Two Poodles and a Paint Brush

Break is Over and Snow Storm Photos

2015-01-29T20:26:00.000-08:00

15-21 Coneflowers, Acrylic 7x5

After this week's snow, I decided I needed to paint some more flowers. Something cheery! I do love snow, but 2 feet is way too much. I need to catch up on the 30 paintings in 30 days. I'm thinking it will be 30 paintings in 31 days (hopefully) when all is said and done.

Last week, Jeff and I took the week off for our 10 year anniversary. By Wednesday, I realized I really needed a vacation - from painting as well. While I obviously enjoy it, it is still work - that I love doing - but still work and takes concentration. The few days off was nice.

We got HIT with some crazy snow this past Monday/Tuesday. Here are a few photos.

The side patio just as the snow started on
Monday afternoon
(ignore power washing needed on fence)

The same patio at about 9 AM next day,
got a few more inches after this.

Days 19 and 20 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days: Experimentation

2015-01-19T16:39:00.002-08:00

15-19 Wild - Acrylic on hardboard, 6x6

I'm on a floral kick apparently! Flowers aren't generally something I paint, however, I've been enjoying experimenting with my Golden open acrylics and some gel mediums and I feel that flowers are a subject matter that makes it easier for me to loosen up.

I really like orangey/red poppies - I only wish they lasted longer! I don't have any poppies in our yard now and every year I say I want to plant some. Maybe this will be the year.

After I finished my poppies, I wasn't done painting so I had prepared another panel earlier in the day and decided I needed to paint one more daisy painting. Who knows - I love daisies so much that maybe my 'one more' will turn into my version of waterlilies.

15-20 Summer Shastas
Acrylic on hardboard, 6x6

I have always loved floral paintings, but have never enjoyed painting flowers. Mostly because I find it very hard to capture the delicacy and translucency of the petals. I have been enjoying them this week though. Maybe that's the answer: loosen up and just enjoy the process - literally and figuratively.

Day 18 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days

2015-01-18T16:42:00.001-08:00

15-18 Sunny Faces, Acrylic on hardboard 6x6

As if the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge isn't challenging enough, I decided I wanted to further challenge myself to loosen up my brushwork. The past couple days I've been focusing on flowers in between working on some commissions. I figured flowers were a good subject to try some loser techniques on. I focused more on capturing the colors and light rather than focusing on detail. So far, I'm enjoying it!

We were supposed to go to Newport today for brunch, however, freezing rain this morning kept us at home. Considering I think almost every highway in the state was closed at one point due to accidents and the airport shut down, I feel we made the right choice. Newport maybe later this week since we both have the week off.

Day 16 and 17 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days! Whoopsie Daisy

2015-01-17T13:54:00.001-08:00

15-16 Summer Dreaming Acrylic on Wood

15-17 Just Daisy Acrylic on hardboard

I didn't finish my painting yesterday, but did double duty today and got both done. So now I'm all caught up! I'm still trying to figure out where I messed up with the numbering. I'm equal with days in the month right now and I know I should be one ahead. Not sure where I've mislabeled. Oh well. Some day I'll figure it out.

A few days ago, I got some Golden Open acrylics so I've been experimenting with them. I'm really liking them so far. My first love is oils, but sometimes I just want something easier - something without a 2 week dry time, solvents, etc. These acrylics seem to be a close second. They really do take much longer to dry than typical acrylics. I have made a few mistakes - it's easy to pull the paint off the canvas - and you can't work fast drying acrylics into the open acrylics on the canvas. A weird goopy thing starts to happen. But I'm learning and enjoying it so far.

Summer Dreaming ended up differently than I had originally planned, but I kind of like the effect. If you're interested in purchasing Summer Dreaming, click here.

With Just Daisy, I started out by painting the hardboard with copper paint. I then put a layer of heavy bodied gloss gel over the copper paint. I wanted to experiment with some different effects. I then went in with my painting. You can see some of the copper paint showing through, but it is much better to see it in person. If you're interested in purchasing Just Daisy, click here.

That's it for today! It's my tenth anniversary so it is time to get off the computer and start celebrating with my wonderful husband, Jeff!

