Feb 28, Official List for 30 Cats & Friends in 30 Days!

I just sent this out as a newsletter, and I'm sending it again on my blog~  because i am SOOOOOO excited!

HERE IT IS!
the OFFICIAL (at least right now)
COMPLETE (mostly-  there's a few open spots yet)
and TOTALLY FINAL (though I am happy to juggle a few things around if needed )
30 CATS AND FRIENDS IN 30 DAYS PAINTING PROJECT LIST for MARCH 2017!

ta DAAAAA!  I've been reading too much Captain Underpants, I think...

So before I get to the list, here's the fun part-  I will be painting one creature a day for the month of March, starting tomorrow morning and proceeding according to this list through the 30th of March.  These paintings are available for purchase, first come, first served, though if it is YOUR animal, you can claim it before I paint it of course!  

And if your pet and YOU are on this list (first names only, for privacy) PLEASE send me a short note about your pet that I can include on the blog post for your pet's day!

AND if you thought you WERE on this list and I missed it somehow, PLEASE send me a note immediately!

And let me warn you that there will be some difficulties in my month already because we have some travel planned-  to be revealed AFTER the fact, just to make it more special!  Wahoo!  It's always a trick to travel with my painting set-up... paints in tubes, pallet and all!

SO here we go!  the LIST~
  

1- Picky, the Hermit Crab
2- Nigel in a Bucket (for Shannon)
3- Snapper on the road
4- Nemo the Cockatoo
5- Wooly the Brown Mouse (for Max)
6- Polly (for Carrie L)
7- Frank the Iguana (for Loren K)
8- Cleo & Maverick- (for Carrie J)
9- Dizzy (for Kate S)
10-Ember (for Diane A)
11-Jim Carrol Too- (for Brad & Carolyn)
12- Rescue Kitties (for Gil and Jonny)
13- Batman (for Coreena A's Sister)
14- Kane (for Maggie J)
15  Doasht  (for Cathy E)
16-Jinx (for K & J)
17-Morrison (for Cami)
18- Oscar (for Rebecah)
19-
20- Redski (for Cathy E)
21 -
22- Cheney ( for Colleen)
23- Boo (for Harper)
24-
25-Venus- (for Brad and Carolyn)
26-
27-
28-
29-
30-

Thank you so much for following this far!  Aint' this great?!

I am still looking for a pet or animal related charity-  let me know if you have any ideas!
And do send more people my way if you meet any unusual pet owners!  I really wanted to do a hedgehog this year!  Maybe I should just talk to the zoo...

Thank you!  And click here to go to my blog so you can subscribe and follow these crazy daily postings!  I almost forgot to mention that!  Wow!

Must be Fat Tuesday or something!

Feb 27, The Boyo

I thought I'd post a people, since they are kinda rare on my site here.  This is one of my personal people, with whom I share a house. We also share a number of pets, and I'm trying NOT to share my cold with him! It's one thing to be sick myself, but it is so hard to watch someone I love feel terrible.  I'd rather it was me!  At least he seems to be keeping it at bay so far... we'll hope that continues.  It seems everyone has a little touch of something lately.

I love this photo because he's looking sideways at his dad while they are goofing off in the MCDonald's in Hinkley on our way home from Duluth.  Last winter he was in love with turtlenecks, and especially the green one he's wearing here.  Some people's kids....

I'll be posting my "30 Cats & Friends In 30 Days" Official List tomorrow!  I have to admit there are still a few empty spaces, so I am still looking for critters to fill those slots.  I may have to resort to soliciting on Facebook or Pinterest or something-  I really would love a hedgehog, or a ferret...
C'mon People!  Help me out here!

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

Feb 24, Theo Wirth Parkway, Evening

A little landscape for you, just to switch things up a bit.  Painting bunny butts is all well and good, but I need some occasional trees and roads to make my brain see things a bit further away!

Taken through my windshield the other afternoon on my drive home, without looking-  I love taking pics that way!

6x6 acrylic on wood, $85 click here to make this yours!

Feb 23, "Little White Behind"

Like the title of this one?  Hee!  I love action shots-  those little pink backfeet....

Hoping for snow tomorrow~  I'm doubting we'll get anything like a snow day, but it looks like we might have a messy morning commute~

This little critter could be a snowshoe hare in another climate!  I loved getting those strong contrasts and that hint of a glint in his eye!

