"Nesting"

This is a little 5"X7" watercolor pencil drawing/painting I've been working on in between calls at work this week.

Available - please email for inquiry

Commissioned painting

I just loved the reference photo sent to me for this painting the instant I saw it - a girl who loves her horse...what could be better than that :)  It was commissioned as a gift for Christmas - hope she likes it:)

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Rainey sketch

Rainey demonstrates the answer to the age old question "how can one dog take up so much room on the couch?
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Count Your Many Blessings

This week's 5"X7" colored pencil sketch - done during my inbetween phone call moments at work...

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luna dulce

 

A few weeks ago I finished reading Calla Lily Ponder - a wonderful book by Rebecca Wells.  It has a lot of beautiful imagery about the main character feeling her mother guiding her when she saw the moon in the night sky.  That beautiful writing has been in the back of my mind ever since and was the inspiration for my Sunday morning painting session today.

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Weeknight sketch

Every year NPR puts out a list of their favorite music for this year - I was reading that and started listening to a glorious violin concerto by Hilary Hahn - great big dramatic glorious music - and somehow out of that I sketched this funny little 6"X6" piece about a cowdog jumping over the moon...

A Pink Vespa

I've always thought it would be fun to drive a pink Vespa...so this morning I painted myself one:)

The Wisdom of Nature

"The wisdom of nature speaks to us heart to heart, and nature's first language is beauty." - Tim McNulty
This Sunday morning's watercolor sketch...
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My wishes for this holiday season and always...

Snowflakes Keep Falling On My Head...

Wishing everyone a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving Day.  It's snowing here on Cornet Bay and we're really enjoying it - nowhere we have to be today:) 

I got a new Kindle!

My wonderful husband got me a new Kindle!!   Yeah!!!
And the cover is red...yeah!!!

Party Pooper

Another sketch from my work desk this week.

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Desk Doodle Gone Mad...

This was a colored pencil sketch done from my work desk this week... A Head Full of Fall.

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Still life with Pomegranate

Still working on this piece I started at my sister in law's wonderful studio on Sunday.  We get together when we can for little art lessons where we try something we haven't done a lot of - this time painting from life instead of from photos.  The grapes and pomegranates were delicious:)

Night Owls

My humble offering for this month's Nibblefest contest.  The theme is - you guessed it - Owls.

Oregon Coast

I just got back from a wonderful week driving down the Oregon Coast.  We camped in our little 19 ft Roadtrek and I have to say that Oregon really has my home state of Washington beat hands down with their great State Parks.  All the sites we stayed in there were beautiful, clean and less expensive than here in Washington.

This painting is by far the largest watercolor I've attempted but it just felt like it needed to be a big painting.  It's 16"X20" on my new 300 lb hot press watercolor paper using Windsor & Newton and Daniel Smith transparent watercolors. 

Never get tired of sketching Dusty...

I'll bet I've drawn him 100 times or more but I still enjoy it every single time.

Calm Under Pressure

As I was painting this it reminded me of a PBS Mystery (I LOVE a good mystery). It looks like there

must be a good story behind this look.

fish dreams

The light isn't good for picture taking...but here's what I'm working on this Friday night.

Weeknight portrait study...

Another drawing inbetween time at work then home to add some watercolor...

Nocturne

This will be my entry for this month's Nibblefest contest on Ebay.

The theme is "Nocturnal" - and each entry starts at only 99 cents!

This was somethine totally different than anything I normally do and I really enjoyed

the challenge of painting in this monochromatic style.

Panda Bear

My Third commission this week...  This is adorable Panda - commissioned as a gift for

Panda's human "dad" who is apparently wrapped quite firmly around her

little paw.  According to his wife it was hard to get a photo of her without him in it:)

Second commission...

Finished my second commissioned painting for the week...  

Another one this weekend.

It Takes Two

Some paintings are more like dreams than conscious efforts.  That is certainly true of this one.  After working on commissioned paintings this morning I just felt the need to let my brushes and my creativity run amok this evening!  I seem to have a circus theme going on lately :)

Working on a commissioned painting today

I have a collecter that has purchased several of my cattle dog paintings and a few years ago she started commissioning paintings for various clients of hers that have dogs.  I have another one to work on next weekend.

And I've been listening this morning to some beautiful Brazilian music - the soundtrack from the movie Woman on Top.  The movie was pretty silly and predictable but the music is gorgeous!

Red red rose...to go with my Red red wine!

Yes, it's Friday night on Cornet Bay and so I got to have a glass of red red wine while I painted this red red rose.  Cheers!  And I hope you're all enjoying this Friday night too!!

Last Book of Summer

Here's what I'm working on this rainey Monday afternoon...  I actually don't mind the rain but painting this scene of a warmer summer afternoon did make me long a little for some warmth :)

Caught in a Laugh

My ongoing study of painting people...  I think it will take a lifetime :)

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Life's a Party

Another sketch from my work desk..what else-cowdogs :)  Aka:  Australian Cattle Dogs

A Sketch during the slow time at work...

We haven't been very busy at work this week so I've been able to do some little sketches between calls.  I finally added some watercolor to one of them tonight. 

Wave Buster - "she ain't afraid of no wave"...

Just had to include a picture of Rainey taking on a wave at the

beach yesterday - she had a blast :)

struggling with a drawing...

It seems like I'm always and forever struggling with drawing...I know, I know - just means I haven't done enough drawings yet.  So tonight after I finished drawing for the night and was taking a picture to track my progress on this painting I decided to play with the negative feature on my photo editing program - I like the negative image.  So - it might be interesting to approach drawing from the concept of adding light instead of adding darkness to a white paper.  I was just reading about applying pan pastel to the whole surface and then starting the drawing with charcoal, an eraser and a soft cloth... might be an interesting experiment.  Random art thoughts on a Monday night :)

Waiting for Low Tide

This is an 8"X10" watercolor painting a did last night to help raise money for animal rescue through an organization a belong to called Artists United for Animal Rescue.

