Dog Paintings (and Cat and Other Animals) by Dottie Dracos

Chocolate Miniature Pinscher

2012-01-26T19:42:00.000-08:00

Here's a minpin painting I just finished for a friend. His name is Kaiser, and he's a chocolate and tan miniature pinscher. I'm pretty satisfied with it, but the photos I had to work from were not very clear, but they were all that were available as Kaiser has passed on.

I'm now working on a painting of a sheep - yes, a sheep. I'm still trying from time to time to include some farm animals in my repertoire, and I took a trip to several farms around Tillamook, on the Oregon Coast and climbed down embankments and risked getting shocked by hot fences to get photos of these critters, so by golly, I'm going to do some paintings of them. It was a fun trip, though. I had no idea that cows and sheep were so varied in their appearances -- it's a whole new educational direction for me. I'll post it in a few days.

German shorthaired pointer

2012-01-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

This is a German shorthaired pointer painting I finished last week. It's an acrylic painting on an 11x14x3/4" canvas, staples on the back only, and is ready either to frame or to hang as-is (the sides are painted the same color as the background).

German shorthaired pointers are such beautiful dogs to me. I find the physical shape of dogs to be interesting and beautiful, and GSP's, like all shorthaired dogs, allow me to focus on the form beneath the hair rather than the hair, which often obscures that form.

The most wonderful dog I have ever had (I still can't look at photos of him after almost six years following his death) was a German shorthaired pointer and most likely some kind of hound. He was the most intelligent, friendliest, most most most beautiful dog I've ever had the fortune to spend a part of my life with. His name was Dune, and his adoption was quite unique. I was at an art show, standing in line to buy a cup of coffee, when I saw this most beautiful ever dog, standing in front of me with a young man. I had to comment on his beauty to the young man, and I jokingly said that if he ever didn't want to keep him (and who wouldn't want to keep such a beautiful dog!!!), that I would take him in a second. The man thanked me, and we both went our separate ways.

Later in the day, I was still at the show, and the young man approached me with tears in his eyes and asked me if I was serious about my comment in the coffee line. I was shocked, but I said of course I was. He explained that he was a college student, living in a small apartment, and that Dune (that's the name he had given him) was a bit more than he could handle in his present situation. Anyway, you can guess the rest of the story.

Dune and I took a bit of time to bond because he really missed the young man, who contacted me to see how he was doing but thought it best that he not see him again (I agreed with that). But eventually, we became inseparable. He even traveled with me when I had to go away on business. He was a perfect gentleman in the city and a lovable clown in the country, where I lived at the time. He was admired by all who saw him; and on more than one occasion, but many perfect strangers offered to buy him from me for huge sums of money!

I lost him most awfully. A few years ago, he and I had traveled together to visit my mother, who unbeknownst to me, had late-stage lung cancer and didn't want me to know until I was with her. On my arrival, I immediately took over her full-time care, actually living in the hospital with her for her last month and a half of life. My brother kept my precious Dune in a pen in his yard as he worked full-time and was visiting our mother the rest of the time.

I went to see Dune as often as I could, and it broke my heart to see him because he was so depressed at not being with me for the first time ever. Well, I lost my mother; and during the funeral arrangements for her, my precious Dune died (from what I don't know) - without me, feeling I'm sure completely abandoned, lost, and all alone. I've never gotten over it, to have lost them both within such a short period of time. Well, to this day, my sadness is unspeakable, and this is the first time I've ever written about what happened. He was ten years old, in excellent health when this nightmare started. Rest in peace, Mother and Dune.

Getting Back in Stride

2012-01-11T06:26:00.000-08:00

Unlike I'm sure many artists, I need to paint every single day to be able to keep my confidence and abilities up to par. From around the end of October until now, I have not been able to be in my studio enough - and my confidence level has plummeted. I love my career more than anything else I've ever done -- or ever will do -- in my life. I live to paint and to learn all I can about painting.

But as much as I love to paint, there's one thing that overrides even it, and that is my family - including extended family and even some friends -- and of course my four-legged family members, too. So that's why I was away from painting these past couple of months. But now it's time for me to get back to it.

I started about a week and a half ago with a rooster painting, a bit stylized compared to my usual style, but it was enjoyable, and if felt good to have the brushes wet again. I've finished it, and now I'm painting a German shorthaired pointer portrait. I'm fairly happy with the painting so far, but I'm having a bit of trouble with getting just the right color. Unfortunately, I read the AKC requirements for a GSP's color, which they descibe as pure "liver," not red, not orange, not tan, but "liver." Well, I'm really struggling to be sure it's exactly the right color in my painting, but with a bit of time I'm sure I'll get it right.

A change of subject - for today at least

2012-01-02T13:42:00.000-08:00

Here's a painting I did last week. It was enjoyable but difficult at the same time -- I know dogs; I do not know roosters! But we all need to do something at least a little different from time to time, right? He's bright and cheery, though; I have him hanging in my kitchen for the time being. He's going to be for sale in just a few hours at my website, http://www.dottiedracos.com.