Day 15 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Doin' Just Dandy, thanks!

2015-01-15T15:40:00.002-08:00

15-15 Just Dandy: Acrylic on Gessobord, 6x6

I love dandelions and I'd be happy if our entire lawn was covered in them. My favorite stage is the 'just puffed out' stage. The stage I painted in this painting actually!

I found this photo on morguefile.com - a place you can find royalty-free images. Thanks Elaine for your post mentioning this wonderful plethora of photos!

I recently bought a small set of Golden Open Acrylics - acrylics but with a longer dry time. This is my first painting with these acrylics and I've got to say, I really like them! They stay wet for much longer AND you can get the paint working again even after it has tacked up by just brushing in some additional paint or a wet brush. I'm looking forward to painting some more with these acrylics. If you are interested in purchasing Just Dandy please click here.

Day 14 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days - I can do it, I can do it!

2015-01-14T16:45:00.001-08:00

15-14 Dawn Revisited, Oil on Copper 5x7

After I finished yesterday's painting, I realized I wanted to try another similar scene. I really enjoyed painting the forest in winter. This time, I wanted to use two sets of complimentary colors - blue and yellow along with violet and yellow (along with white). I also wanted to keep this one looser, so to me, it has almost more of an abstract feel.

If you're interested in purchasing this painting, click here and you will be redirected to my Daily Paintworks gallery.

Today I felt a bit overwhelmed, wondering HOW in the heck am I going to finish this 30 in 30 challenge? And then i realized that I'm literally almost half-way through. It's not the painting every day, it's the actual part of FINISHING a painting every day that is tough! Especially with a very busy day job. But I can do it! I know I can!

Today, I saw a funny meme on Facebook about being over 40 and I had to share it. I try not to share all that stuff, but this one really got me and had me thinking about the fact that I went through college with literally no internet. I think my last year, email addresses were finally available, but nobody else really had one so I didn't know who the heck to email. We did all our research via Lexus Nexus and looking at microfiche (remember those big microfiche machines?). I did my papers on a Brother word processor with ONE line showing what I'd typed. I really couldn't edit anything because going back through a 10 page paper with one line of digital display was impossible. But I had the super fancy one! It actually stored the data so I could type and then print all at once. Today, I bet kids couldn't even imagine how to survive without the internet! Anyway, here's the funny I posted today (and yes, I AM thankful that all my college escapades aren't documented somewhere on the internet for everyone to see).

The last picture for today is one of Stella on her bed under my desk. She keeps me company and comes to work with me every day! Isn't she adorable?

Day 13 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days

2015-01-13T17:31:00.000-08:00

15-13 Winter Dawn, Oil on Copper 8x10

I finished Winter Dawn this morning and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! I really enjoyed painting this and using the two color palette. I enjoyed it so much that I was kind of depressed when it was finished, so I started another small one (5x7), same type of composition and same color palette. So, that will be my post for tomorrow! I think....

If you're interested in purchasing Winter Dawn or some of my other paintings, click here and you'll be redirected to my gallery at Daily Paintworks.

Short post for tonight. There's more painting to do!

Day 12 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days and the Stages of a Winter Scene

2015-01-12T18:31:00.002-08:00

15-12 Just a Little Garlic - Oil on Copper, 3"x4"

Well, my painting name organization needs better organizing! I realized today as I was posting photos of this little garlic painting that I somehow messed up my numbering - I missed 6 (I think - I'm not totally sure yet). Tomorrow I have to figure it out and then rename them properly on Daily Paintworks among other sites. Y.U.C.K.

Okay, on to more fun topics like GAAAHHHLIC! I did this little painting of garlic yesterday. It's small - only 3"x4" unframed (about 8x9 framed). I enjoyed painting the "white" of the garlic. Nothing is ever truly white, except possibly a bright reflection, but still, if you look closely, it probably isn't stark white - it probably has a bit of yellow or blue in it. Anyway, this garlic had so many colors in it when I studied it. Some teal reflected off the garlic from the fabric, the shadows in some areas looked pinkish and in other areas it looked violet-ish. Anyway, it was a lot of fun to paint and I may be painting some more garlic in the future! I really did enjoy it. If you're interested in purchasing "Just a Little Garlic", click here and you'll be redirected to my Daily Paintworks gallery where you can purchase this or some of my other available paintings via PayPal.

