10 x 10 = $100

Saunders Gallery of Fine Art 

Looks to be a great group show. I'll have five 6 x 6 in. oil paintings on display.

Return of the Usual Suspects in Progress

My husband feels a kinship with the dog on the left, often calling him the Burgermeister. Although he's a tall blond Finn, he sometimes feels like this. I'm surprised I enjoy painting stuffed toys, they are the personification of endearing characteristics created by the toy maker.

Return of the Usual Suspects

I decided to repaint the Usual Suspects with some changes. The original sold on the day it is was shown and I didn't have a lot of time to enjoy it. Painting these stuffed toys makes me happy. This drawing is a work in progress and just needs a few tweaks.

Small Metal Dog Scuplture

I inherited this small metal dog sculpture from my grandmother. It's small and sweet. I wanted to use a Notan approach with this painting so I laid in my darks, put in the midtones and then added the lights. Thanks to Jo Mackenzie's book Three Step Watercolors it's easy to adapt to oil paints.

Athena Sitting

Click her to purchase

My painting of Athena is done. I hope I captured her nobility. I worried about the background but in the end decided not to fuss over it.

Athena Sitting in Progress

I've been working on the background and as I found out, once I darkened the siding I had to change the coloring of the floor. I'm working on the railing. I had it in, then took it out.  Maybe I should make it more substantial, darker and tidy it up? Are the angles wonky? Most of the time I don't put in backgrounds to my pet portraits. I thought I'd try it.  What do you think would add to this painting?

Athena Sitting

I dog sat my favorite dog model Athena. She spent the day with us when her human brother made his last college visit. I know she'll miss him next fall. I'm painting on Lenox paper. It comes in large sheets which I cut to size and gesso. It's a nice surface. I feel like I'm in a painting groove again. Tomorrow I'll finish up the background.

Daffodils

I painted these daffodils from life. I liked their sculptural quality, but found the small variations in yellow coloring challenging.

Pink Rose V

Click here to purchase

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.  That's what I told myself this morning. Yesterday I painted and scraped from 9AM to 3PM. I couldn't figure out how to paint this pale pink rose. It mulled around in my head while I slept and when I awoke this morning I knew how to paint it. Instead of working the whole painting at once I started in the middle and worked outwards. I tried not to deviate since I had to compare values and colors. That's how I usually work, comparing one color spot to the next.

Peach Rose

I scraped off this painting several times and repainted it. I thought I would paint flowers for the month of April, but I'm not sure. I have a lot of images of my town's rose garden and my neighbor's beautiful flower beds. If I stick with this maybe by the end of the month I'll have figured it out.