And now back to dogs. I have one promised painting to do, a gift for a dear friend, a chocolate-colored minpin named Kaiser, but I want to do a couple of "warm-up" dog paintings before I get started on it. It's been a bit too long of a painting break for me. (I still feel like one of the most fortunate of people to have a career that I love so much!!)

And I hope you all have a great, great 2012. Happy New Year.

My Bread Recipe

2011-12-29T16:28:00.000-08:00

Several friends and family have asked me for my bread recipe, so here it is. It is adapted from several recipes I have collected over the years. It's quite simple and difficult to mess up, I promise you.

I am giving you the measurements for two loaves (each around 1.2 pound) and measurements for a single loaf in parentheses. For economy's sake (and because I most always share the second loaf with someone else, I usually make 2 loaves at a time). All of the measurements can be approximate, and you'll learn to adjust them to your taste as you continue to make the bread.

3 cups room-temp water (around 70 deg F) (1 1/2 cup)
1 1/2 tbsp yeast (3/4 tbsp) (I use Red Star Active Dry Yeast because I buy it in bulk at Costco. Fleischmann's is fine, too)
1 1/2 tbsp salt (3/4 tbsp)
6 1/2 cups flour (3 1/4)
Extra flour as needed such as for kneading and handling

Put water in a large bowl or pot, add yeast and salt, stir to mix. Add flour and, using a large long-handled spoon, stir until completely moistened (adjust with either water or more flour to get right consistency of a thick doughy mix -- not wet but no dry clumps, either).

NOTE: If you want to add something to your bread, now is the time to stir it in. I've added kalamata olive bits to one, garlic and an herb to another, and caraway seeds (one of my favorites ever!) to another. Let me know if you come up with something really interesting and good, okay?

Cover and let rise for an hour or two (check to see when it has approximately doubled or a little more in volume). Note: Here I usually cheat a bit and turn on my oven for literally seconds (around 20), just to raise the temperature a bit higher than my room temp and leave the covered pot in the oven to allow it to rise just a bit faster. Do NOT make the oven more than a bit warmer than room temp or you'll kill the yeast!

If you're in a hurry, skip down to the "kneading" section below. If you want a more complex tasting bread, which I do!!, do this next: After your dough has risen to about double, with your big spoon, smash and stir it down again. That is, destroy all that nicely risen dough you just created.

Let it rise again. You'll notice that this time it rises much more quickly, so be careful and check it after around an hour or you'll have what looks like a science experiment gone awry. (But you can use it anyway; you'll just have to scoop it up off the sides of the pot.)

Kneading: If you've never kneaded, I'll give a brief description. And this kneading is very minimal, by the way, and not at all intimidating. To start to knead, put a bit of flour on your work surface, dump the dough onto it (use a spatula to scrape it out, as it sticks to the sides of the pot pretty firmly.) You'll notice that the dough at this point has a weird open "lacy" or "stringy" quality to it - that's normal.

Okay, here we go: Lightly dust your hands with flour (keep a cup beside you to dust your fingers or to sprinkle on your work surface), and grab the dough on the side farthest away from you, and fold it over onto itself, toward you. Gently press into the pile, pushing away from you, with the heels of your hands. Turn the dough a quarter turn, and repeat the folding, pushing away, and turning, about five to eight times. The dough should feel nice and elastic (almost alive-feeling).

Next, if you're making two loaves, cut the lump of dough in half and lightly flour the cut sides. Then pick up each batch of dough and shape it into either a long loaf shape or a round one, depending on what kind of pan you'll be using (I'll discuss that below). As you shape each piece, gently handle it, and turn the outside edges downward and inward -- so that all the ugly creases and lumps are on the bottom. Lightly dust the top of each with a bit of flour, and cover with a kitchen towel.

Next preheat your oven to 450 deg F and -- very important -- place your pan(s) into the oven to allow them to get hot. If you want artsy-looking loaves, use something like a thick cookie sheet to cook them on. If you want more utilitarianly shaped bread, use large bread pans.

When the oven is to 450 deg, carefully remove a pan, one at a time. (at this point, I give mine a quick spritz with some Pam, but it's not absolutely necessary.) Set the pan near the dough, lift one dough and dump it into the pan, with the bottom side up, and put the pan immediately back into the oven. Do the same with the second loaf.

Set a timer for around 15 to 20 minutes. Then when the timer goes off, turn the temp down to around 435 and cook another 10 to 15 minutes -- check for doneness by a nice brown color. Remove from the oven, flip loaves out onto a cooling rack (or onto a counter if you don't have one), let them go upside down or sideways. Rap the bottom of each with your hand and listen for a kind of hollow sound - this indicates thorough doneness. That's it! Let it cool until you can cut it (if you can wait that long!!), slather it with butter, and enjoy the first piece -- which is always the best!