Very beginning of the painting - laying in color

This morning, I started another copper painting - this time a little bigger: 8x10. I have been thinking about doing a winter scene since last week when one morning I looked out at the orange sunrise and saw how everything not in the sun was shrouded in violet. This painting is 3/4 from my head and about 1/4 from different reference photos. It still has some work to go, but here's the start.

This first photo shows the very beginning stages. I wanted to keep this to two colors again - violet and orange.

A little further along, starting to put in some details

In this photo, I started adding some detail. I got a nice dark color by mixing the violet and orange together. I felt it was perfect for the trunks of the trees. I also started working on creating the depth by pushing the trees back and bringing the snow/ground forward.

Starting to add in high and low lights as well as
refining details

In this stage, you can see I'm starting to add in some highlights from the sun as well as some deeper shadows on the trees. I still need to add some darker values in the trunks and fill out some of the details for the branches. I don't want to do too much more as I'm liking the simplicity of this. This is a terrible photo - it's hard to get a good photo after dark. What you can't see is that in the distance behind the trees, I only used a very thin layer of paint so a lot of the copper will show.

Finished painting tomorrow!

Stella is doing much better today! Franklin felt she needed some TLC so he obliged. He really loves Stella and is completely over-protective of her. Although, I'm not sure she fully enjoyed the TLC as his head must weigh at least half of what she does!

Day 10 and 11 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days

2015-01-11T16:48:00.002-08:00

15-11 Sunrise Over Carillon - Oil on Copper

15-12 Celebrate - Oil on Copper

I started painting Sunrise over Carillon yesterday and I just wasn't feeling it. I laid the basic background colors in and started painting some of the cloud detail and realized I wasn't feeling very inspired. So rather than paint something that my heart wasn't in, I decided to take the rest of the day off. It felt weird not posting my "30 in 30" painting but I figured it is called 30 Paintings in 30 Days, not 1 painting a day for 30 days. So, as long as I get my 30 in, I feel like I'm fulfilling the challenge!

This morning, I picked back up where I left off yesterday. I'm pretty happy with the result. I enjoyed laying in the wispy clouds and jet streams, but my favorite part was painting in the city in the distance. If you're interested in purchasing Sunrise Over Carillon, click here.

After I was done, I decided to do a small copper piece. I originally thought about doing a sunny marsh, and it somehow turned into fireworks! You may or may not know that I LOVE painting fireworks! They are so much fun to paint and figure out where the shimmers will be and what the reflections will look like. If you're interested in purchasing Celebrate, click here.

I actually finished tomorrow's post today and also finished up a couple of commissions. I guess the day off did me some good!

Stella has been under the weather. Not exactly sure what she got into, but her stomach is definitely off. I just took this photo of her while I was typing. She's resting on the back of her couch. The photo of Franklin was taken earlier today. he was totally bundled in Jeff's quilt, loving every minute.

Day 9 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days - Kind of like an apple a day!

2015-01-09T15:34:00.003-08:00

15-10 An Apple a Day 4x4 Oil

I was thinking this morning about the fact that I'm almost 1/3 of the way through the challenge and how this 30 Paintings in 30 Days is kind of like the old saying "An Apple a Day". I find it is really challenging me and helping to make me a 'healthier' painter. While I paint almost every day, I don't always FINISH a painting every day. This challenge is helping me better plan things like color selection and brush strokes among other things. Other things being a simple enough composition so I can finish it and yet still challenge myself. I get bored easily, so changing things up keeps me going.

On this train of thought, I decided to paint an apple! A little apple - 4"x4" oil on textured Ampersand board. Originally I wanted to only use two colors plus white again and use the complimentary colors of green and red. I realized when it was done, it kind of looked like a Christmas ornament and was quite boring. So I opted to use teal for the background and added some teal into the apple to tie it all together. So three colors plus white this time around. I did keep this at under a half hour though. I started it early this AM, got it almost done and decided I didn't like it (Christmas ornament) and wiped it. I started it again after work and finished within the half hour timeframe. I wonder if that counts! If I tack on the time I spent on the first apple, I spent over a half hour, but since it was a total wipe, I'm calling it a half hour for the second try! TGIF everyone!

