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                      MERRY CHRISTMAS It is beginning to feel like Christmas and I guess it should since it is already here, ready or not.  Thank you to all from friends who have followed my art journey this year.  I hope you have a very merry joyous Christmas with family and friends. Thanks so much for all your stopping by this last year.

Well for the foreseeable future life is just going to get in the way.  Got a lot of other painting projects, unfortunately not the kind that you do in the art room.  But necessary to do that too as when completed it looks so fresh and clean.  Just what is needed to perk up these long gray drizzly days that we are not getting. Was able to tell myself it is ok to take today and work a bit in the studio for a couple of hours on this big boy.  Am continuing to work on getting things blocked in.  It just takes longer than I think it will.  I am continuing to work with different brushes to see if I can get the kind of strokes that I want to on the finishing layers.  Haven't found just the right combination yet.  But I am hopeful that over the weekend I can get the remainder of the block-in done. I am uncertain on how to best place the last piece, horizontal or vertical  What do you think guys?  I think I am almost leaning towards the horizontal as it will pick up the ear and some g

                                                                   Pow Wow                                                                      8"x12"                                                                       Pastel You can say a lot of things about the internet, many bad, but, I have learned so much from so many sharing artists across the world.  No way would I ever have tried some of things I have.  Yep, another experiment on yet another gray and "wants to" rainy day. Needed a break from my tiger, so this time I am trying to figure out Ivan Hoo's, an incredibly brilliant artist from Singapore, pastel techniques.  I found him on instagram and have now have looked at his Facebook page and Youtube videos.  He is self-taught and does hyper-realistic portraits,  mainly of animals.  He started using pan/pencil pastels on wood and then has switched to MDF.  So, of course because I have some hardboard  handy ... well, you know - just gotta try it

Well  I pretty much have the one panel blocked in, at least enough now to see where I am going.  Probably will go ahead and work on blocking in the second and third panels too so that I can get it to the same stage and then overwork the final coats together so it is more uniform. Lots of changing going on with this big guy as I work through it.  I lost my drawing, so am just guesstimating where things are placed.  Also I am switching it up with the brushes trying to find the one now that can give me the final fur textures I am looking for. I think I forgot to tell you that for me this is a pretty huge piece.  Total size will be about 24"x23".   That's one big cat. It shocks me every time I look at it.  I knew it was going to be large, but man, I sure didn't realize it was going to be this large.  When I get the other side in it might equalize it.  I know many people who work extra large, this really isn't large compared to many, and I wonder if they have t

Many thanks to my blogger friend of many years, Nancy Goldman.  She is a brilliant artist in many mediums ranging from acrylics to encaustics.  Yep she uses the blow torch like a pro.  If interested see her many beautiful pictures at http://nancygoldmanart.blogspot.com. As mentioned previously I really have been in the doldrums and couldn't started painting again after my Thanksgiving break.  Nancy however just completed an 18 canvas wall mural depicting a landscape.  She posted it on her blog and it is quite awesome and got me wondering and feeling that underlying excitement.  Nancy was so helpful in outlining her process.  Well spent the weekend trying to just find a picture I wanted to paint, as this would be a substantial size, so you got to like it.  Then next step is to try to decide how to break it into several parts.  But, of course ended up using something I was going to do and already had the drawing in place, and now just to get the canvases that I need.  So will pro

 Ok, so you have to understand we live in the South, pretty far in the South, and so for us what is a dusting for most of you, is quite the event here in Atlanta.  We had about 8", the most I have ever seen since we lived here.  When you don't have to go out it is quite beautiful.  Even though this was a really wet snow it looked light and lovely coming down.   It snowed starting Friday morning and went into Saturday morning, so it was of long duration.  The only bad news was the trees came down and so did the power.   We were very lucky in comparison to others in the area as our power came back on Saturday. So what does one do when they have to go on "device" withdrawal.  One puts on lots of warm clothes and gets out one of those unfinished projects.  Since it had gotten cooler here I had gotten busy again on my weaving.   I was fortunate enough several years ago to go to the Folk Art Center in Asheville on weaving day.  One of the Souths best artistic free-styl

Here is today's card effort.  Not sure that all of these are going to make the cut, (edit:  one already bit the dust) but it has been interesting to give it a try.  I think I am going to give the word tree (this is neat, but I really botched it so it is dead) another shot, but this time I am just going to pick one color and do it.   I tried it in silver, as I can't find the gold alcohol marker, but it really didn't stand out enough.  So maybe will try it in red and not put in anything to make it look like a tree, just use the words.  I have enough other cards that I can throw that and the poinsettia away if I wake up in the morning and don't like how it came together. I forgot to tell you that I don't send that many cards and I really haven't done handmade but about 4 or 5 times.  My mind says yes, but I procrastinate and it ends up being bought cards.  One year though I tried to use a program easy on to draw a card design and then reproduced it, but I rea

Well it looks like whatever was going on with all those whacko views from Denmark has finally gotten itself straightened out.   Even with going dark I went to Google to see if they could figure out and block it, and maybe that is what happened Since today is kind of dreary and gray, we are going to get rain and a really cold snap, I decided to finally attack my Christmas cards.  Don't want to say I am slow or anything, but I started thinking back in October it might be nice to make cards again this year.  Usually  no one says anything, but the next year when they don't get them I hear they really enjoy whatever the theme is for the year. Since I have done, Santas reindeer, angels, poinsettias and am feeling kind of lazy - part of my not really inspired feelings, I decided to look out on YouTube.   I love all the people out there who share and get a kick out of the fact they like to create videos.   Anyway, I am making some of the designs that they have come up with. I p

                                                                  The Snarl                                                                    16"x12"                                                                      Pastel Well am still having motivation issues.  So while I am at loose ends just thought I'd have little fun with they portrait.  I like the way he has his muzzle wrinkled up in a snarl.  And since I was feeling a bit unconventional, hence the colors in tis one. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.