Obviously, I wrote this recipe for someone who does not have a lot of bread-making experience, so sorry if there's too much detail in it for you. But for those of you who need it, hope this helps. If you have any questions -- or want to share your bread-making experiences, please write.

Long Story - We're all back in the USA now

2011-12-07T20:24:00.000-08:00

This is a bit of a sad post, and I won't say much because it's very upsetting to my family and to me. We are all back in the USA to live now. Something went very, very wrong in Denmark regarding other family members there, and we found it necessary to leave. It was our only choice.

I won't be saying anything more about Denmark after this post. It was a beautiful place, we all loved it very much, the people on the island where we lived were wonderful and we miss them. We were all very, very sad to leave, but we're happy to be back in the USA now, too.

In the future, I'll get back to the original - and more apt - object of this blog, and that is to talk about art and painting and animals, and the beautifully agonizing attempts to capture what I see before me onto a canvas.

I've not been painting much lately, so I have a lot of catching up to do. My next project is going to be a chocolate-colored minpin painting for a very special person we met at the airport in Seattle, who went way, way above the duties of his job to help out my daughter and her family as they arrived in the USA with many of their and our pets and as much as they could carry with them. I'll post the painting just as soon as it's finished.

I've Been Busy - Here's one very recent painting, a Liver-Colored Border Collie

2011-10-12T13:32:00.000-07:00

This is a recently completed painting I have done. It's a liver or red border collie, and it's acrylic painted on an 8x10" mdf wood panel, one of my favorite painting surfaces. It will need to be framed, but glass isn't necessary. It's for sale on my website, $60 plus shipping. Here's the link to the page it's on. http://wildwildthings.com/pages/originalsgallerydogad.html. Just scroll down a bit and you'll see it, along with a few other recently finished paintings.

Back in the USA

2011-09-15T16:36:00.000-07:00

(Sorry, I don't know why the following is underlined, and I can't change it.) I'm back in the USA for a while (really, really missing my family in Denmark, though). While I'm here, I'm trying to catch up on a lot of loose ends, one of which is I have a large number of people who have been requesting new or replacement dog, cat, fish, and other animal ceramic masks. So I have opened up the studio again and have made my first kilnload, which I have listed on Etsy. This time, though things are going to be a bit different: To make inventory control easier for me, this time each mask has its own unique identifying number, and thus each one is one of a kind. There will be one exception to that format, though, and that is if someone has contacted me about a broken piece that they want to replace, I will do my best to copy the piece as closely as I possibly can -- if you have photos of it. If not, you can describe it to me as best you can, and I'll try to come up with a close approximation for you.

Anyway, if you're interested in a new or replacement ceramic mask, be sure either to check out the various places I'll be showing them (each place will have different items - sorry about that, but it's the only way I can think to do it without things getting really confusing. So the first kilnload, as I said, is on Etsy, and here's the link for those: http://www.etsy.com/shop/wildwildthings?section_id=10397779. The second kilnload will be on my website, http://www.dottiedracos.com. And the third kilnload will be at my Artfire shop, http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/LarkStudios. Once I've done all three venues, I'll start over in the same order with the next kilnloads. Each kilnload is around 15 pieces, and each kilnload takes about two to three weeks to complete.

Here are a few examples of some of the pieces currently on Etsy.

Papillon and Dachshund little paintings finally finished

2011-08-14T06:38:00.000-07:00

This is the long-overdue painting I did of a tri-colored papillon. I don't know why I had so much trouble with this little one, but at least I finally finished it. It's an 8x10" acrylic painting on heavy paper, so it'll need to be framed and probably matted. I'll have it for sale on my website, http://www.dottiedracos.com.

I'm making final preparations for my trip back to the USA, which is really hard to do because I want to be able to work from both locations since I intend to live part-time in each place at least for the time being. It's turned out to be a bit more difficult than I had anticipated to ship items from Denmark to the USA, and I've even been losing all profit - and even going into the hole - from many of the prints I've been shipping from here. I'll figure it all out, though. And my ceramic pieces that I'll be making in the US, they absolutely have to be shipped from the US for American customers because of their weight and the cost of shipping internationally. What I've arranged there is to complete the pieces while I'm there and then leave them with a family member to ship as they are ordered. So there will be a rather limited supply of them.

Weimaraner in Red Pickup Truck - Oops, I forgot to post this painting!

2011-07-17T08:10:00.000-07:00

This is a painting I finished last week and forgot to post! It's a weimaraner belonging to a friend/customer of mine, who loves her weimer! I did a commissioned painting for her of this same dog, the one where she's lying down, with one paw out front, looking wistfully at the viewer. It's not too far back in my posts if you haven't seen it.

