Wordless Wednesday - video

The Maiden Voyage of the Firecracker!

Many of you will remember this post last April about the pinup girl I painted on hubby's remote-controlled speedboat that he was building. He didn't have much time to work on it due to job commitments, so it took him until now to get the boat finished. On Saturday we went to a favorite pond not far from our house in the Loess Hills for her maiden voyage. We were so excited to see it in the water!

She is powered by a weed-eater mower. Jason is getting ready to start her up!

And away she goes...

Giving her some gas...

The Loess Hills in Autumn is breathtaking!

Full throttle!

More pics:

Hope you enjoyed the ride! :-)

You Just Grew

I didn’t plant you
You just grew
Whispering to me softly
Saying: Look at what is True

Thank you for my blessings
As they flow to me
Heaven is here upon this Earth
If we only look and see

And every seed I’ve planted
Comes right back to me
In unexpected times and places
Showing all that life can be

I was inspired to write this poem today after I found these volunteer lovelies growing out of the gravel behind the back woodpile. I hope you enjoy it.

Wishing everyone a blessed day!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday - Six years ago today...

I married my best friend.

Happy Anniversary, Baby.

I love you!

Wordless Wednesday - September Joys

New work in progress - hummingbird

I'm working on a very large, (relatively speaking) hummingbird painting right now. This is 18 x 24 inch, acrylic on canvas.

I'm blessed to have many hummingbirds visit my feeder every day in the summer to early fall. There's one female in particular who sometimes hovers within arms reach of me, seeming quite curious. I love them so much! I want this painting to capture the way they make me feel when I see them, their energy, and the joy they share freely to anyone who cares to stop and look.

Wordless Wednesday - RenFaire

5 things that I am loving right now

This maple storage cabinet that hubby is building for me:

This color:

The new Sharpie Pen:

This awesome thrift store find yesterday!
Anyone remember Daria? I LOVED that show!!!
(And especially Jane's brother Trent!)

The smell of this ratatouille as I'm waiting for it to cook down:

Heaven!!!

Wordless Wednesday - Hungry Little Caterpillars

Painting video of Cloud's portrait

I put together a video today of Cloud's portrait. It's kind of fun to see it all come together in one minute, lol. I think it's my best work-in-progress video so far. It would be fun to do time-lapse videos of me painting, so I'll have to look into how to do that.

Enjoy!



I really want to thank everyone for all the lovely comments on Cloud's painting post last week. I really appreciate your kind words and taking the time to write.

Much love,

Cloud's portrait is finished!

Here it is, the finished portrait of my Rat Terrier, Cloud. 18 x 18 inches, acrylic on Canvas.

Sometimes it's hard for me to find the words to explain what this little dog means to me. All dogs are precious to me, but this one... I've never seen a dog convey the emotions he does, and I've never had a dog SO aware of me. His love and devotion can make me cry. In fact, there were times while I was working on this painting that I had to stop because I would be overcome by the exchange of love that was going on - from me to him through his image on the canvas, and from him looking back at me as he came to life in paint. It may sound crazy, but I know I have readers who understand what I'm saying.

Back to the painting... we all know the eyes will make or break any portrait regardless of species, and they are my favorite thing to paint. The eyes are of course the main focus of this piece - his sweet, trusting, loving eyes mirroring my adoration.

But I'd like to talk a moment about ears. I LOVE painting dog ears! Not only are they fun to paint, (a miniature landscape unto themselves,) but they are a major part of a dogs body language and, certainly in Cloud's case, not only contribute mightily to his expressiveness, they are a huge part of who he is! There's no ignoring those babies... I mean, one of his nicknames is "Ears." (Heehee) So I really try to put a lot of thought and care when I paint doggie ears.

I also wanted the background to express a lot of emotion - somewhat ethereal to express the purity and eternalness of love, yet grounded with my beloved Earth tones to express how solid and real these things are.

I've had people ask if I could ever sell any of my Cloud paintings. No more then I could sell Cloud! When I'm working on a painting, everything I'm feeling about what I'm painting goes into each brushstroke. So selling a painting with that much personal meaning would be too hard for me. Dog portraits are something to treasure for a lifetime!

To give you an idea of the scale, here is a shot of me and Cloud with the painting:

Oh, those ears! I really love the statement big dog paintings make. I had so much fun with this, and look forward to continuing to work large. On my easel there is an 18 x 24 inch blank canvas, calling softly to me...

Wordless Wednesday... with bonus - words!

Rainy morning
Endless possibilities
This simple leaf
Sings a song of love to me

Sorry for the absence of posts lately. I was feeling a bit discombobulated (wow, spellcheck says that really is a word!) and was having a hard time getting my thoughts together into anything anyone would want to read, lol.

The new painting is almost finished, I’ll try to post pictures tomorrow! :-)

Since it’s supposed to be “Wordless Wednesday,” I’m going to shut up now...

Have a wonderful day!