Yay! This is Asher, who recently came to live with a friend of a friend in DC and so I painted this little welcome home painting for them! Isn't this the sweetest face EVER?! Those eyes are just so... liquid!
Thanks Melissa, for being such an awesome patron and friend!
It's my sister's birthday today! And it's a nice round number, and we're having a little party for her this evening, and so this morning at my painting class I decided to use one of her photos to paint from. She's just recently moved up to Duluth and sends us beautiful photos just about daily of our favorite lake, and this was one from last night, maybe? I think?
So since we were painting landscapes I used this one, and gridded it on my phone, and screen shot the grid and did a brief pencil sketch and threw some paint at it- it is so fulfilling to work with color and light and paint... and people! I think sometimes the atmosphere of the room is held in the paint...
This was a birthday commission, and it was for 2/22/22 so I think I can post it now! This is Linus! Isn't he sweet?
I got to paint him as a puppy too~
And next week I start with the CATS!!! I could still use a few more, so send them my way!
The other day I was contacted by a patron who wanted to know if I could help fix a painting of mine that she'd commissioned some time ago that was accidentally damaged on the edges in a fall. And I said I'd sure love to try! She sent me the photo below showing the split edges, and she was able to bring it over and drop it off, and I took a look at it with my handy husband and we reglued and sanded and GACed and gessoed and I repainted it as close to the original as possible, and I think it turned out great! Plus I was able to be with a painting I hadn't seen in a while, which is always a pleasure for me, like visiting an old friend.
And when Sarah asked what the charge would be, I said there is no charge! But you can tip me if you like!
So I want you to know that if you have a piece of mine, I want to make sure it is looking its best for as long as I can! Please let me know if you have damage, or if I never varnished yours (I've been varnishing most work lately for added protection!) you can let me know and we'll get that done! If you are out of town, I'd appreciate you covering shipping but I'll happily fix anything I can!
I've been working on this one for a couple days, dreaming about Lake Superior and Grand Marais~ the water shifts and smooths the rocks, changing color, leaving streams of bubbles and foam. Its so fun to try to paint it, really looking, thinking about color and value. I love it!
And I'm just so pleased with this one!
We also went to the zoo today, and Duane got some awesome photos of otters. So there will definitely be more of those coming!
And don't forget to send me your cats!!
I need a better title for this-
I'm playing with my horse photos from Camp Mishawaka and I'm realizing I'm hitting the issue of not knowing the anatomy of my subject well enough. I need to draw more horses.
I'm pretty happy with this one, but. thee negative spaces are still bugging me...
This is another from my holiday season! I've been painting bears and bunnies lately, and kicking in a few commissions as well. AND I'm getting my list together for my 30 Cats Project! DO please send me your photos still!
And I went rock climbing again today! It's crazy how scary it can feel- last week was the first time I'd gone with the Auto Belay system, where you hook in and the rope has an automatic holding system, so if you let go or fall, you are gently let down to the incredibly padded ground. But there's still that instinctual fear of falling... last week I whimpered the first time I let myself fall, letting go a little shriek of fear. And most of the time, I'd climb back down a bit before I'd let myself ride down. This time, I went up really fast and further than I'd gone last time at all, but still freaked out when I looked down and saw one of my friends REALLY far below! EEEEEEK!!
Still, I did make it all the way to the top! And every time I let myself go got just that much easier...
Learning curve, kids!
This just seems an appropriate title for this one...
My husband was just saying how long February feels, and I was saying "No! It isn't that long!" and now, seeing we're just halfway through, and Groundhog's Day feels like a really long time ago, and this week is taking forever and its only Tuesday, I think he's got a point.
On a happier note, we spent the evening listening to local singer and songwriter Jeremy Messersmith play music from his home on the musical platform Bandcamp for an hour and a half, despite his having a cold. He'd had to cancel an appearance at the Dakota last Saturday night because of laryngitis so I considered ourselves super lucky to be able to watch him play in his living room! And Duane and I were both singing along- I just love Jeremy! Do you know his work? Here's a video of one of my favs of his- Tatooine~ it was just a great way to spend a Valentine's Evening! Duane and Max made a gluten free peach cobbler and we enjoyed that while listening too~
Yay! Oh, and this is one of the bears at the Minnesota Zoo- I am so happy with it! Look at that back foot... isn't the paw pad just the sweetest thing?
Here's a kitty for you! Did you know I'm asking people to send me their photos of their cats? So that I can paint them for my "30 Cats in 30 Days" Project this March! So send me YOUR cat photos!
This is Pixie! And I think I need to lighten up some of the grey a little bit yet...
Doesn't she have a priceless expression?
SO catlike!
Click here for more info on this year's 30 Cats in 30 Days!
Dontcha love double numbers? Like eleven, and twenty-two? And despite it being so crazy cold, it was a gorgeous day! The sun came out and beamed through my skylights at school, and it was crispy and clear as I wandered over to the Salvation Army on Nicolet and 38th to drop off my trunkful of stuff. That always feels good to get that little task taken care of. And then I went and got a massage!!!! First one since COVID.
Wow. Did THAT make a difference! I highly recommend it- thank you Kathleen!
Here's another bunny painting from my photos at Indian Rock Beach, FL in 2016. I'm lucky I know how to find those photos from way back then, aren't I! I like the shape of the bun's head and that dark ear and the shadow shape...
These really are value studies, aren't they?
I entered this painting in the Open Air Painters show at 801 Gallery for their Structural show! It was a fun one to do- there were a few more people in there, and some more structural elements, but the light and the water and the lighthouse were all pretty close to this- it's the lighthouse at Grand Marais, in the summer...
And Teddy is such a fluffy butt in this pic, it's fun how the light goes thru her fur!
Another commission for you! This is Kitty, and I was asked to make sure and include those pink ribbons on her ears~
Pretty sweet, ay?
Also, the Art Shanties are done for the year. :( So we have to devise more fun ways to spend our time with our friends! I guess we can have more backyard fires and maybe even go eat at a restaurant or something!
Oh and woodcut printmaker Emily Gray Koehler just hung a lovely show at Diamond's Coffee in the Thorpe Building this weekend! Her work will be up through March!
I'd taken my wedding rings off on Friday because I had an impromptu clay crew come in at the end of the day to quickly make some endangered animals, and I put them into the pocket of the jeans I was wearing. And then I forgot about them, until this evening when I was turning out baskets of laundry for washing and heard that little jingle...
Sometimes there's that little jingle to remind you of something important!
Like a dark bunny!
Hmmm. Not sure that all tied in together as well as I'd hoped...
I seem to be a bit obsessed with sewing lately. It's another creative outlet of mine that I greatly enjoy, since it is more of a 3D creative thinking project than a painting. You have to think in the round, you know- and figure out how to make something fit better.
So commissions are great, because I can sew and then paint, and they are two separate things entirely. Is that a dangling participle there?
Here's another bunny painting! There are still a bunch more! Hmm, what DO you call a bunch of rabbits? I know they live in a warren, and all from my love of "Watership Down"...
SO I looked it up, and you can call them a Colony, but why would you when you can also call a group of wild rabbits a FLUFFLE?!
Isn't that the best?
This is the Sniffler....
Yes, another rabbit, another one of those free-range love-suckers wandering around behind the studio at Indian Island in Florida, in 2016~
I just love round little buttercups like this! And I wanted to post another painting today~ so I'm not so far behind in February already!
And don't worry, there are more bunnies coming... I love them way too much to stop now! And I don't have good ground hog photos...
Here's a couple photos~