Anyway, this was a lot of fun because of the red truck and the glass and the reflections. I hadn't had any experience with such things, so I learned a lot from it. Hope you like it. Unlike most of my paintings, it's in acrylics as usual, but it's on a heavy watercolor paper, which I wasn't crazy about painting on, to be honest about it. First of all, it ate my poor hand up; it's really scratchy, which surprised me. Also, not being a watercolorist, I didn't realize how much watercolor paper soaks up any moisture. I like rich, saturated color, so I really had to lay the paint on - over and over and over! I'm finally happy with it, though. But I won't use watercolor paper again with anything but watercolors, if I should ever decide to give them a try.

French Bulldog Puppy with Toy

2011-07-07T01:39:00.000-07:00

I've been away from painting for a while as you know, and I still don't have my supplies, so this little guy is on watercolor paper, which for me, with my acrylic paints, has been quite a challenge. But I think it turned out pretty well under the circumstances. The photo was submitted by a "fan" of mine, and for her submission, she's getting a free full-sized png file to print in whatever size she chooses. That's my deal: submit photos of a preferred pure-breed dog or cute cat or other animal that I might be interested in painting, and if I create a painting from the photo, you get a free print of it.

I've made this offer directly to some people in the past who wanted a commissioned painting done (which again, I'm taking a hopefully permanent break from doing), and I think I offended them by making the offer. But those of you who just want a free print of a painting of your dog, you're more than welcome to submit photos to me. I must make the usual statement, though, that I continue to hold all copyrights to the painting, including the right to reproduce and sell prints of it. Also, in most cases, the original painting will be for sale, too, with you, the person who submitted the photo(s), getting a 10% discount on the price of the original painting. If you're interested, just email me, dottie@dottiedracos.com, and I can give you more details.

I'm currently working on a painting of a weimaraner in an older red truck. I expect I'll be able to finish it and upload it by early next week. So far, I'm rather pleased with it, but again, it's on watecolor paper, so it's a more difficult surface for me to work with.

My shipment, I found out yesterday, is on its way!!! Finally! It should arrive in Denmark, at least, on around August 4. I am so excited to get all my "stuff." Was it worth the price of shipment? Most probably not, but it's my "stuff," and I've already paid for it, so I'm really looking forward to getting it.

The Most Recent Commissioned Painting which I did before Leaving USA

2011-06-23T04:31:00.000-07:00

This is a painting I finished right before I was leaving for Denmark. These are Tasie and Tierre, relaxing on the grass. One is an American Eskimo, and the other is a Rottweiler, both females.

It was a pleasure to paint them, and I am so glad to report that the mom of these two was very happy with her two pups' portrait.

I have one more commissioned painting I will be doing, of two adorable terriers. Unfortunately, I still have to wait for my shipment from the US to get to all my paints, brushes, and canvas to be able to get to work on them. I started their painting before I left for Denmark, but I just wasn't happy with the way it was going. So, with the mom's permission, I asked for time to re-start the entire painting from a different point of view. That situation rarely happens with me; but when it does, I cannot be happy with what I think would have been a less-than-ideal painting, so I completely start anew! I'll share the results just as soon as I get the painting done.

Another Day in Denmark

2011-06-18T05:13:00.000-07:00

Here's the entrance to our farm. The house is on the right, and some of the barns are on the left. I'm standing at the end of a short tree-lined drive that is the entrance to the courtyard. The barn closest to me, on the left, is the one that borders the small road that curves past the front and western border of our place. I'll post more photos here later, or you can see even more photos at my facebook page. The two little dogs you can see in the photo are Sammy, on the right, our little black Cavalier King Charles spaniel, and on the left, my little sweetie, a pom-peke mix, I think, (who cares), named Harry Barker. We have another dog, too, Casey, a rat terrier mix, who is out of view. We also have three cats, a couple of whom are in the photo, I think. Their names are Maxine, Kayla, and Matilda.

Several people have asked me to talk about how we have gone about getting to Denmark and about any tips I might be able to give. I really don't feel qualified to do so, but I'll give it a try, anyway. First, you'll see that one of the reasons I am not qualified is that we ended up in Denmark not because we just chose it and wanted to move here but because my son-in-law, Mark, is from Odense, Denmark. And it was his parents and brother who actually found this wonderful farm for us. Up until about a month ago, we still just wanted to move here but hadn't been able to find a perfect place to live. So not only Mark's family but their friends as well have been searching for a place for us to get. Just by coincidence, too, Mark's brother, Henrik, heard about this place through a friend just days after it had been placed on the market. We now live just minutes away from Henrik and his family, who live just an easily bicyclable few kilometers north of us on the same island of Langeland. Mark's parents live a little over an hour away from us in Odense, and we see them often.

