When you find that thing you like to do (and I'm sure there's many for most of you!) that makes you feel more you, it feels good to do it, right?
You know I'm talking about singing "Fat Bottomed Girls" in my car at the top of my lungs, right?
Yes, that and painting! So I've been painting some otters- here's one~
Duane takes amazing photos-
Yes, I'm painting a lot now! It's so fun! And I catch myself wondering when I'm going to do this full time...
I did get to paint a lot this weekend, which is always just fantastic for me and gets my blood warmed in a new way~
The light on this one is so intriguing to me, it sucks my brain in and keeps me from thinking of other things, like when they're gonna finish our house so we can move back in....
Ahhhhh!
It is that time of year again! I mean, I guess it's always that time of year though if you're thinking of having one of these for yourself or another before the holidays then yes! NOW is the time to get to me and let me know! I've got a bit of a list going but I'll do my best to get your special one painted for you!
I've been busy again! feeling much better this week- I think the stress of the house not being near completion (had a bit of a snag with the former project manager... we think things are back on track now) and different scheduling at school, and other things made me a bit more stressed than usual, and I'm hoping I'm getting over that hump now.
So I thought I'd try and post some commissions, because I'd actually wanted to do an "Otter-Tober" month, but I don't think that's going to quite happen. I might do a "HOME-Vember" combined with otters because I really want to paint otters, we'll see how that flies.
And I am working to get some dates on the calendar for One-Day Paint Love Workshops where you can start and finish a piece with me! Great gifts!
Dang! It's been too long again! A couple weeks ago we had homecoming here at school and the chaplains always do an animal blessing, and me and my colleagues and Upper School art students sit and make drawings and paintings of people's pets for donations to the Humane Society.
It was just me this year, because of scheduling conflicts and a sudden illness for one of my colleagues, and wow, I was inundated! I hardly lifted my head for a straight hour and a half, and had just the most lovely dogs and one bearded dragon and a couple plushies come through!
Here's some of what I did!
All are acrylic on paper about 9x12~
Wow- I've been really quiet since August! This has been a trickier start to the school year than I'd anticipated, probably partially because we are still not in our house yet and it still feels strange, and also because a number of old friends and colleagues at Breck have retired, and we also have a new schedule that feels more different than I expected. So I've been painting but not posting as much.
And I do have a few events coming up too that should be mentioned- one is LOLA this weekend, from 10-4 on Sat and Sun- I'll be late to Saturday but Duane will be there with my stuff, and we'll be sitting on Anita White's fantastic front lawn at 4524 Minnehaha Ave~
I've also got Painting Lessons starting the last Saturday of September, the 30th, from 9:30-noon for six weeks and I'd love to have you join us! There's still room! Here's the link for more info and sign up-
This little sweet face is Luna, and there were so many great photos of her to chose from, you might see some more of her in the future!
Well, it's been a week of workshops at school and I've been fighting a cold or something that I think followed us from camp and may have been the result of poor air quality as well- kinda like losing my voice and all, and I tested for Covid three different times with negative results each time, so here I am.
And my students, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 8th, show up next week. Like a lot of teachers, I feel prepared and also a bit anxious. One of the awesome things about teaching is that we always start with a totally new year. The people who make up the class are never the same group, and nothing ever goes exactly the same way. In the art room, there are a lot of variables as well, like what materials I have on hand, what I remembered to order, if that order showed up on time, oh just so much! And I like the renewal ever year, that there's a fresh start, a fresh page. And so much is up to my attitude and how I react to things.
We were supposed to do the Millstream Art Festival in St Joseph MN tomorrow, but I've cancelled because of how not well I've been feeling. I'm relieved that I did. I haven't cancelled an art show before, ever, but I've not felt this stressed about having an event the Sunday before classes commence. I did it last year and it was fun, definitely not a money maker, but fun for sure, and we figured it would be fun to do again. But I'm so glad I've said no.
I do need to learn to do that more often. I'm a terrible YES person! My friend Lara is really good at a sweet rather evasive way of saying no! She responds so positively at first, like "of course I'd love to!" and then she says "Shoot! I can't fit it in my schedule" or something... I love it.
This is a small painting I did of my friend Marley's dog Muffy. Muffy is a bit elderly and I don't know how she's doing right now... and Marley is starting her first full time teaching job in Duluth! I hope her year goes great!
