Further adventures in painting

Still enjoying painting in this rather whimsical style I'm working in.  Here are some of the latest works.

Above was a painting I made for a young couple who were getting married.  Their dogs, Rory and ....I've forgotten the other dog's name, but they were both in the wedding.  

 Roscoe and Cwtch.  My buds.

 Opie.  I created Opie for my friend Patty at Listen to the Road.  He was her companion for 14 years and passed away just as I finished painting him.  So it was a timely gift to Patty and her husband. 

Ms. D.  She went to another friend.

Henri, on his way to his owner now.  I am pretty sure she doesn't read my blog so this shouldn't ruin my surprise.

Louie, above, and Rufus, below, both went to a friend for her birthday.  She loved them.  The paintings, that is.  Of course she loves her cats!

RayRay and Savie live in Texas now. 

I'm not sure which one is my favorite.  Do you have a favorite and if so, why?

Hope you all are having a safe and happy Christmas season.

Be well.

 

Cwtch growing up

My little found kitten is growing!

Big round eyes!

He is entertained by watching videos for cats on the computer screen.

Cwtch is as big as Roscoe now, although still weighs less.  He goes on walks with us all the way to the river which is half a mile.  He gets a little scared crossing the field, and won't go past the cows if they are too close.  But he especially loves walking through the woods and climbing trees, pouncing on leaves.  He has an appointment with the vet on Saturday to get neutered which I hate to do but it must be done.  He is so much fun!  I hope the neutering doesn't change his personality.

More pet portraits

I have fallen in love with creating these paintings and can't stop!

Bone

Charlie

Hippie Hopper

Lacey, dreaming

Lizzie

Party Llama

Lucy Loo

Pharaoh

Pippa Papaya Pineapple Eshelpipi

Rooster may crow but the hen delivers the goods

Sandy Doo

Hammy, Lolly, Daisy

Painting my Pets

I'm not actually painting my pets but am painting pictures of my pets in a whimsical style.  Having a lot of fun with it too.  I started with Roscoe.

 I worked on two at once so one could be drying while I worked on the other one.

 Then I started on Windy.

Of course I couldn't leave Gunnar out.

Loves Carrots

Then this girl slipped in.

The llamas said "Me next!"

Surprise!

Gracie

 

 

I'm going to keep working on these paintings since I am having so much fun with them.  Using acrylic paint on recycled cereal box cardboard.  Our weather has moved into a cooler damper mode so hay harvesting is put off until the dry heat returns.  What are you doing with your summer?

It's been awhile

Worth Having

It has been awhile since my last blog post; six months or more.I hadn't intended to stop blogging, it just sort of happened for no particular reason.  So this is a catch up post, just a little bit.  Above shows a cat mixed media piece I did on a piece of foam core board.  It was fun, I am pleased with how it turned out.

The Wild Horse In Us

I continued in the same vein and created this horse mixed media piece on a card board mailing envelope.  Again, I was rather pleased with it.  Both of these are given away.

Walking the Dogs

 I've also been working in this altered book, the title of which seemed very appropriate, "The Girl In The Woods".  I used a home made stencil on the right hand side, above.

The Only Thing Necessary

 I continue to enjoy using quotes in my art.

The Depth of Winter

 Using a different color palette than I used to, more muted colors.

The key to happiness: Simplify.

Bound By The Beauty

Alternatively working in my Strathmore mixed media journal. 

 Just fooling around and having fun.

Enjoy the Journey

 This one is dedicated to my maternal grand parents, that's them in the photos, and my Mom is the little girl.

Family: Aunt Bertha

 Another different direction is this one I finished last week.  The woman in the photo is my great great Aunt Bertha.  I cropped the photo to use it, her dress was so beautiful, she must have been pretty classy.  No one is named Bertha these days it seems.

Close up showing some of the fun embellishments I used.

Somewhere along the way I acquired two new pets, a cat, Tigger and a dog, Gunnar.

Tigger

Gunnar

I wasn't looking for new pets, they just adopted me, coming over from the new next door neighbors.

Roscoe and Windy both love Gunnar too, and Charlie cat tolerates Tigger.  It is so much fun watching Gunnar play with Roscoe, he is so gentle with him.  He is a big sweet beautiful dog.  I feel a little safer on my walks now, I think the coyotes are keeping their distance a bit.

That isn't all I've done since my last post, but that's enough for now.  I have appreciated the people who told me they missed my blog posts.  Thanks for noticing!  Till next time,

Be Well.

Say Goodnight, Gracie

Gracie started her life in Utah. She showed up on my neighbor Gwen's porch in a snow storm, peering in the window, looking pathetic and starving. Gwen finally gave in and began feeding her. Eventually Gwen and her family moved next door to me and brought Gracie along, being the compassionate and responsible people that they are. Gracie took up residence in their barn, preferring as always to keep to herself rather than becoming a house cat. One day she came over here and discovered that I had cat food available to my cats in the laundry room. Since Gwen had gotten another cat, Gracie decided she would rather take her chances living here amongst my Pit Bulls and Rottweiler rather than get beat up by the new cat, a vicious black cat named Choo Choo Man. Can't help but be vicious with a name like that now can you? Gracie discovered that she could live in relative safety in the crawl space under my house. At this point, she had never been named, but was called the barn cat when she lived at Gwen's, and now became the basement cat. I considered calling her BC but that didn't seem any better than basement cat. Finally, after she had already been here for 6 or 7 years, I decided to call her Gracie. She mostly stayed hidden, but came out every day for me when I would feed her. She loved for me to pet her and brush her and hold her but even though I tried to get her to come into the house, she never let me carry her indoors. No one else ever saw her, she preferred to stay hidden away. Occasionally she would come out and sun herself just outside her escape hole. That is where she was when I took this photo. She never stopped purring when she was with me. I felt she was showing her appreciation that I allowed her to live her life as she wanted, in her solitary space. Gracie shared her life with me for 11 or more years, living there in the crawlspace. She stopped purring last night. I buried her right where she is in the photo. She was a sweetie.

Say Goodnight, Gracie.

Rocky

My poor Rocky boy has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. He has been coughing and having very little stamina lately so I finally took him to the vets yesterday and got the bad news. Rock is 10 years old and still seems quite healthy in most aspects but this is not good news for his longevity. I wonder if there were some bad genes in this family. His parents both died young from cancer, his sister died at 6 and his brother died at 9. I made this little quilt of Rocky last year. I didn't want to wait to make it as a memorial to him, but instead made it while he was still a healthy boy. I hope to keep him walking with me past his 11th birthday. Now he is taking a diuretic and a heart pill. I need to have him stick around a bit longer.

Be well.