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!