Day 8 of 30 in 30 and Baby, It's Cold Outside

2015-01-08T16:54:00.001-08:00

15-9 Florida Dreaming, Oil on Copper

Wow, it is COLD. Granted, I just got back from Florida so even though I was only there for less than 48 hours, this chill is a shock to my system! Although I'm pretty sure it still would be even if I didn't go to Florida. I will say, I miss that January Florida weather already.

I enjoyed the sunrise in St. Pete yesterday and snapped a few photos, one of a palm tree. I based this painting on that photo. It's oil on copper and is 6"x6"

I wanted to challenge myself so I used only two colors plus white: blue and orange. The two complimentary colors were really fun to work with. And by mixing both, I got a nice "black" for the silhouette. I also timed myself. I didn't start this until after work and I wanted to finish it within 45 minutes, so I started at about 5:30 and finished before 6:15. I really worked to limit the brush strokes, so I laid in the color and then used a dry brush at the end to soften and blend quickly. I also wanted to make sure I got some movement in the palms too. It was fun and I may try another one with two colors and time constraint tomorrow.

Stay warm! It's freezing! Literally...

Day 7 30 Paintings in 30 Days and Back to the Cold

2015-01-07T14:20:00.001-08:00

Beautiful sunrise in Florida this am!!

I'm attempting to blog from the mobile app. So far, the verdict is out. It kind of leaves a lot to be desired! This painting below is another I did ahead of time since I knew I'd be unable to paint for a few days. I'm calling this 15-8 "Shake it Up" and this one is acrylic on gessobord, 8x6I'm about to head out to the airport to fly back home. I hear it's pretty cold there! I will miss this:

Day 6 of 30 in 30 and Flying the Friendly Skies

2015-01-06T05:07:00.002-08:00

15-7 Calm Before the Storm Redux

As I'm typing this, I'm probably about 40,000 feet above Virginia (hi Tim & Tara!). I love technology! I'm flying to Florida for a quick day job trip and was up early (4:30) to catch my flight. The pups all woke up of course and wanted to follow me downstairs, which probably means Jeff woke up too. Sorry Jeff!

Calm Before the Storm Redux is a smaller take on a 16x20 I painted early last year. This one is only 6x6 and is oil on gessobord. I enjoyed painting this subject again - I love painting clouds. I also enjoyed painting this in smaller format. I wasn't sure exactly how it woould come out.

And no, I did not paint this today. I actually painted about 4 extra paintings over the weekend knowing that I wouldn't have a chance to paint while in Florida. Happy Tuesday all!

Day 5 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days

2015-01-05T15:35:00.000-08:00

15-6 Pear Inspiration - Acrylic and Oil
5x4 on stretched canvas

I started this painting last year and it sat on my desk for at least 6 months. This morning I was inspired to finish it! I was going to call it Resolution 3: Finish what you start, but then I thought I might be getting a little out of control with the resolutions. I get frustrated though with how many paintings I start and don't finish. I should just finish them or scrap them - it bugs me to see unfinished paintings sitting in the corner.

Tomorrow I head to St. Pete for a quick Florida trip. I leave early in the morning and come home late on Wednesday. I've been looking forward to snow and wouldn't you know that the first good snow we're going to get, I'm going to be down south!

I finished up enough paintings this weekend so don't fret - I will be posting in the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge (because I know that was stressing YOU out....).

Full Maiden Voyage Story and Day 4 of 30 in 30

2015-01-04T15:36:00.002-08:00

15-5 Resolution 2: Don't forget, there's always a light
at the end of the tunnel

Y'all probably read this already as I posted it all over FB, but here's the story. This resolution is important for me as I can sometimes forget that things WILL get better. So, resolution 2: Don't forget, there's always a light at the end of the tunnel.

