Pieces

Inspired by a collage workshop I took this summer I decided to use some of the great papers I bought that day and create a mixed media piece using torn paper, watercolor and colored pencil. It's very time consuming so I've kind of been putting off trying it until I had a nice big chunk of time and today was the day! I really enjoyed it and hope to do some more - maybe a smaller one next time:) It's a fun way to play with design and shapes.

Moonshadow

I painted this 8"X8" watercolor last night -Inspired by Cat Steven's wonderful song. It was kind of a celebration of the beginning of my two week vacation! It just went up for auction on ebay this morning.

I hope to do a lot of painting during the next couple of weeks so stay tuned...

"September Evening"

The reference photo for this watercolor was taken on my mom's deck while I was cooking dinner and waiting for her to get home. She has the most glorious view of Mt Rainier and it's nice with a painting to be able to look at the view without hearing all of the Jet skis :)
As I was laying down the graphite underpainting and then painting over it with watercolors something about it really reminded me of the old hand tinted black and white photos. It was one of those paintings that just seemed to paint itself - I love it when that happens:)

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