I hope your school year goes great too!
Whew. It's Tuesday!
I taught two back-to-back Paint Your Pet classes at Wet Paint today, and I'm a bit tuckered out! It's a bit like performing, to teach people. I had adults in the morning, and kids in the afternoon, and it can be a bit emotional for people to paint, in public... so there's some fun and some helping and some paying deep attention and trying to read what someone needs with their piece... Do they want me to help, by putting my brush in there, or not? It's all a bit of a trick, really.
And I think we all did very well.
I'm still not quite recovered from our month up north yet, though. And here is a painting of the walk I took daily...
I will probably have it with me on Saturday at the Carpenter Nature Center Art Festival if you'd like to see it in person!
I've been painting other things than dogs up here in the great north woods, and have just a couple days left, though our campers and staff are all getting packed up ready to go home. It's so lovely here. We have trees everywhere... and the air feels sweet.
Ah.
This is an evening view of Lake Pokegema from the field~
I'll have it with me next Saturday at the Carpenter Art Fair just past Hudson on the Wisconsin side of the St Croix River! Sat August 19th from 10-5!
Duane's best friend from school, Bill, lives in Walker, not far from where we are right now in Grand Rapids, MN, and he invited us over one of the first days off we had. We went to his house and he graciously made us walleye, crusted with crunched up ripple potato chips because of my gluten-free-ness, and we had such a great time, chatting, the two of the catching up. Bill suffered a devastating tragedy this year as well, in his wife Diane's death in March. It was unexpected, a kidney infection, I think I understood, and Diane was an artist who left a lot of supplies behind. Bill kindly allowed us to fill a couple bags with her glass beads and fittings and all, and I've been using them here at Camp with the kids. These two pups are Zooley and Katie-Blue, and they both loved Diane as well and now are quite attached to Bill. They are a little older than Pom and weren't thrilled with her exuberance and energy...
So I'm painting them as a Thank you to Bill! We'll send them on to him when I've got them varnished~
And this concludes our 30 Dogs in 30 Days! I'll be wiring the pups up and varnishing them this week and I plan on hanging them at Diamond's this Sunday morning, the 13th. We'll have a Celebration/Pick Up Party on Sunday September 10th from 2-4pm!~
Tippy belongs to our incredibly generous and kind neighbors, Andrew and Andrea, who showed up the night of our fire and offered us their "extra" house to live in. Which means we haven't had to really move anywhere other than across the street, and we've been able to keep an eye on our house as the work has progressed, and it's really been unbelievable how great a place it's been. I've even been able to park in the garage!!
And this is Tippy, who is a sweet natured grumpy old man who tolerates Pompom in his yard as long as she isn't jumping on him, and who adores his owners to no end. He has the greatest little trot when he's walking out in the neighborhood, and he likes to let everyone know he's around!
Isn't this the greatest face? We had a beautiful brindled mutt when I was growing up, Rusty, whom my brother affectionately renamed The Beast, and he had a noble face as well. Something about that texture and the shape of the nose maybe, the eyebrows, the strong neck leading into the shoulders...
This is Choo Choo, and Mary is sending me a little story about him yet!
This had been a great session of painting for me, and now that I'm almost done, I'm finding myself looking around for more pups! I do have two I'll be squeezing in at the end here, maybe instead of Pompom because I haven't found the iconic Pompom painting yet...
We are still up in Grand Rapids at Camp Mishawaka, and maybe I'll write another little post about the cabin and painting in it, because it's pretty sweet... though we miss Bunny in it terribly.
It was hard to pick just one photo of this charming face! Holy buckets!
Beegee is an amazingly fluffy and open faced sprite! I had such a great time painting him!
Here's what Donna his owner/best friend says about him!
He’s named Beegee because he is the spitting image of Barry Gibb. He is a playful and snuggly guy and his goals in life are to acquire more human friends and dog treats. If he could work a phone he’d be on Instagram and TikTok with thousands of followers!
At the moment, we are at Camp Mishawaka in Grand Rapids, where we've been coming for a month for the past three summers, and we run with the poodles here! Marley is a 5 or 6 year old white poodle, and Rummy is a youngster, black and white, and Pompom loves to play "Race Race Chew on my Face" with her!
