A Portrait in Oil for Today

"Mile Marker 37"

6" x 6"

oil on canvasboard

Practicing portraits these past few days.  Love painting people in glasses and sunglasses 

and I liked the sunglasses on my daughter in the photo I used to paint from. 

She took that photo when she was on her way across Kansas a few years back.  

Lots of morning rain today - we will take it!

But we aren't too fond of the biting flies and mosquitoes that show up

afterwards in the mugginess.

Drat!

P.S. - Oh to be blind - now that I look at it, there are some 
glaring (to me) fixes I need to make, tomorrow.

And the Rain Came...

Yesterday we had almost 3 inches of rain. The downpour was torrential, the lightning reminded me of the movie "War of the Worlds". Hubster went out to the garage to close the doors we had open, this one snuck up on us...and he couldn't get back to the house due to the lightning for quite awhile. The thunder rattled my bones.
SO, now...welcome to our lake. When the weather comes from the north, we tend to flood - as the water runs downhill.

It's 6:15 PM and the water is still touching the bottom of the bridge. It rained between about 9 and noon. And ya, it's been really sweltering, but did we deserve this much moisture? Can you say 'muggy'?

We usually go survey the damage - to see if there is any. What we found were lots of mosquitoes. They bring welts where they bite, for me.

A Painting for Tomorrow

This is a 'start' of an oil painting of one of my dogs, Chaco, the red dachshund. I have had this photo in my 'to do' pile for some time. He was sitting on a chair, with lots of pluffy's (what 'we' call dog blankets, and interestingly so, the dogs understand that word) and he is really gettin' into the warmth. I think there was about 3 pluffy's on this chair. I love to paint photos with high contrast, although painting in oil at times still feels foreign to me. But....I DO LOVE IT ! This one will need lots of work in the 'folds in the blankets' department. That's where I will go next. I don't want to overwork it, because I have loosely painted in the dog, and kind of like it the way it is.

Sorry for the glare of the flash, I had to go to the studio after dark, dodging the big toads (they are the poisonous kind) on my way (look out Herman), and steal a flash photo or two. It's so nice now in the studio, we were thinking of sleeping out there. It has enough space in it, and we set up the futon last week, and the AC doesn't blast you out of bed. It's a nice cool, not obnoxiously so, like our itsy bitsy bedroom is. Thought we would sit out awhile at dusk, there weren't mosq, then they showed up. DRAT! Working on the kitchen tomorrow. Meant to today, but didn't get to it. So hope I can get back to this before my palette starts to dry out.

Snakes Are Us

Started scraping and painting KILZ coat on the exterior of the house today, amongst the biting flies, repellent resistant mosquitoes and the heat. Not a good day to be doing this I thought, I hate being bitten all over, and smelling like a repellent factory. Then, as I was brushing the tall grass away from the foundation, I heard a slithering sound, before I saw about half the snakes' body, about 6" long, so that would make him a foot long and any snake is just too long for me. I DON'T LIKE SNAKES!!! I DON'T CARE WHAT KIND! First time I have screamed in a long time. Got the pitchfork and the grass was pulled away from the house all along the foundation and no snake could be found. Gee, maybe he is under the house now, what a great thought! I worked a little more and gave up. Now we are going to uncover the well pit, to see if there are any snakes in there, cause there used to be...and then we are installing an AC in the bedroom window. Woohoo! Sleepin better at night, here I come!

AS the Sun Sets in the West...

and Peepers grows and grows. He is getting pretty frisky. We built him a little perch to sit on, but it seems to be a little perch to s**t on. How can one little bird have so much waste? Hmmm. He stretches his wings all the time and doesn't spend much time in his nest/bowl. We will be moving him to a bigger dog crate tomorrow, so if he decides to spread his wings a little more, he can, anything to encourage flight! He is going to get a portrait done by me. He has a "bum" right foot, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't look right, don't know if he injured himself in the GREAT fall or if maybe he hatched that way. I am working on a pastel of my dog Bailey as of now, will be finished within a few days and post it. eBay'n has kept me busy today. Still trying to get rid of the mass of stuff we moved here with. Believe it or not, we have mosquitoes already. Get OFF!!