January 31, "Waiting In The Red Chair"

This chair figures largely in a number of my paintings of Gus, because it has become something of the Dogs' Chair.  I was able to spend some time working on this larger piece today, and am pretty excited about that.  I was invited to a friend's house warming/art party and I ended up sitting here (well, standing actually) painting all afternoon.  My boys went to the science museum with the neighbors and we're having pizza over at my brother's tonight so I had this chunk of time to think about the colors of a dog.  I did want to go see my friend and her new place, but I didn't want to get dressed again (meaning "put on a bra") and I knew I'd hear a few sympathetic remarks about dad, and for some reason the hole he left is throbbing a bit today and I didn't want to have to brace myself (sorry Bonita! some time soon~)- so I stayed home and painted.

I have a show coming up at Artistry this August that will be all about dogs, and I am excited to be painting BIG paintings of dogs again~  really and truly, I love painting dogs.    This one isn't quite finished yet, but I am pleased with the direction it is headed.

24x30 acrylic on black gessoed canvas, $1440  (e-mail me if interested)

January 30, Yellow Brushstroke Study #1- Auction!

It's not really the first color study, but again, I had a hard time thinking of a title for this one.  And this WAS a demo during class on how to paint using one brushstroke for each color, which is an excellent tool for helping painters slow down and really look at what they are doing.  When you have to plan your strokes, you tend to be more careful and attentive to how you lay down your paint, and your strokes look much more purposeful and have more power.  You also look more closely at the color and tend to see those tender slight variations on a color, like the interior creamy whites in this mug~  so FUN!  I love it!

6x6 acrylic on panel, $25 auction!  Click HERE to join the frenzy!

January 29, Green Turtleneck Grin

It's the fact that skin can be somewhat translucent, and that there are muscles and stuff moving underneath so that everything moves all the time!  SO hard!  Dang!  I could not resist this impish sideways grin Max gave Duane at the McDonald's in Hinkley... there's just the glimpse of a tooth there-  love those baby teeth!

6x6 acrylic on panel, $75 click here to purchase!

January 28, Cold Rocks At Sunset

Yes, this is also from those photos I took in Duluth, but I thought I'd try to get a little more interesting in my title...
Any good?

And it's another auction!
YAY!

6x6 acrylic on panel, $25 starting bid!  CLICK HERE to join the race!

January 27, Six and Plotting...

People are a tricky subject for me, but I want to be better at them, especially this guy~  I love the pixie-ish aspect of his ears, which look slightly pointed to me, and his hair all askew-  he was helping grandma put away the small forest of christmas trees by first making them into a hiding place for himself...

Yes, this has been a tough time, and we're at past two months since dad died, and sometimes I feel like I should be back to normal and then I get gobsmacked, side-swiped, cocked off center by that huge dad-shaped hole and oops there I go again.

We got a letter yesterday from our great friends in England, Jonny and Gil, expressing sympathy and more, and it threw me to tears, and some of those were of joy because I love seeing those two people (Jonny is like Duane's long-lost taller-balder artistic brother) and when we were there in 2013 I spent a lot of time with Max while those three did puppeteering stuff, and so I painted a lot of Maxie portraits, so this one is sorta in honor of those and that time, and hoping we can have more of those times~  the glory of time spent with friends!

6x6 acrylic on panel, $75 click here to purchase~

January 26th, Juno, a Commission

Sorry, I did paint another Duluth landscape this morning, but I think it looks too Pepto Bismal pink and it needs some re-doing...  part of the problem was I stayed up later than normal working on submission proposals for exhibitions so I went to bed later than usual, and THEN my six year old woke at 4am, calling for me, and couldn't or WOULDN'T go back to sleep-  ack.  He wants to go to the MOA to make a Build-A-Bear.  Now.
Needless to say, I'm a bit slow today-
SO here's a lovely commission from the holiday season that makes me feel good to look at it~  hope you enjoy it too!

12x12 acrylic on panel, sold

January 25th, "Coffee at Cafe Maude, Third Cup"

To continue the story of coffee at Cafe Maude- always a fun place to go!

6x6 acrylic on panel, $25 click here to join the auction!

January 24, "Afternoon Towards Cedar Lake"

This was painted from one of those photos I took while driving home through Uptown last week, by holding my phone out in the direction of the window and snapping without looking.  I never have any idea whether these kinds of photos will work or not, as I am not looking at what I am taking a picture of, but the results are often good enough that I can paint from, and I was thrilled at the angle of the sun, raking through those stark bare branches, striking me slightly blind~

The snow along the roadway has so many colors in it, almost as hard to determine as those sunsets!

6x6 acrylic on panel, $75 click HERE to make this your own!

January 23, A Daily Apple

Today's painting was a demo for my newest class~  it is always an adventure and there are no guarantees that a demo is going to be a good painting.  As a matter of fact, sometimes they are downright awful but of course I don't say that in front of impressionable (maybe vulnerable!) adults, who are hoping to learn something from me...
This one isn't too bad at all!  The difficulty is often in finding apples that are a solid color, because we are attempting to paint simple forms with shading, meaning that those spotty apples can be a bit too much of a challenge.
There's always that tricky bit of WHAT COLOR IS THAT ANYWAY?  The table I painted this apple on is a cherry colored wood, so it's just different enough from the apple to not be the same red, plus it has a different surface as well...
Oh it is just all so much FUN!!!