And keep sending me those photos!  I need more birds now!!!  Parrots, lovebirds, doves, cockatoos, send 'em on in!

6x6 acrylic on wood, $85 click HERE to watch this bunny perpetually hop away!

Feb 22, Big Maggie

Still working on this one-  do let me know what you think!

10x10 acrylic on wood, sold

Feb 21, A Commission~

This is Maggie as a puppy, and I may be tweaking things a bit but at the moment I am trying to get my "Cats and Friends" in a Row!  So I thought I'd share a commission instead of pushing too hard tonight to get another little painting in...
LOVE those bristly, fuzzy, wrinkled noses on these dogs~  squishy and pinky!

And DO keep sending me your critter images!  Here's the link again for more info!  Pass it on!

10x10 acrylic on wood, SOLD!

Feb 20, What a Star!

Life has been a little dreary today, with rain and drizzle and clouds... but that can also make it even nicer and cozier inside and can lead to outdoors expeditions like creating dams in the alley with a couple seven year olds.
And we did our taxes today too~  whew!  Thank goodness THAT's over!  I did quite well last year, with this little world of painting of mine, thank you VERY much all of you out there!  It is still hard to really fathom that I am living my dream of being a working artist.  THANK YOU!  The only difficulty is all the organizing and record-keeping and all of that, which I am SO not good at, but am working hard to learn how to be better.  You can learn to do anything, if it is absolutely necessary!

This is a sweet little painting of a very fluffy, excitable little dog, supposedly a Yorkie-Poo mix, but really more of a schnauzer mix I think.  He is extremely lovable and very loyal~  and quite black with those tufty little eyebrows, and this was a delight to paint!

6x6 acrylic on wood, $85 click HERE to have this sweetie to look upon~

Feb 19, Bun Run

So it's been another lovely day~  and here's another lovely bunny~  just can't quit on them yet!  This one's an auction!
And DO keep sending me those critter photos!  I am loving the reptiles and rodents coming my way! If YOU have a super cute ferret or mouse or rat or hamster or chinchilla (anything really!), send photos of them my way!  I need critters to paint for this year's "30 Cats and Friends in 30 Days"!

Thanks for everything!

6x6 acrylic on wood, $35 auction, click HERE to join the FUN!

Feb 18, Pale Butt

I just like having the word BUTT in my title somewhere, I think...  it's a funny word, isn't it?  And it seems cuter when it is describing a bunny...
Yup. Gotta love those bunnies!  They sure are something~
It's a beautiful weekend here in Minnesota~  unseasonably warm-  I'm sitting on the back stoop, chatting with Duane who just returned from the Mn Zoo with the kids, looking forward to having a gluten free beer soon!  Hope you are enjoying where ever you are today!

6x6 acrylic on wood, $85 click here for your own personal bunny love!

Feb 16, White Foot Forward

Another version of the wee black bunny!  Those shapes are just such a delight to depict- brushstrokes and pencil lines and layers of medium transparent in the ears~
Shaping the ears and the cheeks and that sweetly squared off butt, dang!  I love it!

6x6 acrylic on wood, $85 click here to add this to your collection!

you know you want to!!

Feb 15, Bitty Black Bun and Buddy!

I promised!  Here's two bunnies!  I think the white is the male and the black is the female...  way too fun getting those colors!

6x6 acrylic on wood, $85 click HERE to own these little buggers!

Feb 14th, Fluffy Butt

I gotta admit I really like Valentine's Day, and walked around with a pile of sticker's Max gave me, sticking them onto anyone who would hold still enough for me!  Fun to walk around later and still see the little hearts on people's shirts~  just a little touch of connection all over~  I love that!
And I am loving bunnies!  Here's another one!  And after I painted him, I then realized perhaps I shoulda painted a pair of buns for today~  I do love the light on this guy- those backlit ears and the pips of pale blue shine of the white fur~  just love it!
Hmmm~  we'll see what happens tomorrow!

6x6 acrylic on wood, $85 click HERE to own this Fluffy Butt!

Sunday Feb 12, "Bitty Black Bun"

Ooo I am SO creative with my bunny names!  You do realize I am painting bunnies to entice you to send me more photos of small, fuzzy critters to paint, right?  So would you get on that, please?  I have NO ferrets, gerbils, hamsters, parakeets, geckos, guinea pigs, hedgehogs, etc to PAINT yet!  Just cats!  Not that that's not great, to have cats to paint, but I'm hoping for some more fun things to paint in March too!
DO please pass the word around! Here's the link to my project-  "30 Cats and Friends in 30 Days" A Daily Painting Project, March 2017!