The story behind this painting goes back about a year and a half ago. We bought our '82 Egg Harbor in Wareham, MA and needed to get it back to Mystic. We carefully planned our maiden voyage of over 70 nautical miles (or 80, I can't exactly remember, but it was pretty far for a day trip). Jeff and I talked my dad into joining us as it would definitely help to have three sets of hands on the boat that none of us were familiar with yet. We had gotten a survey (guy comes out, tests everything including seaworthiness) and everything passed.

We left Wareham at about 10 AM and enjoyed a leisurely cruise into Buzzard's Bay. The weather seemed nice and we had snacks, lunch, beer, wine, soda, water, you name it. We were PREPARED! We had even joined Seatow the day before in the event that we needed them, but we were certain we wouldn't. About 2 hours into our trip, we were still in Buzzard's Bay and could just see Cuttyhunk. All of a sudden, we heard this terrible buzzing. Finally we realized that one of the engines was overheating. Not to be crude, but the first thought was W-T-F! We idled the working engine and turned off he overheated one and drifted a bit. Jeff crawled down into the engine room and realized the coolant holder had tipped over so we figured the engine needed coolant as the overflow wasn't working and wouldn't suck coolant back into the engine (or whatever, not sure of the technical terms). He fixed it, added coolant, tightened some bolts (oh, he found that coolant was leaking due to a loose connection). We got back on course and ran with just one engine while the other continued to cool down.

As we left the protection of Cuttyhunk and were nearing the mouth of the bay, the wind started to pick up. Nothing crazy, but it was blowing and the waves started picking up. It made it a bit difficult to steer with just one engine, so we checked the other and it seemed as if it had cooled enough so we started that one too. All was great for another couple/few hours. It had gotten rough (probably 3-5 foot seas), but the boat was sturdy and we were really happy with how it handled in the waves. At about 3 PM, we started to near RI and we heard buzzing again. This time it was less of a WTF and more like a HUGE OMG. It was the OTHER engine that was overheating this time! So, we idled again (this time in some sizable seas) and Jeff looked in the engine room again. We couldn't find anything and that engine seemed to be totally shot. We started the original bad engine again and went along with one engine for a bit. It seemed to be running at a fairly hot temperature, but wasn't overheating. It definitely had us concerned. The waves were bad at this point and it was almost impossible to steer. At this rate, we were still a couple hours from Newport and Mystic was another few hours beyond that! We also were nervous that the final engine wouldn't hold, so we decided to call Seatow.

As I was dialing Seatow, the engine went. We were dead in high seas with NO engines. In the open Atlantic. Seatow, after getting the member number, indicated that they cancelled the account we had opened the day prior. This sent me over the edge. I started freaking. Finally they figured it out and put us in touch with the local seatow. At this point, I was getting sick on the bridge in a cooler. Nice, huh? Jeff called over the radio and gave Seatow our coordinates. He mentioned it would be about 40 minutes or so as he was coming from Newport and seas were rough. We all went down to the cockpit and waited. And waited. And bobbed around. And waited. After an hour and a half, we called Seatow on the radio again and gave him our updated coordinates. Apparently he had overshot us by a few miles as he didn't take into account our drift.

Another hour went by, no Seatow. We were now nearing a rock outcropping and could easily see land. We called Seatow again, gave coordinates again and he couldn't understand why he couldn't see us. We continued to bob around, drifting closer and closer to the outcropping. FINALLY, at now past 7 PM, Seatow finally found us. At this point, we were in 10 feet of water or less and due to the big waves, it was near impossible for Jeff (standing on the bow with a life jacket on and a boathook in hand) to catch the tow line. FINALLY the guy threw it well and Jeff caught it! We hit a depth of under six feet of water, so he got us just in the nick of time. We had thought about dropping anchor, however, due to the waves, we were waiting until the absolute last possible moment as that brings on different problems given the windlass didn't really work.

Now at about 7:45, we were finally getting towed to Newport. We sat back, relaxed a bit, cursed boating, cursed the fact that we bought a lemon, cursed the surveyor, had a couple beers and realized we were all very happy to be alive!

