At camp we are living in the woods. It's a maple forest mostly, with tall, gangly trunks rising up above more smaller tall gangly trunks and a wonderful airy green atmosphere. Every day is a gift, walking through that space.
Yep! I'm up north a bit, painting and working with kids! Got some pups around here to paint so that helps too, and there's always the beauty of the lake to pull me in. This painting is from a cloudy sunset- and all that color is true! The sunsets are amazing up here!
It is pretty chilly up here too, which I absolutely love, except for those few minutes between taking clothes off and getting into the bed, and that other time of getting OUT of the bed and into clothes in the morning!
And just as a little reminder, SEND ME YOUR DOGS! I'm still looking for a number of dog photos for my July 30 Dogs in 30 Days project!
Wahoo!
Yes, another commission! I seem to love fluffy fur... it's really fun to paint. With the black ground I paint on, it's painting in the highlights for the most part! Not a lot more to worry about!
Love it!
Oh and if you want to learn how to paint from me, I'll be offering some classes in July, just one day 2.5-3 hour classes on how to paint your pet!
I''m collecting photos for this July's 30 Dogs in 30 Days project and I'd love to paint YOUR dog too!
This was a commission for a friend to give to a friend, and I'm told was very well received- I can't quite explain how much it means to me to feel that a painting of mine can help breach a gap and heal a little love~
It's pretty cool...
Hey y'all! I'm just about done with school for the year, and getting ready to start lining up DOGS for 30 Dogs in 30 Days! If you have some dog pics you want to send me, now is the time!
This was a commission I finished up a little bit ago- I am so lucky that I truly enjoy painting commissions! And this one was SO fun- something about that gaze, those ears, that lip....
I'm so lucky~
Yes, I love to paint, and I love to paint animals, so I am really lucky that the combination of both of those results in plenty of commissions!
It means I get to paint what I love, AND I know the artwork already has a home!
This is Bella and Jack, an incredibly sweet pair of doxies~
Friday night was the annal Art 4 Shelter fundraiser for Simpson Housing Services, and I was live painting there along with my fellow artists Barrett and Jennie who were also the artists who were with me in 2018! It was super fun, I was able to get two paintings done and both were bid on and claimed!
The first painting was from a photo I found on insta- I need to write to the person and let them know I painted it! The dog is just so sweet and silly and I loved all the fluff!
And the second is an otter~
And there were SOOOO many people! I really hope we did well! Steve is retiring, the guy who has led so much of the work to get the new shelter built over by MIA, and it is beautiful. It's just so hard in the world right now to know what to do next, what can help, and things like this make me feel like I am actually doing something to help, even in just a small way.
Yes, another spanish goat.... my brother just got the greatest photos of these! He and my sister in law are great hikers and on this day they went on a 14 mile hike through the Spanish hills where they were staying and saw all these goats... I loved this one's step and that lifted foreleg!
Man, i meant to be posting WAY more than I have been! Sheesh-
This is a goat from a photo my brother sent to me while wandering in Spain back in March- I was fascinated by the shapes of her (or him... don't know why but she strikes me as more feminine... how do you sex a goat anyway?) and the spaces around her, and by those crazy clingy sticky hoovies! Look at how she's standing sideways! Oh and the eyes too! SO cool!
I'll either have her with me at the Sculpture Park Art Fair at the Walker May 9 and 10 or I'll be hanging her at Diamond's for May-june!
I'm getting the 30 Cats over to Diamonds this afternoon to hang them for the month, so if you're in town, feel free to come on by!
This goat is from a photo my brother Tom sent a week or so ago when he and his wife were rambling around Spain. They are true adventurers... finding out of the way places and hiking for 14 miles up and down stony areas, taking amazing photos so I don't have to. And that's where these goats were!
I loved this one, those toey-hoofies clinging so well to the rock~
And the big sky above~
Here's an Easter Otter for you! This is a lovely large one I painted in Grand Marais at the end of March, during my residency with Michelle Miles at the Art Colony. I am still obsessed both with otters and with water reflections and how to paint something nebulous and ever changing...
The nose and head of this otter look a lot like a capybara to me, something with the shape of her nose. I also love that paw just lifting from the water, and the creamy colors of the rocks behind her, and something about that calm look in her eye...
Oh and the whiskers!
Gotta love those whiskers~
I'm a little preoccupied at the moment, playing a bit in Florida with Duane and Max, and my uncles' generosity... but this is a little pup from my Grand Marais Adventures! I'd taken this photo a long time ago at LOLA in our neighborhood, and just love that little face, and the earnestness those eyes are looking at you with....
I had a request for just One more critter for the month, and because Beth has been a fantastic patron and because she sent SUCH a cute photo of her Oliver, here he is!
I LOVE those little toesies!!!!
I just got back from my week up at the Art Colony- I'll start posting those paintings this week, actually...
And Michelle was with me up there- she has been a part of this amazing cohort of women artists who annually work at the Art Colony together. We were begun as a group gathered through artist and poet and one of the original WARM artists, Elizabeth Erickson. She guided us as a part of the Women's Art Institute and gently nudged and poked and prodded us into developing skills and seeking further knowledge about our chosen media, as well as exploring other subjects and tools. She was an incredibly generous soul, very quietly but strongly spiritual in her own living.
So we continue as best we can.
And this is Michelle's sister's cat, who carries a very strong name for such a strong face.
This is my friend's daughter's cat, in her sink, quite conveniently waiting for anyone wanting to wash their hands or brush their teeth... she's got such gorgeous fluff! I'm sure she left some fluff around to make it interesting...
Max is a junior at Roosevelt High School, which is also 3 blocks away and contains a multitude of simply amazing, generous, thoughtful, considerate and kind humans including the legendary Principal Ledesma, who somehow manages to do his job and be everywhere at once! He is at games, plays, choir recitals, picnics, breakfasts, and he's great at posting about how incredible his students and staff are. This painting is from a photo Principal Ledesma posted of the two pigeons who are living on the roof of the school, and he's named them after the assistant principals, Lucas and Gonzales. And since I seem to be on a cat mode, I thought a bird or two could be fun!
Here is Smokey, from Christine for Anja's birthday, with a story about Smokey written by Anja~
"Smokey, a 21-year-old Chartreux with a dense blue-grey coat, golden eyes, and a calm that never left her. An angel who followed one like a loyal shadow through the highs and lows of life together, always appearing at one's side, steady and present, a gentle constant through every season.
That gentleness had a story behind it. The Chartreux is one of France's oldest natural breeds, tracing back to at least the 13th century. For generations, Carthusian monks at the Grande Chartreuse monastery near Grenoble shaped these cats into what Smokey was — resilient, patient, intelligent, and almost meditative in spirit. Smokey embodied all of it. And like those original monastery cats, no mouse ever escaped her. That same stillness could shift, in an instant, to lightning-fast precision.
And this is Izzy, who was Jesse's cat when my friend Lissa met him, and so this story is in her words- and they are the lovely people who found and raised our Pipin for us! Excellent cat fosters!
I did have a scheduled creature for today but I haven't gotten the photos yet so I'm jumping ahead to this one, which is actually a photo I took of my sister's giant cat Max, who is a huge personality, and i loved his whiskers in this! It is a large painting, 24x24 so the mustachios have an even bigger impact in person...
And I am sending out a reminder about my Paint Love Six-Week Session starting on April 11, Saturday from 9:30-12! Because you KNOW you want to!!