And of course, you can also buy this little sweetie NOW!  I loved getting those purple-y blue-y highlights and shadows~  dang, it is so fun to PAINT!

6x6 acrylic on wood, $85 click HERE to own this little gem!

Feb11, On The Line

This is a bunny, and I took the photo last year when mom and I were in Florida for a workshop with Dreama Tolle-Perry-  it was a really tough time-  dad had only been gone for three months, we were both missing him terribly, and usually when mom and I go off painting, it's with other people we know and love so there's support from outside for both of us, but this was just us.  The workshop was in oil, which mom loves and I do too, but for me it's a bit like a contagious disease because I get oil paint on some small part of me and it eventually gets everywhere, including the door handles of the rental car...  anyway, it was harder than we thought but there were beaches and palm trees and sunshine and this glorious backyard full of rabbits!  Obviously not wild rabbits, either.  Very happy to come up and eat carrots from your hand, these guys were~

6x6 acrylic on wood, $85 click here to purchase!

Feb 8, Wee Little Goat

Missed a couple days there, didn't I!  And now I am still on a goat kick~ and I will be reminding you again that I am looking for photos of Cats and OTHER Critters for my "30 Cats And Friends" Project in March!  Please send me your photos!
More info is at this link here~  and do please share it!

And this was a spunky little goat at the Minnesota Zoo, one of the ones trying to climb up Max for more goat treats!  LOVED painting the darks and lights!

Oh and if you need some good thoughts, here is a video I want to show my students, of Caledonia Curry and her Ted Talk at Pratt~  also known as Swoon~  LOVE her!!!  Watching this and listening to her talk about how one small thing can change an environment made me feel so much better~

6x6 acrylic on wood, $75 click here to own this little stinker!

Feb 5, Irish Road

This one was a landscape demo in class the other week-  showing how to mix grey for roads, creating green from the two blues I use in my pallet, how a sky can shape your trees-  that kinda stuff, ya know!
And I like it well enough to let it go for an auction and free shipping!
AND DO send your cat and small critters photos to me for my 30 Cats & Friends in 30 Days project this March!  A daily painting project!  And I need your help!  Do spread the word-  here's a link with more info!

6x8 acrylic on wood, $25 auction, click HERE to join the fun!

Free SHIPPING on this one!

Feb 4, Searching Wolf

And this is a wolf I painted last night at my open studio~  from a photo I took at the Minnesota Zoo of our lovely little pack of wolves there~  I love these black ones!  And I loved the contrast between his black shaggy coat and the smoothness of the snow~
On a 16x16 cradled wood panel~  fun to paint bigger!
Oh and I've got space in my spring Painting Lessons starting March 11th, as well as my One-Day class in Zumbrota, MN at Crossings at Carnegie, March 19th and my weekend class at the Art Colony in Grand Marais, June 17 and 18th!
Thanks for following!

16x16 acrylic on cradled wood, $535 click HERE to purchase now!

Feb 3, "Fluffy Face"

This is a sweet little painting from a photo I took at Powderhorn Art Festival last summer-  outdoor festivals can be great for dog lovers!  Though you do have to stay on top of the occasional leg-lifter- I've had owners looking through my wares while their little love muffins mark my draped table coverings as their territory...  THIS guy didn't do that though!

Oh and thank you so much for all your Happy Anniversary Wishes yesterday!  And if you haven't made it to the Art Shanties Project (which is where we were married, nine years ago, on Medicine Lake) DO try to make it this February!  There will be an Art Cars On Ice Parade every Sunday at 1pm! On White Bear Lake!  See you on the ice!

6x6 acrylic on wood, $75 click HERE to purchase!

Free shipping on this guy!

Feb 1, A Caribou

So, for the second month of this strange new era we are entering, I offer you the Caribou~ a guide and a familiar of my older brother, Patrick, and someone I think can act as a bit of comfort...  maybe... even though he looks a bit peeved, or maybe because he does.  And here's my brother's blog, if you'd like to check him out.  He's a shamanistic cartoonist out near Seattle~  and he does a great job reading spirit animal cards!  His caribou is named Nathan, I do believe-  what should we name this one?

A Caribou, 8x10 acrylic on wood, $160 click HERE to make this YOUR Bou!