At about 9 or so, we were just getting into Narraganset Bay. I looked over and saw the most unbelievable, most awe-inspiring sunset. I took a few quick photos on my iPhone and just painted the sunset today. Those photos have always been a reminder to me that there is ALWAYS a light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how bad things seem to be. We only had to replace one engine, found an AWESOME mechanic in Newport and now fully enjoy the Stella Blue (renamed from Avalon after our not so successful maiden voyage). Here's a photo o the three dogs on Stella Blue this summer.

Day 3 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

2015-01-03T15:57:00.002-08:00

15-4 "Resolution One: Enjoy more Sunrises" Oil

Sticking with the Resolution theme, I figured I'd do one that represented something you want to do rather than give up (like shooters!). I have always loved sunrises and over the past month or so, I've been making a point of getting up early enough to watch the sun rise. There's something about seeing the light glow in the sky and then all the colors emerge that is completely magical and relaxing. So, one of my resolutions is to enjoy MORE sunrises this year. I love that early morning time.

Franklin, Iko and Jeff enjoyed the snow

Today I actually slept in until about 7:30. Franklin wasn't too happy with me and sat next to me on the bed, staring down at me until I got up. it was quite comical actually! I did notice that the morning seemed to go by much too fast, so after sleeping in, I wished I had gotten up to see the sun rise.

I have been waiting for snow! Today we finally got some. Unfortunately, it is supposed to change to rain this evening. Boo!

Stella wondering why she's out in the cold.

Winner announced and Day Two of the 30 in 30 Challenge

2015-01-02T19:28:00.001-08:00

15-3 "Don't Forget to Salt the Limes!" 6x6 oil

Day two of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge! I had the salt shaker out from yesterday so why not add some limes and the paring knife?

I started tomorrow's painting and am planning on doing a lot of painting this weekend. I have a bunch of commissions to finish up and start - and need to do a few ahead of schedule for the 30 in 30 since I'll be in Florida for a couple days for work next week. I'm looking forward to my painting marathon!

Tonight was the East Coast Artists opening at the Gallery at the Wauregan in Norwich. It was a lot of fun and there were a lot of people there! The show will be up for the month of January and there are some great pieces there to see.

I was goofing around with Franklin earlier and snapped a few 'selfies'. Man, you need to have long arms to get those selfies snapped! I had trouble with that. Here's one of them:

Ok, without further adieu, the winner of the painting is SARAH JEROR!!! Woo hoo! Sarah, I'll be in touch.

New Year Resolutions and Such

2015-01-01T18:30:00.003-08:00

15-2 Shooter, 6"x6"

It's that time of year! Time for New Year Resolutions. Here are mine:

Paint MORE: I want to do 300 paintings this year. That's my goal!
Blog MORE: I'm not going to try for 7 days a week - I'm going to try to blog at least 4 days a week. Doable, right?
Exercise MORE: I got a Jawbone for Christmas from Jeff and I'm thinking this is going to help me. I need to get more active!
Organize my paintings better (note new names - year followed by the chronological order of the painting)

All of those seem doable. I'm not shooting for blogging every day or painting 365 days. Heck, there are some days I can do 5 paintings in one day which gives me some time off! I can do this. And exercise more - I can do it!

Ok, enough of that. What are some of your resolutions?

I recently saw Leslie Saeta's 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. I signed up and today was the first day. I figure it will be a great way to start the year off right. I started with Shooter (6x6 Oil on gessobord) pictured above and I spent half the day cursing myself for not doing something much more simple for the first day, but finally finished this evening. Tomorrow's painting will be much more simple as it is back to the day job so I will either complete the painting in the early AM or in the evening. Not sure which!

15-1 Joey, 8"x10"

I also finished Joey today! Isn't he a gorgeous horse?? Recently I donated a custom pet portrait to a charity silent auction at work and a co-worker bid and won. I fell in love with Joey as soon as I saw his photos. You can't see it here, but he has the kindest face and eyes you'll ever see.

Iko and "cousin" Victor were relaxing this AM and looking way too cute for their own good. Jeff and Franklin were sleeping off the previous evening. I'm sure Jeff will kill me for posting this photo. We'll see if he actually reads the blog!

I also just realized I never made the announcement about the drawing for the free painting and here's why. I need help finding my follower email list! yikes. Anyway, I didn't want to do the drawing until I made sure I had everyone, so I'll figure it out tomorrow and announce the winner!

