Sunday eve~!

Whew!
i STILL have a ton of photos I want to paint from both Ireland AND England!  God help us all!  Here is a lovely urn from Ashford Castle in March, looking out over the plaza to the green islands in the lake...

This piece will be with me at the Riverview Cafe this coming weekend!  8x10, framed in a lovely gold frame, $160!
Wahoo!
Yes, do come to LOLA and see what I'm up to!  This Sat and Sun, Aug 24 and 25 from 10 to 5 each day~  more info HERE!  Including MAPS!!!!

Thursday! Aug 14-

Here's a building commission I'm working on-

and I'm still trying to figure out whether the "20 for 20" is worth it or not...  I love painting, I love getting paid for it, I love that people want my work!  I don't want to sell myself short...
still trying to figure this out-
And if you didn't catch what I was doing, up in Two Harbors last weekend, I would take photos of the dogs who came into my booth and offer to do a twenty minute "sketch" for $20-  many people took me up on this offer and I had a great time and came home with actual cash, rather than waiting for someone to contact me later about a commission...
BUT I wonder if this would prevent people from commissioning later... how can I know?  Hmmm~
And I won't do these just anywhere either...

ANYWAY~
Here are my classes' cupcakes from last night!  Pretty sweet, aye!  Hee!

August 13, tuesday!

wow~
bit late again!  SO this weekend mom and I were up in Two Harbors for a little art fair (sorry I didn't have a lot of info earlier!) and it was sweet to be there with them-  stayed at the Municipal Campground which had rather limited internet....  but great lake views!  Max loved being there with grampa and grama, and stayed up MUCH later than MY world would have allowed, in order to roast hotdogs and watch for meteors-  though Max called them "Meat-eaters" and wondered what they could possibly be doing falling through the sky...
These are all from my attempts at "20 Dollars for 20 MInutes" sketch/paintings-  seemed to work ok-  I may try it again at LOLA....

Thanks to Tracie Thompson for mentioning it to me!  She says she does it at the St Paul Art Crawl!  And you can go see some of Tracie's amazing work at Diamond's Coffee Shoppe right now!  Up through September!

MOnday!

WHERE is this SUMMER going?!?!  Holy moly!
Okay,  here's a commission I finished recently... trying to stay on top of stuff!

AND some of my amazing students' work from this session!    And some are still in progress~
YAY!

August 3, "The Lily-Apple Pig!"

So I spent the day biking over to Uptown (MAN are my legs outa shape!  And biking in traffic still terrifies me...) for the Kitchen Windows Culinary Arts Competition!  I was paired with Chef Dustin from the Lowry, and he did a great job of cooking pork~  we both had to include three ingredients, Peace Coffe (ground or bean), spices from somewhere else, and edible flowers!  Our mystery ingredient was the pineapple-  so I used the unground coffee as texture in the pig's ears and coffee beans for the tiny little eyes, the spices as texture in the background, and the edible lily in the pig's ear and snout, as well as apple rings for the nostrils!   Oh and I added another flower behind the pig's ear.  I think I should've used the yellow one...
 I also mixed tomato paste into white paint for the textured background and used the pineapple rind to add more texture there as well!  And then I had enough time to make a platter for Dustin to put the plate on!
And we WON!
Yay! So I don't know yet whether we are competing tomorrow or not...  if NOT, then I'll be at Wet Paint from noon to 3 for the Sketch-A-Thon for Paws on Grand!  Either way, both events are FUN!

August 1- Yup! Dogs!

Here's Nigel, who I painted last night at my Painting Class, because I just couldn't resist the challenge of a white dog, AND he shares an uncanny (hee!) resemblance to local roller-blading Santa, Erik Riese...

AND here are the dogs as I am prepping them for their big appearance!
Come on over to the Riverview Cafe Friday night!

6-8pm!   The wine bar will be open too!  Food and treats will be available!

"30 Dogs in 30 Days" Painting Video