Love, Cubed

"Love, Cubed"

20 x 20 x 1.5 inches

Oil on Canvas

Simple is nice...so is this post...I'll keep it short... : )

Unprotected

"Unprotected"

24 x 18 x 3/4 inches

Oil on Canvas

Saturday night painting with my painting friends sharing pizza and wine. What fun!! And what should I name this....well "Unprotected" was chosen. I think the title works on many levels.

Love, Squared

"Box Within a Box"

24' x 20" x 3/4 inches

Oil on Canvas

Thank you to all who wrote to say that they were going to step out of their comfort zone boxes and try something different - and also said they were going to try painting with the palette knife.

Well - here's to you: A Box...

Palette Knives, GSP and Art for Animals

Carrie Jacobson, an artist and blogger "The Accidental Artist" (I love the name of your blog, Carrie) wrote me yesterday to ask about my palette knives - whether I use one or several when I paint.

After reading her email, I grabbed up most of my knives and took them outside to photograph!!

A couple of my knives are really old (well, 28 years old - that's fairly old isn't it? And I have a price tag on one of them still LOL). But, I actually use one knife for most of my paintings start to finish - on my smaller pieces I might grab a smaller palette knife for the itty bitty details. Lately my painting style has gotten even more loose so I am now reconsidering whether I would do all that itty bitty detail stuff.... I'll just wait till the inspiration hits before making fast rules about it.

My everyday favorite, use-all-the-time knife is the Loew Cornell J-5. I have a Langnickel P-2 that is similar in size but the tip is a little more rounded. Both are flexible and have a good feel when plastering the paint onto the canvas. Oh! I do love the looseness and thickness of painting with the palette knife.

Carrie has another blog called Art for the Animals in which artists can post animal paintings for the benefit of shelter animals. It's a wonderful project! Check it out.

So this is the segway to the recent foster German Shorthair Pointers at my house.

From Left to Right - Marco, Brooke, my Stella and my Tina (aka pointer sisters) sharing the old sleeper sofa I can't seem to get rid of because the dogs love it too much.

This one shows Marco, Stella, Hattie, Brooke and Tina. Marco, Hattie and Brooke are all available for adoption through the German Shorthair Rescue Society of North Texas. All are housebroken, gets along well with other dogs, as you can see and need a forever home.

Painting of Aspen Trees

This is not a new painting; it's been hanging in my dining room for over a year now. I never got around to taking a photo of it nor have I named it. I guess I never did these things, photographing it, naming it, adding it to my inventory because I don't think I'll part with it. I like the painting. It's on a 15 x 30 inch canvas - long and tall. I showed it to Tony Saladino a month ago at one of his critique classes and he and the class were OK with it. I tend to like painting on square canvases but I think I will try different shapes and see where that takes me.

Here's a thought:

"Surely things shall get better," she said. I wanted to know just one thing. Who the hell was "Shirley," and why should I believe her?"

- Jane Curtin, Comedian

One Lovely Blog Award

Thank you, Squirrel Girl for the One Lovely Blog Award.

The award says to list 15 other lovely artist blogs but I can't choose so if you're reading this - look to the right side of this blog and see my artist links and check them out - as well as my followers widget and check out the bloggers listed there. The list is not complete - there are too many wonderful and talented bloggers!!

Have a lovely day and thank you once again Squirrel Girl.

Lavender Flowers

"Lavender"

12 x 12 x 3/4 inches

Oil on Canvas

Another in my flower series.

I was reading the latest post on Jack Spreight's blog, "Knuckleball". I loved several of the quotes he mentions on his latest post, but this one I wanted to share:

"Everything will be okay in the end, if it's not okay, it's not the end."

White Flowers - an Oil Painting of Daisies

"White Flowers"

12 x 12 x 3/4 inches,

Oil on Canvas

Available - email me for price.

White Daisies. In the movie "You've got Mail", Meg Ryan's character Kathleen likes Daisies.