Happy happy 2015 everyone!

Jenny's Garden and Norwich Arts Centre Holiday Show

2014-11-21T19:23:00.003-08:00

Jenny's Garden - 24"x30" oil on canvas

Today I finished Jenny's Garden. I had gotten a bit stuck on this one and couldn't get it where I wanted it and finally after painting some olives and such, I was able to get back on track. My favorite part is the shadows in the foreground.

The "real" Jenny's garden is a sight to behold, especially in August which is when I spent some time taking these photos. There were so many I had a hard time choosing, but I know this birdhouse has special meaning and I really liked the composition.

Tomorrow I drop off 6 12" and under paintings at the Norwich Arts Center. I have about 18 I picked out, so I still need to figure out which six will go! Anyway, come down and see all the great art and do some holiday shopping as well. What a great way to spend Small Business Saturday - or even Black Friday. Downtown Norwich has a lot to offer. Hours for the NAC during December are as follows:

Extended Holiday Gallery Hours December 4 thru December 22: Wednesdays through Saturdays 12-4pm. Open Sundays Dec 7, 14 & 21 from 12-4pm. Need a special night to come with friends? Call and they will open! More information is on the NAC website which you can go to by clicking the logo.

Here are two fun photos to make you smile. One is of Stella making herself comfy on the couch and the other is of Deoje (pronounced D-O-G), our orange tabby. Hehas found a new bed. I don't have he heart to move the laundry basket!

Two Olive Paintings and the Drawbacks of Using Edible Subject Matter

2014-11-19T16:17:00.004-08:00

Well, I didn't think there was any chance one of our four-legged beings would eat green, vermouth-soaked olives. I was half wrong.

"Martini Time" Oil on gessobord, 6"x6"

Early this morning, I set up my still life (three olives, a metal pick and a white dish) and sketched out the beginnings of two small paintings. One 6"x6" with three olives, the pick and the dish and a second 4"x4" with just an olive and the pick. After my morning paint session, I left the setup there and then worked at the "day job". I came in during lunch and saw Franklin gingerly, with all his teeth showing, attempting to sample an olive. Oy. Luckily he didn't eat it, only took a couple tiny sample bites and left a few tooth marks. AND he was kind enough to do this on the end of the olive that didn't show. After that, I covered my setup when I left the room as I've come to realize with Franklin, you only get lucky once. If you give him a second chance, he WILL succeed.

I still want to work on the white dish in the 6"x6" shown above. I feel like it needs finishing, but I decided to leave it where it was for now and let it set up a bit before it just turned into a whitish grey puddle on the panel.

"Martini Time" B&W Value Study

One thing I always like to do is take the photo of my painting and then convert it to a black and white. Looking at the painting in black and white helps me check to see if my values are correct - and that I have a good range of dark, medium and light values. "Martini Time" needs some lighter and darker ranges in the top two olives. To me, looking at this in black and white, it seems too monotone in that area. I also think I need to even out the background.

"Shaken, Not Stirred" 4"x4" oil on gessobord

The 4"x4" pictured to the right will be the second in the Cocktail Condiments series. I really had fun painting the olives today - getting the greens right and painting the pick. The twirly on the end was especially fun to try to capture. Next in line will be lemon twists, orange slices/twists, limes and salt and limes! Oh and cocktail onions.

Want to win a painting?? Follow my blog! Yes, I am shamelessly promoting my blog yet again. You can easily follow me by either entering your email address in the box to the right OR by subscribing to follow via Google+. I will be drawing the name of the winner on December 26 and the winner will receive my painting titled "Mystic River Sunset" which is an 11"x17" oil painted on linen panel.

Franklin, caught in the act of sampling
my still life setup.

Stella taking a nap under my desk - either that
or she's contemplating the history of time..

The Two Poodles and Cocktail Condiments

2014-11-18T18:02:00.003-08:00

Needs a name! 4"x4" oil on textured gessobord

Today was crazy. I was on the phone for probably at least 6 hours and after being off for Jeff's birthday yesterday, I was behind when the day started, BEFORE all the calls.