So as you can see, a lot of the work was already done for us before we even got here. But regarding the actual move, I can definitely give you a few pointers there, mostly what not to do. First, as we had very short notice about when we were to move (about three weeks), we had to act very quickly. Because we were going to bring all six pets with us, we had to get them flown out of the State of Florida because the summer heat got too hot in case they got left out somewhere after we relinquished them to the airlines. Well, actually, it was just the dogs we had to worry about because we carried the three cats onboard with us.

Regarding the pets, first, it was very expensive to start off with. They all had to go to the vet to get microchipped (except Maxine the cat, who was already a world traveler), get health-checked, and certified as being so. The vet cost for all six was over $800. Then we had to download forms from the USDA that were required for each pet in order for them to be flown internationally, take those in to the USDA, then back to the vets for their signatures; that all cost a few hundred more dollars. And everything we did was time-dependant, too, so we had to keep a close watch on the number of days before our flights.

We also had to buy flight-safe crates for each dog and airline-approved carriers for each cat. That was a couple more hundred dollars.

Then we had to buy the tickets for the dogs to fly in cargo (very expensive, a couple of hundred for each dog as I recall - I'll verify that cost later on), and tickets for the cats to fly onboard, around $150 each, I think.

Finally, as only two animals are allowed onboard in the cabin on any one flight, we had to take separate flights, with my going first, taking all three dogs in cargo and one cat under the seat. So I arrived in Denmark first and had to retrieve the dogs from cargo. That was probably the hardest part of this whole ordeal because I was really, really tired, and we had to wait around three hours to be able to get the dogs. Plus, there were more fees at the airport to get the dogs into the country, a couple hundred more dollars, I think it was. I had help with this stage because Mark's parents were there to pick me and all the animals up and take us to the farm.

So what I learned from this part of the trip: I think of our pets as family members, so we had no choice but to take them, even though it was difficult and very, very expensive. I will say this: All the animals, while probably horrified and miserable through the entire nearly 24-hour ordeal, forgot about it immediately and are none-the-worse for the ordeal. But one little bit of advice I can give you regards the cats in their carriers. First, don't feed or water them for many hours before the flight. Secondly, don't trust the little pads in the bottom of the carriers to manage any "accidents." The first time Kayla "pottied," there was nothing to catch the urine but the little useless pad in the floor of the carrier. So I took her and carrier into the airline toilet, ripped up tons of paper towels, and lined the bottom of the carrier very liberally with them. The next time, then, I was prepared. After she finished, I simply put a barf-bag over my hand, grabbed all the messed-up towels, pulled the bag back over my hand, with the soiled towels then inside it, tied it off, and threw it away. Very simple solution.

Okay, that's the first part of my detailed description of our trip. I'll try to cover other matters later and add more pics as well. If you have any specific questions, just drop me a note and I'll do my best to try to answer them.

Oh, also, I am still painting, but I still don't have any of my supplies other than just a few paints and brushes I threw into my luggage at the last minute. That's another story, by the way, shipping! So for those of you who read my blog to hear about my paintings, hang in there and I'll get back to them just as soon as I get back up and running.

Another Off-Topic "Book Review"

2011-05-04T11:11:00.000-07:00

I'm on a literary roll. Before I read "War and Peace," I read "Anna Karenina," also by Tolstoy. It, too, is a great book. It's a dark book for the most part but talks a lot, too, about the life of both gentry and peasant Russian people in the 1800's. In addition to a great, but tragic for some characters, story line, it discusses the class system in effect in the 1800's, how the lives of the various classes differed, how farms were managed, and generally about life and the different ways people choose to live it.

Again, as with War and Peace, I highly recommend this book. Don't let the length of these books stop you; I promise you that you will want them to be even longer than they are once you are reading them.

Another great, great (but oh-so-depressing) author I can recommend very, very highly is Emile Zola, an amazing French author who wrote mostly of the lives of ordinary - or even "sub-ordinary" - people in the late 1800's. Every single book I've read by him - and I've read many, many - has been great. But I might add that my family would always ask me when I was down if I was reading yet another Zola book. Some of my favorites have been: L'Assomoir, L'Oeuvre, Germinal, Nana, La Bete Humaine, just to name a few. Although I read them in French, I'm sure there are English translations easily available.

Okay, that's it for now! I'm currently reading (or sometimes re-reading) a whole stack of Charles Dickens novels. The first in this list is "Bleak House." I'll give reports later. Comments?

Way, Way off Topic - Another Passion of Mine - reading

2011-05-03T17:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know I'm way, way, way off topic with this post, but I just have to do it, anyway. I am a very, very avid reader, and I'm finally getting around to reading all the books I should have read long ago. So I'm going to mention just a couple right now and will add more as I have the time -- and if anyone is interested!

I just finished yesterday Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace," and I couldn't recommend it more! It was l-o-n-g! (Around 1300 pages). But, you know what? I kept checking to see where I was in the book because I wanted to see how much more time I could spend with this amazing author. I couldn't put it down!