THIS lovely brown poodle is Jaco, who is with Mary, who says:
These puppers are Jaco(brown poodle) and Sophie (Brittany Spaniel) She is in charge and always has been but Jaco is trying playfully to chip away at the hierarchy. Sophie is 5 years old and belongs to my neighbor and Jaco has been with us for a year now~
You'll have to see the photo after the painting!
As in BIG BEN! And very Zen Ben, and such a joy to paint!
And he has a pretty amazing story, as told by Ann~
Zen Ben
Retrieve A Golden of the Midwest coordinates very complicated rescue missions to get dogs out of China, into U.S. foster homes and then, onto their forever homes. We signed up to foster a dog named Ben, who was in an over crowded shelter in Shanga, China. A shelter run by Buddhist Monks. Ben had been there since he was nine months old, and like the thousands of other animals in shelters, had little hope for a family to call his own. Surprisingly, Ben arrived to our home completely unscathed by his days long journey in a crate (traveling with tens of other dogs in crates) via shuttles, planes, cars and vans. When he finally did arrive, this foster dog Ben had nothing but wags and hugs and smiles for us. We fell in love instantly with this big, handsome, wildly affectionate boy and within hours we knew that Ben was home. Much like the Buddhist Monks that protected him, he is a quiet, calm and loving friend to all.
This is our delightful friends' rescue, and he's a sweet little guy! And here's what Zan says about him!
Our little Chihuahua-Yorkie, Mr. Stubbins, aka McStubbins, Stubbs, StubHub, came to us as a rescue from TX. He finds nothing more exciting than seeing us pick up his leash so he can go investigate the neighborhood and bark at any passerby. When he's not sniffing or barking, he can be found enjoying a sunbeam.
Oh my lord! Yes, can you tell this is another of the dogs that I just had to paint? I mean, seriously, look at those ears, those eyes, that knowing little smile... I LOOOOOVE it!!!
And here's what Erin says of this unique creature~
The Italian greyhound, Mulligan, is our high class man, hence the judgement in his expression. If he was human he would be riding a moped through Naples collecting the women with his charm. He is an old man now and wears a diaper but still charms with the best of them.
This is such a noble looking dog. I couldn't resist painting this serious, attentive, open and aware face. Besides, I love painting black dogs and there hasn't been one since Stormy the black pug on July 14th!
Black short haired dogs have such great shine when they've got a healthy coat, and Remi is no exception to this fact. Look at that shine!
I have to admit I had some difficulty getting quite the right color here for Goldy! That wonderful mix of orangey-red with all the golden tones~ love it!
And here is Goldy's story!
Goldy, a golden retriever/Chow mix, was a stray that we were lucky enough to find and be able to keep. We think she was abandoned but can’t imagine why, since she’s the sweetest, most beautiful creature. She was well taken care of, though – spayed, house trained and socialized – so we got lucky on that front too. She provides our family with endless mellow fluffiness.
Yukon was an amazing soul- here is Rob, his friend's love letter to him~
Yukon
Thank you for being such an awesome dog, better than I could ever deserve. You shared my joy for playing in snow and cold weather, and Beth’s love of cuddling on the couch or wherever else you managed to pin her against the cushions. People said we spoiled you, but really it was you who was spoiling us. How many people get to enjoy a canine companion who doesn’t need a leash simply because he’d rather hang out with his humans? How many people can count on winning a bet that their dog is the cutest?
I basked in the reflected glory of your life whenever we were on campus or getting a puppuccino at the coffee drive-thru. Students pronounced you as “chill,” their highest praise. Everybody, even people who live with cats, thought you were awesome. Friends and family accepted you and your “magic fibers of love and joy” into their homes, pining for more effective vacuum cleaners as we left.
Many people in town and on campus know me as “the guy with the dog.” Remember last May, when we were walking on campus on Commencement Day? Two graduates, to their parents’ amazement, called out your name even though they hadn’t seen you since before the pandemic. I was just some anonymous professor, worthy of note only because of my connection to you, the most awesome dog. A year ago, Beth, Walker, and I were at a restaurant in Saint Paul and our server asked if I taught at WSU and did I still have the awesome dog. Last November we were at a Christmas event in Loring Park in Minneapolis, and a couple walked up and asked if I was Rob. They remembered you from camping next to us at Boats and Bluegrass years ago.
Now I am dreading the inevitable onslaught of questions: “Where’s your dog? How’s Yukon?”
I love you dearly and will miss you terribly. You will always be my bestest puppydog.