There's a line in the movie - I had to look it up at imdb.com - in which she says: "Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life. Well, not small, but valuable. And sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven't been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around? I don't really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. So good night, dear void."

So here it is again, doing something that scares you...be valuable, be brave.
It's the cosmic question.
Happy Saturday to all and by the way - I love mail - let me know if you've been doing something different - it doesn't have to be scary.

Pinks

"Pinks"

12 x 12 x 3/4 inches, Oil on Canvas

Another of the series of flowers I am painting...

Odd little thing about signs and thoughts and all....So get out of the box and do something that scares you was yesterday's thought. This morning I read Clint Watson's e-newsletter and it features an article by Keith Bond. He writes about Perfect Success. If you're happy with what you're doing right now and continue doing it, then THIS is the same level of success you will continue to experience. But if you want more you have to change something, drastic or small.

AHA!

Doing something scary and making changes are sometimes very similar, I think. I'll have to think about some of the changes I'd like to make, should make, work on and incorporate to raise my level, my definition of success...

Paint more consistently, organize my mailing lists....

What will you do? I'd love to hear if you are at a happy level of success or are making small/drastic changes to raise the level of success? What will you do?

Sunflowers in a Blue Vase

"Sunflowers in a Blue Vase"
12 x 12 x 3/4 inches, Oil on Canvas
Last week, I was exchanging emails with Texas Artist Laurie Pace when she gave me this advice: Go do something you would NEVER do. Get out of your box... even if it scares you.
Powerful words, that...
There's a wonderful blog I follow which is called "On Simplicity" which is a blog about creating a happier, easier life through simplifying. Saturday's blog was about Four Simple Ways to Make the Most of Your Day. and the first way was to do one thing that scares you...
Hmmmm...is it a sign? I believe in signs. Two similar advice...Do something that scares you.
Well this weekend, I did. I stepped out of my comfort box and did something that scared me. And you know what? It was good...that was this past weekend. Now I'm striving for the next thing that is going to scare me a little. Life is full of baby steps, I know. Baby steps of things that scare me, baby steps of getting out of the box, baby steps of simplifying my life...

Yellow Lab Two - Shelby

"Yellow Lab Two"

5 x 5 inches Oil on Board

On Ebay

A couple of weeks ago I had posted a yellow lab painting and put it up for sale on Ebay. An Artist's dream - two people bid against each other raising the initial price!! YAY!! I exchanged emails with the person who was outbid and she was kind enough to tell me the painting resembled her dog and sent me Shelby's photo. So I re-painted the yellow lab painting - added a few features that Shelby had.

A couple days ago I received an email from Laurie Pace who invited me to join her new Texas Daily Painters' Blog. Please see the link to the right. I'm so honored she asked me to join her and to be amongst such wonderful Texas Painters!! Pinch me!!

Today my husband went to Weatherford Animal Control to rescue another German Shorthair Pointer. It's a little girl pointer who's shoulder blades probably did not develope correctly and stands a little lopsided. The animal control folkes called her Crooky - because she's crooked. Must change her name. She's such a loving, happy and friendly girl that I'm sure she'd make someone a wonderful companion. I'll post her photo soon - she's actually a beautiful dog with such a sweet and loving temperament.

Followers Widget

Well I had that little problem with the follower widget a couple of weeks ago. I'm happy to report that I have re-instated the widget and haven't seemed to have lost any of the followers from the list.

A big thank you to my followers!! And if you're visiting for the first time - please join and check back with my blog from time to time.

What to Wear

"What to Wear"

7 x 5 inches, Oil on Raymar Board

The last painting I did "With Me" was on a gessoed hardboard and this one is on a Raymar board which has the canvas texture. I think I like the smoother gessoed board for paintbrush painting when I'm doing these smaller paintings, but I love these raymar board for when I'm painting with the palette knife. It just seems to have the "grab" that a smooth gessoed hardboard doesn't.

What substrate do you like to paint on?