First Snow

It's still all about snow around here.  I live a half mile down this road which is now covered with over a foot of slush!  I got the car stuck on Christmas eve, it was just too deep to plow through, even with my trusty Subaru.  Guess I should'a asked Santa for some tire chains.  It's raining now though so I'm optimistic about breaking out of here tomorrow.

Merry Christmas everyone.

This is as close as I'll be getting to being an angel..... you gotta take advantage when you can!

Portrait of an Artist

I've been following a blog by artist Karin Jurick.  In fact, Karin is a big reason that I started my own art blog.  Besides being a terrific artist, Karin is generously sharing her expertise and inspiration with other artists through the internet.  She gets my "artist hero" award for 2008! This image is the result of Karin's year end challenge.  Each participating artist emailed a photo of themselves to Karin, she then randomly matched them up with another artist and each was to paint the other.  What a great way to network don't you think?  So here is a portrait of someone I don't know anything about except that she is an artist (and she's into blogging on the internet).  Merry Christmas Eve everyone!      Check out Karin's blog http://karinjurik.blogspot.com  and the networking blog called Different Strokes From Different Folks that she created to inspire other artists  http://differentstrokesfromdifferentfolks.blogspot.com

Snow Angel

Imagine a world crowded with angels!

Winter Apples

Wow!  we are getting an incredible snowfall here, over a foot and still snowing.  This little apple tree is pretty much buried by now.  It is a stunningly beautiful landscape, changes the ordinary into magic.  It's especially nice if you don't have to drive anywhere, and if you have good snow boots.  :>)  I've been taking lots of photos.  In fact, here's one of Murphy in front of the house about 4 this afternoon.  

  

Stayin In

Today was a good day for smart donkeys to stay inside.  The not so smart ones like me actually enjoyed hiking around in the snow storm.  I was glad not to have to commute further than upstairs to the studio to work though.  Another favorite thing to do on a snow day is to check out the critter tracks in the woods.  My closest neighbors are not often seen but I enjoy knowing that they are near by following their tracks in the fresh snow.  

Two Pears

Pepper Jelly

This painting will grace the labels of my holiday pepper jelly.  Yes, it also has cranberries in it.  Yum.

Winter Forest

"Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty."     John Ruskin

This is my yard.  Yes, it's pretty wild, especially right now with a ccccold winter storm shivering the trees.  I don't know why I keep torturing myself trying to paint scenes like this.  Oh well, it's a snapshot of home anyway.  The buck was cruising down the driveway a few weeks ago.  

Out To Pasture

Ok, so it's been a bit of a challenge to get back to painting.  Today is the first day I've had any time to paint.  I'm definitely feeling rusty but hopefully this one will work for my aunt to give a friend of hers.  Now I'm working on a winter scene to match the stormy day and threat of snow this weekend.   

Cuddle Up..... again

Sooooo, after a very long week with my mother in the hospital I will hopefully be back painting soon.  I did revisit this image for an illustration, but that is the only painting I've done in awhile.  I used this mare and foal for the background and overlaid a computer drawn image of a double helix wrapping around their necks with chromosomes floating around.  The composite image will run in the Quarter Horse Journal highlighting an article about the equine genome mapping project.  I can post the complete illustration after it runs in the magazine if anyone is interested.    

BTW, mom is bouncing back from surgery, appreciating the fact that she appears to have several more than nine lives wrapped into this one!  

Willow

Another in my leaf on cloth series.  

Turkey Time

I helped my neighbors herd turkeys this afternoon.  They are going to meet their Maker tomorrow to provide Thanksgiving dinner for a few folks.  At least these birds have had a relatively "good" life.  Living in a large pen with a shed in the center, they frequently stage turkey races with lots of flap and gobble gobble in the mornings when I jog by.  I hope whoever eats them next week is thankful. 

Another Kind of Maple

Another magnificent maple leaf.  You can really appreciate the varieties of maple trees best when their leaves change color in the fall.  So many different shapes and colors!  

Eliza sketch

I got up this morning and tried to draw in a new large painting but ended up wiping it off, so then I grabbed a small panel and told myself to just sit down and try something different.  I didn't quite capture Eliza, but I like it anyway.  It's so weird, one second you look at it and there she is and then you make one more stroke and she's gone away completely!  Working this small is like that, every stroke is going to make it or break it.  Ah well, next time.  Maybe I'll just rename it "Youthful Enthusiasm" then it can "feel" like Eliza without having to look exactly like her!  

Alder

Here's another in the falling leaves series. 

Out of the Woods

Afternoon light floods the road out from my house.... nice to revisit since today isn't offering such a golden afternoon.  It's a challenge to cram all this color onto such a tiny board, but it's a good way to play with color and see if the composition holds up.  I'm thinking this might work in a larger version.  :) 

Patriarch

What a day, missed yesterdays post for lots of good reasons, one of which was to help a lady that needed a wheelchair to get to the polls.  We waited in line 1-1/2 hours for her to vote. (I voted last week)  Turns out she was a kid in Germany during Hitler..... she said they were just normal people like us, didn't know exactly what was going on in the govt. until the brutality became apparent.  Power corrupts and it's our job to pay attention!  Like the man said this is only the opportunity for change, the reality is up to us.... can't take the "we" out of "yes, we can".  I don't know about you, but the attitude of steady, active hopefulness is just what I need right now!   

Maple

In case anyone has a need for color, here you go.  I'm having fun laying all the uniquely different fall leaves on this cloth, one more coming.  