Tonight I did have time to complete a little painting that will be the first in a series of cocktail condiments. I don't have a name for this one yet so if you have a good one, don't be shy. I'd love to hear from you! This one is 4"x4" oil on textured Ampersand gessobord. I'm not sure about the textured gessobord yet. I'm also not sure if this one will go in the January exhibition or if it will go up for sale on Daily Paintworks. Time will tell.

I realized yesterday I never talked about the reasoning behind the name for my new blog, Two Poodles and a Paintbrush. We actually have three dogs and two cats, but Two Poodles, a Bichon, Two Cats and a Paintbrush just seemed like overkill. Our boat is actually named after Stella Blue, our Bichon, so don't feel bad for her being left out. Anyway, back to the two poodles. What more does someone need other than their animals and a paintbrush? Oh, and a husband. That pretty much makes me happy, hence the name. The two poodles we have are LARGE standard poodles named Franklin and Iko. Both are big goofballs and many times steal the show.

Reminder: I will be giving my painting Mystic River Sunset away on December 26th to one lucky individual. You can enter by following my new blog between now and then. You can either follow via Google+ or email.

Here are some photos of the two poodles. I won't bore you with a photo of the paintbrush!

Iko, our Standard Parti-colored Poodle.
Those eyes pretty much get him whatever
he wants

Franklin, our red Standard Poodle. He
is a total clown.

Both boys out on the Stella Blue last
Summer. All the dogs, especially
Stella, love the boat.

New Blog, Artist Block, Holiday Contest and more!

2014-11-17T16:08:00.000-08:00

It's about time I sent out a blog post! I've been MIA in the blog and social media department for the last little bit - some of it was due to me wallowing in my own artist block misery (which I'll get to) and most of it was due to the fact that life got in the way. It sounds like an excuse, but it kind of is the truth.

Mystic River Sunset, 11x17 oil on linen panel
This painting will be given away to a lucky subscriber

First, on to the fun part! The Holiday Contest! I'd like to welcome my new blog with a painting give away. Yup, you read right. Anyone who signs up to follow my blog via email by 11:59 PM EST on 12/25/2014 will be entered to win this painting titled Mystic River Sunset. It is oil on linen panel, 11" x 17" and will be shipped to one lucky subscriber unframed once a name is chosen at random on 12/26/2014.

Now on to the big, ugly block! I had gotten myself all sorts of blocked up in a creative sense. I had been chugging along this year (latest count: 235 finished paintings so far in 2014) and creativity and inspiration hadn't been a problem. Then BOOM. It hit me out of nowhere. Paintings that normally would've taken me a few hours were taking days. Pet portraits that would take me a day were taking a week, sometimes two, sometimes more. I had trouble getting inspired and nothing I painted seemed quite right. I was getting frustrated really easily and things were just weighing on me.

Rough Day - Oil on Ampersand Gessobord, 6"x6"
This painting will be for sale at the Norwich Arts Center Holiday show.
More details to come!

I realized I was overwhelmed by the fact that my website was sorely out of date, I hadn't blogged in a couple months and I had commissions that needed completing but I couldn't seem to complete them. I had also gotten really busy with what I call my Day Job (I work for a financial services company that serves credit unions throughout the US and the day job sometimes turns into a day AND night job). I just couldn't seem to get it together. Rather than sit in front of the easel stressing about my block, I decided to just CHILL out and paint a few things that I found inspiring. I also at about the same time ordered some new brushes and those along with a few very supportive friends (who probably don't even know how much they helped - Tara, Sarah, Elaine, Ron - thank you) got me out of my funk. I started by painting something I really had been wanting to paint: some Scotch! I poured a glass of Macallan and got to work - with my new Rosemary and Co. Ivory brushes. I was pretty happy with the outcome and I think i'm going to start a new cocktail condiments series. That led to a salsa ingredient painting that I really had fun working on. I feel like I'm finally back in the saddle so to speak and this new blog is one more step in the right direction.

Just a reminder: follow my blog via email in order to enter to win my Mystic River Sunset painting!

More tomorrow on the Norwich Arts Centre holiday show as well as an upcoming exhibition I will be taking part in this coming January.