Well, I must add one thing, though: I couldn't put it down until I got to the epilog, which I must admit I struggled to get through. The first 1200-something pages were an amazing story -- and more, much, much more! The story centered around, both before and after, the War of 1812, fought between Napolean Bonaparte and Russia, which he invaded in his attempt to acquire all of Europe for France. But it wasn't only about the war and about war in general; it was about the lives of Russian people: their lives both before, during, and after this horrendous war.

The epilogue was interesting, but it did require a lot of focus and concentration, something I often don't have for over short periods of time, especially as I read at night before I go to sleep each evening. It was generally about his analysis of what factors move historical events. He discusses the importance of rulers, generals, ordinary people, events at the time that may or may not affect the directions historical events take, etc. I highly recommend the book and would love to hear your comments on it if you've read it already or if you read it after my very, very brief review of it.

Weimaraner Commissioned Painting Finally Completed!

2011-05-03T16:51:00.000-07:00

I've done something different this time with my commissioned painting posts: I'm showing you both the painting and the photo from which I worked. As you can see, I worked fairly directly from the photo but had to adjust the color a bit based on other photos I had of this beautiful dog.

This was a really challenging painting for me, and it took me weeks to complete. She's a beauty, I think. Her name is Zoey.

Gotta Make another Turn

2011-04-29T04:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, I love this painting of these two absolutely beautiful German shepherds. I just finished it about a week ago, and it was a commissioned painting. I now have another commissioned painting of a stunningly beautiful weimaraner on the easel that I've been struggling with for - no kidding - over two weeks. The lighting was bad in the original photo (indoor incandescent lights, flash, both really difficult to work with). Following the completion of this painting, I have two more commissions to do, both with between two and four dogs per painting.

It's so hard sometimes - commissioned paintings, that is. In one sense, I love making someone happy by painting their very precious family member(s) for them. But for me as an artist, as I've mentioned multiple times before, it is a huge challenge. These are beloved members of a family, sometimes no longer living, so I must get them exactly right and do my very best to reflect their personalities, their beauty, their very lives on a piece of canvas stretched on some wood strips. It takes a lot out of me.

With that being said, once again when these upcoming commissioned paintings are completed, I am going to quit taking any more commissions and spend more time on creating what I want to do, where I can be free to experiment, free not to "color within the lines", soar if I wish, get down low and sad if I need to. Those of you who have commissions pending with me, don't worry, I will paint them with the love and dedication I always show to all my commissioned works. But after these paintings, I really must take a break at least for a while -- again.

I will continue to request and accept photos of your pet for possible inclusion in future paintings; but if I use your photos, they will be in paintings done in whatever way I choose. Also, if I do paint your pet, I will continue to give you a free 8x10" print of the painting. And, of course, the original will be available for purchase by you - or anyone else if you don't want to purchase it - as well.

Stay posted.

Rednose Pit Bull Portrait

2011-04-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

This is a small sweet painting I finished last evening. I just have to take a little break from the customs from time to time; it keeps me fresher as I work on them, too, so it's a good thing in every way. This was a really fun painting to do, too, which helps. Short-haired dogs are fun to do because I can see the sculptural shape of their bodies - and in this case, the head. I've had a few pit bulls over the years, and for some reason, their heads always looked like bricks to me. I called all mine "brickheads." They're real sweeties. This one wasn't one of my pits but belongs to a customer of mine in Portland, OR.

Okay, back to my customs now. I'm rested : )

Working on Commissions Now

2011-04-02T04:02:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to let you know I'm working on commissions now and don't have time for other work. And they're rather complicated commissions, so they're each taking quite a bit of time. I'll show each one as it's finished, though, which should be sometime next week on the one I'm working on now, a painting of two German shepherds, both females. One of them is gone, and there aren't many photos of them, so I'm working with rather difficult circumstances. But I think they'll come out okay.

Bernese Mountain Dog on Blue

2011-03-20T17:29:00.000-07:00

This is a handsome young Bernese Mountain Dog, Berner to those in the know, male I just finished yesterday, to go along with the other one, a female I did last week.

My next assignments, simultaneous ones, are a pair of German shepherds and a weimaraner. Then I have one more commission after these two for a Rhodesian ridgeback, still one of my favorite dogs (I've had two be a part of my life, and I loved them both very much.)

A Sweet Female Bernese Mountain Dog Painting

2011-03-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

This is a sweet Bernese mountain dog painting I just finished today. It was a really difficult one to do as it's actually a composite of several Berners. I'll be doing another one in the next week, too, so keep an eye out for it if you're a lover of Berners.

Also, I've started on two German shepherds on the same canvas, a custom painting. I'm looking forward to working on it as I love, love the look of the German shepherd. They make me start speaking in cliches: i.e., noble, handsome, elegant, etc.

