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.

Yellow Lab

"Yellow Lab"

5 x 5 inches, Oil on Board

Available $36.00 + s/h

Click here to place bid on Ebay.

Yesterday the Pointer sisters welcomed a foster brother. A 3 year-old German Shorthair who was rescued from a shelter by the GSP Society because he was due to be put down. (OK this is a painting of a yellow lab up above - I'll have to do one of him soon - he's really cute) So we are going to keep him for a while until a forever home can be found. In the meantime he'll be learning a few commands like "come" "sit", his name, walking on a leash. It won't take him long to learn; he seems so happy to please and is very well-mannered. We plan on calling him Marco.

Sunlight

"Sunlight"

12 x 12 x 3/4 inche, Oil on Canvas, Painted with Palette knife

Sometimes living gets hazy and dark - that's when a little sunlight brings me back to the center. Friends are my little sunlights. Music to paint by. A fresh tube of paint. My Pointer sisters (they are my dogs). My neighbor who carries my trash can out to the curb without asking. A handwritten letter in my mailbox. A smile. Daydreaming of a farmhouse to convert to an artist's haven. My favorite TV show, my battered copy of "Pride and Prejudice", a cup of coffee - especially the sinful kind like White Chocolate Mocha....Hearing someone say, "I love you".

What's your sunlight? That touch of yellow - cad yellow pale mixed with a little white - that's the sunlight in my painting.

We miss Mickey - don't worry - he's fine!

Mickey used to come by and visit the Pointer Sisters fairly often. He came so often these past few months that we couldn't help but let him in the house now and then, espcially when the weather was wet or cold outside. He'd be hanging around our house or my neighbor's house and run to greet us when we came home. He's well mannered, quiet, loving and too well fed as he visited all the houses in the neighborhood. He wears a collar with his name on it and a phone number but we really didn't know exactly where he lived. I live in an area where our houses sit on acreage bound by the lake and park lands. We hadn't seen him around these past three weeks. My neighbor even worried about him.

This is Mickey taking over the Pointer Sister's beloved sofa which I can't throw out even though it is soooo old and tattered. It's the girls' favorite sofa and usually they sleep together kicking all the pillows off it. I guess Mickey thought it was pretty comfy too...

Here's Mickey trying out Stella's doggy bed - I think he's just a little too big for it...with him in it - you can't see the sides of the bed as it is crushed under him...

Well I tried that phone number that was engraved on his collar and the Mickey's mom answered the phone. We had a wonderful conversation about Mickey. He's fine. The hole in the fence Mickey used to use to escape from is mended. But she promises to bring him around one of the these days to visit the girls.

I'm thinking of giving this little painting to Mickey's mom. I know he's fine but the girls and I still miss him.