Wordless Wednesday - scenes from the garden this morning

Summer Solstice

Sunrise solstice celebration. It poured rain at 4:00 but stopped by 5:00.

Good thing I planned ahead and had covered the firewood with a tarp.

No visual sun rise due to the overcast sky, but the fire represented nicely.

I'm so in love with these colors. I must paint them! I was especially obsessed with how the ashes of this cedar were a beautiful blue-gray.

The sun is at its brightest today and nature is at her peak.

Happy Solstice, everyone! May you be blessed with light, love...

and laughter...

Me (left) and my best friend, up since 4am!

Wordless Wednesday - GreenLady in my garden

Cali - Rat Terrier commissioned portrait

This gorgeous girl is named Cali. You may remember I painted her brother Hawk several months ago, and I was thrilled when it was her turn for a portrait. I've never seen a Rattie with her coloring before, such a pretty smokey gray with gold eyes. Isn't she beautiful?


I'm told that Little Miss Thang here is a bit of a diva, and I'm guessing she's a total daddy's girl too, since this is to be a Fathers Day gift. So I tried to play up that side of her personality in her portrait.

I love it when owners tell me about the personalitiy of their dog when they commission a portrait. It gives me a connection to the dog and I love trying to capture their disposition and individuality in paint.

Since I've been busy, busy, busy, I decided to compile the work-in-progress photos into one post.
This was a fun size - 8 x 8 inches, acrylic on Ampersand Gessoboard.

The sketch:

Laying down the underpainting:

Laying down the background, getting a feel for what I'm going to do with it:

Yikes, "ugly stage!" Every painting has 'em, haha.

Working over the underpainting, starting on details of the ear and eye:

Nose, neck and collar:

Almost done, just need to refine the details and finish the background:

Finished portrait:

I had so much fun painting this little doll. I hope her daddy likes it.

Eye portraits are finished!

The wonderful and talented Mona Dianne Conner has finished her eye portraits of hubby and me. They turned out stunning! I can't believe they are only 3/4's of an inch!!!

Eye paintings

Thank you so much Mona, I will always treasure them!

Wordless Wednesday - Opening...

Elephant work-in-progress

I've had this elephant drawn out on canvas for about a year. Waiting patiently, as elephants do. Waiting for the time to be right. Waiting for me to be ready to experiment. Waiting for me to dive in. Let's dive, shall we?


This is about loosening up - big brushes, big canvas (18 x 24 inch,) big color, big brushstrokes. Big animal. Big power. Big medicine. Big energy that I want to convey. So far it's been big fun. :-)


I can't wait to see how this turns out...

Eye painting!

Fellow artist, blogger, and all around super nice person Mona Conner has been working on a miniature (3/4" square) painting of my eye. It's amazing, check it out! I can't believe how much detail she can pack into such a small area. She is also doing an eye painting of hubby. :-)

Mona's eye painting post.

Here is the first post, with her sketches.

I love it!

Wordless Wrens-day

Baby Squirrels playing outside my window

We have a mama squirrel with four babies living in the tree in our front yard. They are so cute! I had to share this video I took of the babies playing and jumping for joy. Although mama's not in the video, she was watching them the whole time.

Right now they are about half the size as an adult. Cloud does not go into the front yard, so they are safe from him.