A Boxer Puppy

I finished this painting of a boxer puppy today.

He's on 11 x 15 140 lb Arches cold press paper.  When I first looked at him, he seemed sad, but Jim says he looks like he's ready to get into mischief.  I'm going with mischief:)

A show opened here yesterday.  We're going to check it out tomorrow.  It's called "Tilting the Basin: Contemporary Art of Nevada".  It has over 100 pieces by 34 Nevada artists.  It opened last year in Reno.  Now it's in a 40,000 square foot warehouse in downtown Las Vegas.  The space is said to have fantastic natural light and has been renovated to a certain extent.  Should be interesting.

Happy Friday!

Thank You, Chris!

Today I played with a couple of Faber-Castell graphite aquarelle pencils.  Chris Lally posted about using these pencils and posted a lovely painting/drawing of a Lab on her blog.  As soon as I read about it and saw the Lab, I wanted to try using these pencils.  I went to Desert Art Supplies and bought a 4B and an HB.  I had so much fun!  You can use the pencils wet or use them dry and go in with a wet brush.  Here is a cat that I drew this afternoon.  I loved the photograph, but I didn't think this through carefully because I was so excited to get started.  I'm going to paint the cat again in watercolor because I think using color will make it easier to understand his position.  One front paw is tucked under him,his right front paw is by the right side of his head, his body curves around behind his head and his right hind paw is tucked next to his right front paw:)  I'm going to go back in and put in the blanket he's lying on and that should define his paws and I'm going to darken the darks.  I will be doing this again.  This is on 7" x 11" Arches 140 lb cold press.  Try it!  It's really fun!

One more thing - I got an e-mail a little while ago with "An easy cat eye with major wow factor" in the subject line.  I thought, "Oh, my gosh!  Someone is reading my mind!"  However, it was not advice for me for drawing my cat.  It was from Clinique telling me how to make my own eyes into cat eyes:)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!
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View From Wal-Mart Parking Lot at Sunrise

A couple of weeks ago, Jim and I pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot as the sun was coming up.  The sky was so spectacular that we both jumped out of the car and started taking pictures like crazy.  The sky was changing by the minute.  I painted this from one of the photos.  I'm going to darken the palm tree and try to fix the lights on the houses at the base of the mountains.  I used masking fluid to block them out and I think they are in too much of a straight, slanted line.  I had fun with this and that's the important thing, right?

It's on 11" x 15" 140 lb Arches cold press watercolor paper.

Loosening Up

I'm trying to paint more loosely.  Here are some petunias. I hope they look like petunias.  I'm not sure because I know they are petunias, so my brain is ready to confirm it.

11" x 15" Arches 140 lb cold press

Shuffle Off to Buffalo!

I removed the snowman painting from our front window on January 1.  I was wearing a sweatshirt, shorts and sandals.  I know we still have some winter days ahead of us, but I sure would like a long spring.  I like winter in the desert except for the short daylight hours.  I ask Alexa every morning, "Alexa, what time is sunrise?  What time is sunset?"  I've been doing this since December 21 (the shortest day) and I do a little dance with every minute of daylight that I gain.  Here is the winter painting I finished today.  Doesn't the snowman look like he's going to dance?  I may give him some tap shoes:)  I used masking fluid to preserve the white for the snow on the branches of the pines.  I may work on that a little more, but I'm done for now.

A Goose Who Stopped at Sunset Park for a Snack

I took some pictures of some geese who on their way south from Canada.  There were quite a few of them at Sunset Park which is not far from our house.  I decided to paint one of them.