This is Jake, one very cool hound dog. He hounded my niece, Jackie, until she finally went to Jake's owners and explained that he wasn't leaving so she might as well keep him. He must have had a rough life as evidenced by his tattered and creased ear. Jake went off to Doggie Heaven way too soon; I hope Jackie will like my portrait of him. 

PS Jackie, it's in the mail. Merry belated Christmas. 

I'm not sure why, but Thanksgiving is my very most favorite holiday. Maybe it's the combination of being with family, the joy of cooking and savoring all the special dishes we reserve just for this holiday. Maybe it's the physical presence and the lack of physical presents that makes it special. Or it might be that my favorite chef Al is here to cook his fabulous turkey and dressing again.

Happy Thanksgiving, I hope it's a special day for all of you.



Note: I did this painting a few years ago just as I was beginning to paint with acrylics, the colors might be off on your monitor. We never got around to framing it but it gets propped up against a lamp every Thanksgiving!

Being in a car with Al and I means being on the lookout for photo ops and estate sales. Al has become a master at u-turns after lots of practice at home as well as abroad. He's an absolute saint about it but I think he really enjoys the hunt as much as I do. 

However, this photo required neither a stop-on-a-dime nor a u-turn -- it was pure luck. Last November we celebrated our anniversary on Hilton Head Island and one afternoon drove into Sea Pines to check out the harbor. This fabulous shot was right smack in front of our car when we parked!  It was taken with my little point-and-shoot digital camera on the auto setting and hasn't been edited at all. 

The judge was Katherine Kolb, a well-known, very accomplished photographer. I'm truly honored that she choose this photo to hang in the show along with those of so many talented photographers of the AAC. The exhibit will hang at the Atlanta Artist Center on Grandview Avenue until the end of October. If you're in the area, stop over for the reception this Sunday 10/7, 5-7 pm, when the awards will be announced. 

                    "POTD"

Putting on the Dog is an annual fundraiser to benefit the Humane Society's animal shelter in Towns and Union counties in the North Georgia mountains. This is the painting I'm donating as an auction item for the event to be held September 28, 2013.

Shortly after we bought a house on Lake Nottely, a puppy - a dirty, mangy, starving puppy - came up on our deck, looked in our window and then left. Later in the morning while we were working in the yard this puppy peaked around the corner of the house and very shyly came towards our outstretched hands. It was love at first sight! It was my husband's 60th birthday so we named our new puppy "Sixty". 

Sixty loved to go for boat rides and we would stop at this island in the middle of Lake Nottely and let Sixty and his "brother" Cody explore the shore and the woods.  A couple months ago, after 14 years, Sixty let us know it was time for him to leave us - ironically on our daughter's birthday. Words can't describe what a special member of our family Sixty was or how much we miss him. 

My collage, "Carolynn" was one of 70 pieces selected from over 200 entries in the Atlanta Artists Center "Go Figure" exhibit. The juror was Tom Nash, nationally acclaimed portrait artist.

It's a fabulous show and I'm honored to have a piece hanging with the works of such outstanding artists.

The awards will be announced at the reception  Sunday, September 15, from 5-7pm and the show will be up until October 4. If you're in the Atlanta area do stop in, you'll be amazed at the local talent.

The Atlanta Artists Center is located in Buckhead, just off Pharr Road, at 2979 Grandview Avenue.

This huge 14x11 canvas felt like painting on a billboard compared to what I usually do! 

I've painted variations of this pot many times, but never this large. Except for a bit of smoothing on the shading of the pot, it was done entirely with various shaped palette knifes. I used light modeling paste so there's lots of texture. It started out as an experiment but received good comments in my open studio so I'm satisfied with it.

It looks very nice in it's simple black floater frame.

It does need a title, hmmmm.

I just finished this painting of a scene I photographed on our last trip to The Netherlands. I liked how all the trees grew to the same height, same width, and were the same distance apart. Not how an interesting painting should be, but, that's how the Dutch planted them, that's how they grew and it was far from boring.

(Aptly named by a friend and fellow artist, thank you Jeanne).

Can it get much better than this? Yes, I should have been painting the beautiful scene in front of me but I already had this painting in progress. It's from a photo I took at Lagerquist Gallery during the reception for Barry Sons. 

This is just my second oil painting and I think I'm going to like it, for sure it's going to be fun learning.  One thing to learn is how to handle wet panels - the first painting deserved the title "Thumbprint"! 

What I really like is the Guerrilla Painter Box. This is the little 5x7 one and cute as a bug's eat. I worried that it was going to be too small  and it would be for some, but not for me. I love painting small, have my reasons for keeping a light load, and most of all I was looking for a way to make it easy for me to just pick up and paint. This just might work. 

By the way, I did figure out how to turn this wet panel around and start a new painting of this lovely scene. 

OK. I'm obsessed with art.  Due to an extreme case of adult ADHD most things only hold my interest for up to 5 years and then I'm off to my next adventure. My family feels very fortunate to have not been included in these extreme make-overs! Like hubbies and kids, art lingers, and my love for it continues to grow. I often wonder how this got started. Yes, as an adult my daughter studied watercolor as a hobby and became very good at it. Then I learned picture framing so I could frame her paintings, then we met lots of artists, and then one day I thought "why not"? The rest is history. 

It was never something I considered pursuing as a child or adult; I was always sort of crafty but never artistic. Now I can't get enough of it! It consumes my day and my budget. I've gone from Chinese Brush Painting (a good beginning as drawing isn't required) to traditional watercolor, then acrylic and now pastels and even oils! Oh, did I mention graphite, colored pencil, watercolor pencil,  ink pencil and collage? Yes, it's time to draw the line. Ok, I can do that and then I can start experimenting with all the different surfaces to apply all these mediums to! Oh yes, then there's the different subject matter to  . . . . Enough!

If one must be obsessed, what better obsession than art?

 No, I didn't actually "taste" the oils but I did savor the experience. Yesterday was a fabulous art day. I took the workshop "Introduction to Oils for Pastel Artists" from the equally fabulous Karen Margulis. It was fun and informative. I learned a lot, about oils, yes, but also the basics, the elements, the fundamentals that I will apply to all paintings, regardless of medium.

I chose the water mixable oils from Daniel Smith as I don't want any fumes or solvents in my house. I can't compare them to traditional oils, only to acrylics, and while I won't get into that now, I can say I very much liked the experience.  It's obvious I have a lot to learn but there's a lot of motivation when your first attempt is fun and the end result isn't a total flop.