A Great Art Site I've Just Discovered

2011-03-09T05:51:00.000-08:00

This is the greatest site I've found in a very, very long time: http://www.googleartproject.com/. It allows you to go into art galleries all over the world and see the paintings and cruise around the galleries. And, believe it or not, you can get up as close and personal as you want with a large number of the paintings. You can see the brush strokes - clearly!! You can see, for example, on some of Van Gogh's paintings, even some of his pencil markings. Not all, just a select number of them - but it's a great select number for sure!

A hint for using the site: If you're like me and get motion sick at the slightest change in scenery, you can forego going through the galleries themselves and just go straight to the featured paintings in each gallery. Hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think, okay?

The Irish Wolfhound is Finished

2011-03-04T15:55:00.000-08:00

I just finished this painting this afternoon. Every time I do a long-haired dog, I say I'm going to take a break from them for a while. This one went a little easier than usual, but I still have an awful time with them. Maybe it's because I personally am partial to short-haired dogs. (Except!!!: My precious little sweetie name Harry Barker, a pekingese-pomeranian mix, about the cutest dog ever.) I'll have to remember to put up some photos of him soon. He really is just a little hairball running around the house, but really, he has a brain - a tiny one, but for a hairball, he's pretty smart! Hope you like my latest painting here.

Next, I have several custom paintings I need to do, so I'll be working a lot harder the rest of this month. I'll be sure to post the results. I know that two of them are for German shepherds, one I don't know what it is yet, and then two terrier mixes after those three. It's going to be an exhausting month of March.

Another Dog Painting I just Finished - French Bulldog Looking Up on Green

2011-03-01T12:32:00.000-08:00

I just finished this little sweetie yesterday - or was it the day before? Days are starting to run together sometimes! Anyway, very, very, very recently. I struggled with the background on the painting for quite a while and then settled on this beautiful kind of olive green. It's an 11x14" on 3/4" canvas and is for sale at my Artfire studio. Here's the link: http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=2960322

Now I'm working on an Irish wolfhound, which I have never painted before. Bristly long-haired dogs always are a big challenge to me, so I'm trying to take it slowly on this one.

I'm still here in Florida, and spring is already showing up - amazing! It's still awful in Oregon, as everyone who's ever lived there knows! I miss Portland but not the never-ending winter.

Boston Terrier - another Fun Painting I Finished last week

2011-02-19T04:21:00.000-08:00

This is a little Boston terrier that I did last week. It was a lot of fun to do.

Next week, I have to tighten up again a little - just a little, though. I'll be painting four custom dog paintings, all for return customers, which makes me feel really great. Like so many painters I've heard about, I often think I'm "not good enough." Getting repeat customers makes me feel that I'm creating at least a little good artwork.

Every day, though, I pinch myself to be sure I'm not dreaming this most wonderful career I've chosen rather later in life. Isn't it funny that oftentimes we find ourselves fulfilling a life-long dream that we thought we never, ever could do? As a child, I dreamed of two things: being a scientist (yes, I was a weird kid), and being an artist. Well, I was a scientist for many years, mostly a science graduate student (experimental psychology, neuroscience), granted, but a scientist in every sense of the word except the good income. And I loved the academic pursuits immensely - and still do. I am a life-long student in many, many ways. But then one day I knew that my daughter needed me at home, and I was a single mom, having lost my daughter's dad to cancer when she was just 7 years old. So I packed up all my scientific research materials, left my PhD program in my very last year, and started self-learning the "business of art." It was a bit rocky in the beginning, to say the least. But by golly, I persevered, and I was finally able to make a pretty decent living as a full-time artist. I started out making animal sculptures in papier-mache (messy, nasty stuff!); then I began creating dog, cat, and other animal masks and sculptures in ceramic clay, which I did way too long! and had more success than I knew what to do with. So I dropped the entire business and started painting back in 2006. My first paintings were so awful that -- well, you just can't imagine how awful they were! But, once again, I persevered, painting every single day, studying every book I could get my hands on, putting my awful-in-the-beginning stuff out for the public to see every week (at Portland Saturday Market in Portland, OR), getting their feedback (or watching them walk past with hardly a glance - or often, even a guffaw!), but finally, finally being able to produce some work that didn't make me cringe, then some that looked pretty okay, and so on and so on, until today when I'm finally beginning to feel like I might get the hang of this art/painting career one of these days. I forget who it was, some really, really famous artist whose last words, on his deathbed, were something to the effect of, " Darn it! And I was just getting the hang of it!"