6x6 acrylic on panel, $25 AUCTION!! WAHOO!!!  Click here to bid!

January 22, The Shadow Bridge, Duluth

It isn't really a bridge in the image, though it looks so much like one I liked the thought.  In this image that shadowy area is the father hills, and the actual bridge is off-screen, but the road to the waterfront where the big boat sits is on pylons above the water and does look like a bridge.  I suppose it IS really a bridge, isn't it?
Hmm....

I do love how the reflections in the water make the blue of the sky so brilliant!  And the combination of warm and cool colors just vibrates!  It is so YUMMY!  Maybe I need to paint a big one of these, just for sh*ts and grins, as we used to say...

Oh and seriously folks, if you like these you should bid on them because when I sell them, I sell them for $75 and when you bid you often get them for way less!

6x6 acrylic on panel, $25 auction!  Ha!  CLICK HERE to join the FUN!

January 21, "Charlie of the Magnificent Paws"

This is a recent commission that came about from my having work at a local holiday art festival...  at which I only sold cards, but for me the nice thing is that I'll get exposure just from being somewhere. It is hard to keep pumping your art heart every day, especially when you feel like you've gone for a while without recognition (or a sale!) but the fun thing is that if you can keep doing it because you love it (because you DO, you know!) then eventually the fun stuff happens!  Because you keep showing up!
Yup-  it is all about persistence...
You gotta make the time for what you want to be important in your life!
And this was a fun but tricky painting, with all that fluff and the deep shadows on his face-  I had to play with that area until it felt right!

8x8 acrylic on panel, Commissioned work!  Sold!

January 20th, Duluth Sunset, Two Light Poles

I'm thinking I have to be more creative naming these...  but this will help me remember which one it is.  I renamed my art tables in my classroom and my students were excited and then thought it hysterical when I introduced them to "Arnold, Bruce, Cherry and Diane" instead of the more tame "One, Two, Three and Four"... maybe I should name my paintings the same way?
See, there are two light poles showing in this one...

It is a total gas trying to get an approximate color with these sunsets!  Really trying to see what area is darker or lighter is quite the challenge!

6x6 acrylic on panel, $75 click HERE to purchase for your very own!

January 18, MLK Day, Hotel Mug

Simple everyday objects can carry the weight of a memory in them.

6x6 acrylic on panel, $25 auction!  Wahoo!  Click here to join the fun!

January 17, Duluth Bay, Sunset

This is such a fulfilling little series to play with. I've always greatly admired those painters who do skies well, with clouds that look high and luminous...  not sure I'm quite where I'd like to be with these but I am enjoying them~

You can just see the tracks at the bottom of the painting, of the cars that have driven out onto the lake... I love all those different shades of blue and how many colors it takes to create snow!

It has also been so fun posting auctions again!  Thanks those of you who've been jumping in on these-  and just so you know, if you really want one and you are the first to bid, you can purchase it right off for $65!

6x6 acrylic on panel, $25 auction, click HERE to join the frenzy!

January 15, Sunset Over the Bay, Duluth

This is from a photo I took last Saturday, Duane drove us across the canal bridge so we could see the sunsetting over the bay with Duluth in the distance.  My mom paints incredible sunsets... getting those color contrasts is amazingly difficult.  You have to constantly compare values across the entire painting, even with a little 6 incher like this!

I'll be doing more, and I'm enjoying the auction spin on these, so this will be another auction!  The fun part for YOU is you can end up getting one for $25 if no one else bids!  Bad luck for me, but I appreciate the art getting out of my house!  Kinda like thank you for supporting my habit, if you know what I mean...

6x6 acrylic on panel, $25 starting bid, click HERE to join the fun!

January 14, Goggle! or is it Google?

This is a commission for a couple sisters who are delivering it to Mexico in a few weeks, so I think I'm safe posting it... though really, who knows how these things go?  This is the one I was working on last night, and I fell asleep tucking the boyo in and didn't wake till 9:30, which is usually when I go to bed, so that threw me off too...
I SO appreciate the sunshine in the winter!  It makes me happy and keeps me awake, though I have to say the clouds do the opposite which is make me drowsy and hibernational.... I just made up another word!  I'm loving the mug auctions going on at my Dailypaintworks site, so NOW I'm going to start painting winter sunshine landscapes too!  Wahoo!

Do let me know what you think of Goggle (or IS it Google)'s background color... I like it, though I think I may want a bit more depth going on somehow...  I included the reference photo.  I started by painting in the actual background but it got too busy.
I like it better now! I painted the eyes bigger than reality-  but aren't they always?

8x8 acrylic on panel, sold~

January 13,

I'm a bit tired this evening, and didn't get the painting finished that I'd intended to.  It's been two months since my dad died, and I'm starting to understand how much of a process this grief crap is...