Bear & Bonnie

Here are the finished portraits of Bear and Bonnie.  You can compare them to the sketches I posted a while back.  It's a challenge to work from other people's snapshots, especially when I've never met the dogs myself.  I did change Bear quite a bit from the sketch based on the client's comments, and they are happy with the final images, whew!

Ginko

The gorgeous fall colors just won't give up this year..... I think it's to help us survive until Nov. 5th.  

Green to Gold

An ode to autumn as the green of summer turns to gold.  It has been a spectacular fall color extravaganza here this year.  I love standing out under the big leaf maples, turning my face to the sky and feeling the leaves touch my cheek as they fall to the ground.  Ah, the cycles of life, may they always be this graceful!    .... yes, I know these aren't big leaf maple leaves I've painted here but they will show up one of these days so stay tuned.  :)

Red Pepper, Green Cloth

Here are some more fall colors, but inside this time.  I can't seem to get the reds just right on my monitor.  The original isn't as orange as it looks here, but then who knows exactly what the color looks like on your monitor.  Anyway, take my word for it, as far as color goes, it's bright and yummy!

Afternoon Run

My sister and I went running on 5 mile drive in Tacoma's Point Defiance Park last week.  What a wonderful place to unwind and enjoy the stunning fall colors.

Eggplant & Tomatoes

The last of my colorful garden vegetables for now.  I like this smoother surface, a linen weave rather than the cotton canvas I've been painting on.  Enjoy!

Wild Apples

Here's another go at these yummy apples from my neighbors tree.

Cuddle Up

Another Halflinger pair.  

Baby Face

This little munchkin is a Halflinger pony from my cousins farm.  

Two Apples

I love this time of year when you can pluck lunch right off the trees!  

Bear, study

Here is Bonnie's cohort, Bear.

Bonnie - study

OK, back to the dogs.  This is a study sketch for a commission I'm working on.

More Complements

Revisiting the roma and zebra tomatoes for another complementary color scheme.

Complements

Who knew I'd have so much fun painting vegetables?!  These are the most adorable little eggplants cuddled up to a "lemon boy" tomato.  I may have to revisit another complementary pair for tomorrows post.  Stay tuned....

Caesar

This is for a friend who recently lost her never to be forgotten friend Caesar.

Coastal Morning

The promise of a beautiful day on Washington's wilderness coast.  This is from a photo taken while on the annual 8th grade beach hike where we introduce many kids for the first time to the joys of backpacking.  Hopefully it instills an appreciation for the wild lands that Washington state has to offer and a motivation to continue protecting them.

Autumn Light

This is the view I have on my way out for an afternoon jog.  Pretty wild colors that I didn't get quite right in this quick study, but the composition and lighting has potential.   It will be a great exercise in warm and cool colors when I try it a bit larger.  

Sharing Lunch

Here is the completed version of the last post.  It says, "different and compatible" to me in a yin, yang sort of way..... how's that for analysis?   Technically, it's bold and still fresh so I'm stopping now before I over work it to death!   

preliminary sketch for "Buddies"

This is the preliminary sketch for a painting I'm currently working on.  I really like the spontaneous quality of it which I will perhaps loose as I continue.  :I  So here it is at the start and we'll see what I end up with.  They were just so cute together, this rather refined little grey mare and her stocky fjord horse pasture buddy... don't you love his striped mane?

2 Romas and a Zebra

Well, not a compositional masterpiece but I do really like the highlight on that roma on the right. I've got to get these things painted so I can eat them!

Heirloom

The painting today is in honor of this weekend's wonderful HarvestFest celebration of farms and farmers. The painting didn't turn out anything like I planned but that's the refreshing part of (painting from) life.  When I finished I realized that I'd been pretty much painting in the dark with only the tomato lit, so the colors are quite different from what I thought I was putting down!  At first I thought "oh, yuck!" but now I kind of like it.  I have a couple more of these gorgeously grotesque heirloom tomatoes that I bought at my friend's farm so maybe I'll try another shot at them in the daylight tomorrow.   

Airplane Ears

This is a continuation of farmyard images that will be shown at Harvest Fest, a farm "open house" to be held tomorrow from 10 to 5.  My neighbors at Gentle Giant Meadows Farm are one of several hosts for the event and I will be at the farm doing some plein air painting, encouraging art activities for the visitors and showing these small paintings for sale. I did this one in acrylic so it would be dry. It was good to play with a different medium.

The Invitation

This is a very old madrone tree, maybe one of the oldest surviving in the state according to the owner of this homestead property here on the Key Peninsula.  Who could resist this kind of invitation to play as a child?   Maybe the world would be a better place if adults spent a little more time appreciating the generosity of trees.

Apple Tree

I'm painting lots of small, local scenes and my neighbor's farm in preparation for next weekend's Farm Fest activities.  

Haida Sunset

Sorry for the glare, I'll have to get a better photo in the AM.  Nothing better than an island sunset!  

Lady and the Tramp

Lady and her son, Quest are my neighbors at Gentle Giant Meadows Ranch.

Ladies in Waiting

This is a larger version of a sketch I posted awhile back.  

Pooped Puppy

That's me, g'nite!

On A Mission

Well I just had to try that silhouette thing again..... and it still wasn't easy!  It's dramatic anyway.  It helps to see a thumbnail version, I think I'll go back and darken the wall, that should help.

Green Eyes