Still Life in Oil - WIP

Working larger than usual...24" x 30".  Can't believe the amount of paint already used and I am still in the beginning stages...at least it's sort of roughed in for now.  This may take awhile, in the meantime, I am going to try to balance my time with smaller ones. 

The plant on the right is a really neat spiky cactus...it will go in last.  BTW, Zinnias stink after a few days in water, even if you change the water each day.  Had to finally take a photo for my reference as the flowers had to go out the door.

Where I Stand Sunday - RV trip

Hubster and I were at Prairie Dog State Park in Kansas this week, I thought it would be a more exciting photo than where I am Sunday.  Here we are - all 5 of us.  It was a hot one! 

Even the AC didn't cool us down that well. 

We are having difficulty with our big diesel RV...troubleshooting it and repairing it all we can, it is next to be in the hands of (hopefully competent) mechanics at Cummins diesel in Nebraska.  Lightning, is the culprit perhaps they tell us.  It at least runs now, but idles very roughly and knowing that, we don't want to go great distances - as planned - until we know it is up to those distances - operating it that way could be doing more harm than good.  So many sensors and serious electronic components - makes for the DIY'ers lack of ability to just "FIX IT!!" 

I hope we can simply say to the Cummins guys just "FIX IT!" and it will be so. 

Did I tell you my daughter and her family are moving back to Colorado from Brooklyn, N.Y.?  YEAH!!!! 

Where I Stand Sunday

Again, actually it was Saturday - we seem to be so involved in fixing this RV problem...it has kept me away from the studio, what got me here on Saturday was the HEAT index, which was around 106...too hot to even be outside.  So here I stood at my new David Sorg easel with the AC blasting, seems like I have hardly been able to use it...but the feeling comes right back, as soon as I get my toons going.  What's a studio without toons?  It wouldn't be a studio for me!!  I like an eclectic selection of music.  Saturday leaned towards 'Namaste' (I honor the light in you) a meditative new agey kind of CD.  It opened the portals of my 'artist spirit'.  And oh yes, I listen to hard rock, pop, DJ spun dance beat, classical and oldies as well, just not yesterday. 

What do you listen to in your studio,

or the space where you create?

New Pastel for Today

"Rocky Mountain Goat"

9" x 12"

pastel on sandpaper

This Oreamnos americanus - climbs around on the most precarious cliffs.  You can see them in the highest mountains in the Rocky Mountain states.  This one is molting (aren't we all right now☺?).  Creating the wool texture and coloration was a challenge. 

See it at my Etsy shop.

An Aside....

Visit my ETSY shop!

New items and relist of some that now have frames included!

Acrylic Painting for Today

"Mustang Redux"

SOLD

6" x 8"

acrylic paint on canvasboard

One of my favorite subjects is horses.  I have drawn them since I was a little girl.  The inspiration from this one came from a photo off of Morguefile which I made a copy of in color and black and white for values.  Recently I purchased a lot of colors in acrylic paint at Utrecht in KC.  I used a lot of those new colors in this painting which is always fun.  The underpainting is Red Oxide - and it was not transparent but rather opaque when I started adding the subjects.  It works for me that you can see some of that color underneath and I like the effect.  When I have been away from my easel, I come back with a tight and detailed focus - so I needed to get away from that...the brushstrokes were fast and loose, the brush size was larger than I normally use and I took my eyeglasses off.

Where I Stand Sunday (actually Saturday)

It's hot...OK?  I have the AC going in two rooms of this house, doors closing off other hot areas - fans blazing.  It never fails, whenever I do the laundry and take the clothes fresh out of the dryer to the bedroom to dump on the bed to fold them - along come the dachshunds...they burrow under the hot towels or shirts - even in the heat and look at you as though to say - "Just go away and let us stay here until these clothes are cooled off!"  Here they are keeping me from folding a towel.  I usually give up and come back later...but today, I didn't have the time to wrestle the issue.   I can see it when the weather is cold, but it's sooo hot right now.  Habit or need?? 

Even after the towel was folded, there still seemed to be something appealingly

warm and comfortable about it. 

Think nothing of it next time you see me with dog hair all over my t-shirt. I am already itching...☺

P.S. Today is also 'actually' my parents 65th wedding anniversary - Happy Anniversary to Ed and Glo - I LOVE YOU GUYS!! 

P.S.S.  If you saw this blog in the dark colors, I changed it, as the text was popping off the page - too much contrast.  This is a little easier to read...

An Acrylic Painting for Today

"Black and Tan"

6" x 6"

acrylic on Raymar board

Just a quick painting this afternoon, to loosen up the brush hand and ways of seeing.  It feels real rusty - even though the job I had been doing used my hands alot with detailing and finetuning.  But...I started - got past that jumping off point and on the road again - hopefully.  It was interesting - having all the fans going and trying to keep the acrylic paint wet enough on the palette.  Hot here today, think I will finish off the night with a little mowing and then a movie on PPV. 

Maybe the mosquitoes won't be so relentless - wishful thinking. 

A Creative Return

Beginning of an acrylic landscape that happened while in KC...had to put this on my blog to jumpstart me back into the studio.  It's been awhile - many of you know that I have been working this summer - not painting.  Now it's time to paint again.  I am ready in my mind, but things keep popping up to keep me away. Then, I think I get into that "fear of doing art" again.  It's like falling off a horse - you just have to get up and get back on it - I suppose.  It's not the same feeling as not being happy with what you are producing...it's different.  So many ideas are in my head.  I will be working in the days ahead to get the cobwebs cleared and get cranking again.  AND...I can't wait for that feeling to return.

To Catch a Predator

Hubster bought a 'night camera' - and recently we have found parts of deer on our landscape which seem to be devoured by something a little larger than coyotes - I am predicting.  So we got the camera installed on a tree by the pond and caught this deer hanging around at about 11:00, again at 1:00 and again at 5:00...nothing else last night, but we will be vigilant and see what else we get in the nights ahead.  Rained last night, so no harvest today. 

Interestingly, I heard of a nearby night camera catching no less than a "wiener dog" as one of their night visitors.  Can you imagine?  Beware of "Dachshunds in the Night"!! (and no, I don't think a doxie could tear apart a deer like we have seen...or could they??)

Where I Stand Sunday...rainy day that it is...

Ok...so this was a few days ago, but it represents where I stood, or sat for several hours towards the end of this week and yesterday...in the passenger seat of the grain truck. I am back home after being away for 38 days straight.  Funny how you forget how "systems" and remotes and phones work if you are away using someone else's.  Had a great 5 1/2 weeks of work and time to be with family, however, I am glad to be back where I belong.

Back home to wheat harvest.  Hot sun, people working together, lots of fine dust poked up from heavy weighted truck tires,  wheat chafe and dust in the eyes and lungs, sitting at the elevator in line to unload into the grain elevators.  Watching the whole thing like a finely tuned orchestra or at least a small ensemble - as well as can be expected given the number of people involved.  Sure there are glitches - equipment breakdowns - man (and woman) power issues...but it works and has for hundreds of years.  Picture today's farmer - running the equipment way into the dark night, with AC, tunes, GPS and mega powered engines and machines. Easier than it used to be, but still hard -

physically demanding work. 

Today's rain has brought a much needed respite from 12+ hour working days.  Also, it's hubster and my anniversary...so bring on the rain and the cooler breeze, the AC's are off and the windows are open!  HAPPY JULY 4TH - AMERICA!! 

A special thanks to those in uniform - serving our country near and far. 

                                                            (sorry for the dirty mirror)  That's the grain shooting out of the auger arm into the grain truck box...

America - land that I so love!!