SO another black dog, shiny, and with a great cocked eye expression...

8x8 acrylic on panel, sold

January 12, "The Christmas Mug"

Duane bought me this set of four sweet owl mugs for Christmas a couple years ago, and I still love them!  This is the one I brought to work because really, I can't drink from four mugs at once!  They have such a great shape... it was fun playing with the background colors.  I had to pay attention to the contrast and look at what is darker and what is lighter!  Tricky tricky!  And I notice that my ellipse may not be quite spot on...  speaking of spots, THOSE were fun to pop on there too!

6x6 acrylic on panel, $25 auction!  Click here to join the fun!

January 11, And again...

Sorry!  Trying to get a few too many things done again- I still have a couple spaces in the upcoming Painting Lessons starting Jan 23 if you'd like to join us!
This is the mate for yesterday's commission~  this is Zeke, and yesterday was Lulu~  Lulu is described as somewhat like Tigger, while Zeke is a bit more Eyore-ish~  I myself had an Eyore-like dog whom I adored, and we now have two Tiggers in our house...

10x10 acrylic on panel, Commissioned Work

January 10, Another Commission!

Thought I'd fill in a Sunday eve with a lovely black dog~

10x10 acrylic on panel, sold

January 9, Wine in A Water Glass

Yes, it's wine time!  And do we have a corkscrew? No!  How did Duane open the bottle?  With his knife and multiplier!  Yay Duane!  And do we have wine glasses? No!  So the water glasses are just fine!
Yay the Radisson in Duluth!!
You've never been in this position, have you~

6x6 acrylic on panel, $25 auction, click here to join the party!

January 8, Mug On Green

Yes, I am terribly creative when it comes to naming my paintings aren't I?  If you have a better idea, please let me know!  This one was deceptively tricky-  it's such a great practice to paint something so simple because there are an awful lot of decisions to be made when looking at this.  Which area is darker?  The lighting is from above, undirected, and rather sloppy so there's not any one area that's highlighted... so I really had to look to figure out the tones on this.  And it is much more pastel-y than I usually paint... a bit like spring right when we're heading into the coldest weekend here in Minnesota in a while~
 Hmmmm... another auction, I think~

6x6 acrylic on panel, $25 starting bid!  Click HERE to jump in!

January 7, "Cafe Maude: The Second Cup"

This is from another photo taken at Cafe' Maude, when my family went to eat, back in November.  It is different painting such a subject from a photo rather than from life.  It seems easier to see all those subtleties in person, if you know what I mean...
I haven't had an auction for a while, so if you like this one, you could probably snag it for $25~   just saying....

6x6 acrylic on panel, $25 auction!  Click HERE to get in on the excitement!

January 6, Another Commission~

Here is another Christmas Commission-  it really was a helpful buzz right before that big day, to have all sorts of people asking last minute for commissions, because it kept my happy brain busy painting which is SOOOO good for my brain, or maybe I really mean for my heart~  losing someone close right before the holidays really bites the big one, I must say, and the distraction of painting these lovely beasties saved me many times over.
I love the colors on this fine fellow~ and those EYES.....  and I'm pretty pleased with the lovely abstracted sidewalk bricks too~

8x10 acrylic on panel Commission, SOLD

January 5, Lake Perch

Boys do seem to get themselves into these interesting positions... and water is always fun to paint-  I couldn't believe how cold the water was that day, but it didn't seem to bother either of my men...

"Lake Perch" 8x8 acrylic on panel, $125 click HERE to purchase~

January 4,"Balancing At Superior"

This is from a photo last fall, Max wearing a t-shirt over his shorts and walking the length of a beautiful driftwood pine.  I love his hand gestures and unselfconsious posture.  I wonder how long I'll be able to get photos of him like this to paint from...

8x8 acrylic on panel, $125 click HERE to purchase~

And do check out my upcoming classes~  they are starting to fill up already!

January 3, Paddling Boy

Yes, I didn't get to the zoo, so I have another water boy painting... not sure how to get more of these, except to keep the kid signed up for swimming lessons and make his dad take him, because dad takes such great photos...
So in other words, we'll see what happens next.
As to now, here's the boy in the pool~

And I'm waiting for the Downton Abbey Last Season Premiere... and then I'll go to bed!

8x8 acrylic on panel, $125, click HERE to purchase!

January 2, Backfloat~

It is a new year, and I think the sunshine today is helping that feeling of starting something fresh and new.  I want to start another "30 in 30" kinda project, because that always helps me roll, but I am not sure yet what I want to paint as a series, so I will just paint what I want to paint.  This is Max swimming on his back in the pool at the Radisson, Duluth, last fall when we went up to hang the "Otters Underwater" show at the Great Lakes Aquarium.  And you have one more week to see the Otters I painted at the Aquarium!  The show comes down NEXT Sunday, the 10th!  I think mom took the photo-  I am so interested in the distortion of water and how to paint the colors you see to represent what is there.  How do values work in this situation?  Hmm...
And maybe I can talk my guys into going to the zoo today so we can get more otter photos....

8x8 acrylic on panel, $125  click HERE to purchase!