 

This is the first painting I've done of Dusty since he died and it was hard but also

therapeutic.  I was telling a friend of mine about how I still

miss him so much and she sent me an email back last week

that said "I just talked to Dusty and he told me to tell you to BE HAPPY."

And she was so right - so it felt good to bring him to life

through a painting - especially one to raise money to help other dogs.

I bought a Belinda Del Pesco print/painting and my house is transformed...

This gorgeous piece I just bought from incredible watercolorist / print maker  Belinda Del Pesco arrived today.  I can't say how thrilled and delighted I am to get to see her work again in person.  I'm the proud owner of three paintings and each one I add I am more thrilled with!  I am so drawn to her work - especially the portraits.  Her sensitivity, wonderful colors and fine attention to detail make for a delicious treat for the eye and the soul.  I couldn't be more delighted!

Check out more of her work here:  http://belindadelpesco.blogspot.com/ - including a link to her etsy shop.

This month's Nibblefest painting...

Last night I painted from a graphite sketch I did on my lunch break at work.  The photo seemed too boring as it was so I just let the colors all run at the bottom.

This is being offered this week on ebay as part of the Nibblefest contest.

"One Fine Day"

My husband and I went for a wonderful boat ride today - this is a little watercolor sketch from our trip.  This red sail boat was departing from Bowman Bay and I just loved the red against the blue, blue water!

Also - for you watercolor enthusiasts I watched an art video early this morning and learned something new - again.  When your watercolor is very wet you can add lines with a toothpick, or the back of your brush if the brush has a pointed back and the grooved areas will collect more water and add lines to your painting.  The artist in the video added some fine little background branches to great effect using this technique.  I used that for the initial washes for the wake lines in this painting. 

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Screw housework - I needed to do another painting...

Yes - I should be doing my housework - but I'm so enjoying painting today that I just had to try another one...  laundry can wait but this painting couldn't :)

Watercolor and pastel

Here's one more pastel painting with a watercolor underpainting.  I see a few corrections to make before I finish my housework to get ready for another work week.

"Solo"

This morning I watched a video demo from pastel artist Richard McKinley.  It was about doing a watercolor underpainting for pastel.  Well, I had to try it.  I started with a little sketch in watersoluable graphite...

The next step was doing a very loose, very watery, watercolor painting - right on the sanded pastel surface.  I did this underpainting with a stiff acrylic brush instead of my delicate watercolor brushes to avoid having my expensive brushes eaten by the sanded surface.  The challenge was to do this watercolor painting with the mind of a pastel artists - not as a watercolor artist.  At his suggestion I painted this on an upright easel instead of my normal flat surface - without concern for the paint dripping.

My hands were literally shaking as I started applying the pastels...it's been so long since I used them that I wasn't sure I'd remember how.   This was such a fun painting - I think I need to do more!  I find the very best thing to do when I've reached a plateau or block with my art is to try something new - a new medium or a new technique.

"Untethered"

This is an 8"X10" watercolor painting for a dear friend of mine who has had a very rough year.  I'm wishing for her to see this painting and feel the peace and contentment she felt at the moment the reference photo for this painting was taken...floating in sunshine.

NFS

"Warming Up"

Ever since the loss of my dog Dusty I've had the biggest "painter's block" I've ever had.  I decided tonight to do a painting of Dusty hoping that would help me break through whatever emotions are keeping me from wanting to paint again...  I just couldn't do it.  I looked at some photos and took them into the studio and just wasn't ready.  So instead I painted from a reference photo of a friend's dog (thanks Tavey)...  hoping to get out of this funk soon.  I know Dusty wouldn't let anything keep him from being himself - I'm hoping to follow his example.

Heavy Laden

Yesterday a coworker told me the most adorable story.  When she was little her family grew a lot of their own food.  One day she spotted a zucchini that was well hidden and had grown very large.  She loved the zucchini and adopted it as her surrogate baby - naming it Heavy Laden (that's my favorite part)...  When Heavy Laden got to be truly too heavy laden and she had to part with it she was very sad for a long time.  So last night I just started doodling and it turned into this little painting.

Commissions...

One down and two to go...here is a commissioned painting I finished last night - my friend Lani's son commissioned me to paint a portrait of his wife for their anniversary.  She's gorgeous and it was a pleasure to paint.  The next two are dog portraits...

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More sketchbook pages... intro to "the cat lady" part of my life

These next pages are my introduction to the cats that changed my life in my twenties and thirties - Satchmo, Stretch and Boonga.  It's going to be so fun to remember them.  Unfortunately I don't have any photos to work from so will just be depending on my memory (not so good) and my imagination (much better).

The first pages of my Sketchbook project

Things that change other things...

Tonight I'm starting on the Sketchbook Project - a collection of journals that will travel across the country in galleries and museums (see the link on the right side of this blog).  The theme I chose is "things that change other things"...mine will be dedicated to the animals that have changed me.  Tonight I'm starting with the first dog I fell in love with - my Boxer, Sport.  It's a hard story for me to tell but I think this whole journal will be a wonderful way to share both the painful and magical, beautiful, miraculous way that animals have changed who I am.  Will share more with you as I go.

A poem from a friend at work in honor of my birthday last weekend

At the shore's edge I picked up a shell.
I listened across the sounds of the ocean as the bells
of time glistened.
Years had come and years had gone -
the waves washing away each one.
I listened a little closer -
a new sound emerged from the shell...
The sound of many more happy years of all
that is good and well.