A Very Bright Chihuahua

2011-02-19T04:05:00.000-08:00

This is a cute painting I just finished. It was a lot of fun to do. Can you tell I'm trying to avoid something more important?? A group of us, painters all, on Artfire recently started a little "challenge blog," where we all have themed deadlines for submitting paintings to the blog. We've only been together a short time, but so far it's a lot of fun -- and so intimidating that I manage to get a lot of other not-so-pressing matters taken care of rather than get started on my own monthly-challenge painting. Here's the link if you want to check us out: http://artfirepainters.blogspot.com/

As I've been doing for the past few years, I'm still trying to loosen up my own painting work. I do a lot of custom work, which for me at least, requires that I work very tightly so that I can get a really good image of someone's beloved pet. Then when I do my own work, my just-for-fun---and-profit work, I want to loosen up, have a good time, not agonize over every little detail. It's hard for me. As all my family and friends know, I'm an awful, awful perfectionist. Some of that I like, but when it comes to painting, I wish I could "throw caution to the wind" a bit more and have a lot more fun at my "work."

Where does the time go!!

2011-01-26T07:59:00.000-08:00

Wow, I just looked at my last post date and was shocked! Where did all that time go? I just read this morning one of my all-time favorite newsletters, Painters' Keys, by Robert Genn, in which he talked about "seizing the day." It was a timely and important letter for me, and I hope -- and expect -- I will seize the day more often than I have been doing for the past month. Of course, life does get in the way - again - but I feel that if I don't paint at least a little every day, I start to lose those "painting brain muscles" and have to build them up again before I can get going at a comfortable pace. By the way, here's the link to Genn's newsletter if you're interested: http://clicks.robertgenn.com/seizing-the-day.php. I very highly recommend it; I've been reading it for years now and find it interesting, inspirational, enjoyable, sometimes very funny, etc., etc.

I don't know if I've listed all the custom paintings I finished around Holiday time; but if I didn't, I'll try to get them listed in the next few days. I'm afraid they were all I was doing at that time -- well, that and endlessly it seems hosting various family members who were here, no kidding, for over month. (Note to said family members: Yes, I loooooooved your visits and wouldn't trade them for anything, but obviously I didn't work while you were around because I wanted to spend all my time with you!)

So I'm back and re-flexing my painting part of my brain again. I tried, by the way, a landscape a couple of weeks ago and it was a lot harder than I was expecting it to be. But, darn it, I am going to conquer landscapes if for no other reason that they're not dog or animal paintings and I sometimes need a break from painting my beloved animals.

Speaking of animals, I sadly must note, too, that we lost one of our boys around mid December. It was Henry Higgins, our shih tzu. On the good side, he lived a very long, happy life; we should all be so lucky as he was. We miss him terribly, though, in spite of his advanced age at death. In fact, this is the first time I've even been able to talk about him at all. He was so cute and made us laugh very often. He was also the laziest dog I've ever had in my life. No kidding, we had to poke him sometimes in his later years to see if he was still breathing. He raised the fine art of relaxing to unheard-of astronomically high levels; he was a master relaxer! May you rest in peace, Higgy.

Another Recently Completed Commissioned Painting - Two Pekes

2010-11-26T04:07:00.000-08:00

Here's a commissioned painting I recently finished, which includes two pekingese sweeties, Parker and Gizmo. They're beautiful little guys, and I really enjoyed doing the painting.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Day yesterday. We did at our home. But now I'm stuffed!

I'm Still Here! In Florida, that is

2010-11-17T03:57:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, I'm still trying to settle into a new life here in Central Florida after two months. I've kind of found my way around but actually am preferring to stay right on my own little piece of land and play with gardening. And now I understand why there are so many snowbirds alighting here each winter: This place is heavenly -- this time of year, at least! I sat outside for hours a couple of days ago, in November!!!, without even a sweater, and watched the sun go down. It is beautiful beyond words here, and really, the weather is perfect! Neither too cold nor too hot. And the colors! You wouldn't believe the colors of the sky, the trees, the shadows - it makes me wish I were a writer so I could describe them vividly for you. Soon, very soon, I'm going to have my schedule cleared enough that I can start doing some paintings of this region of the world.

In the meantime, though, I am overloaded with commissioned paintings that all have a looming deadline. The painting shown here is one of two that I did for a client very recently. This is a beautiful Rhodesian ridgeback, named Matilda. Her adopted brother, Henry, a handsome weimaraner, will be shown in my next blog entry.

I've been thinking a lot lately and reading a lot, too. Yes, I know I should be painting, but one has to take a break from time to time. One of the thought-provoking things I read is a biweekly newsletter all about art and life, too, because they're closely intertwined. It starts with an interesting, thought-provoking essay and is followed by comments from fellow artists, including examples of their work. I look forward to it twice a week. I may have mentioned this newsletter before, but it merits another mention if I have. Here's the address: http://painterskeys.com/, and it's hosted by artist Robert Genn. To receive the newsletter, you have to actually request it at the site and confirm your request through the email you'll receive. I very highly recommend it.

Also, artists can pay to have their artwork featured through the website, and I was just randomly looking through some of the artists' listings and came across this artist: http://painterskeys.com/pal/christine_hanlon/ - and was just blown away by her work. What a great inspiring artist this person is! And I discovered this person literally by just a random click on a name. Give her work a look if you have the time; you won't be sorry you took the time.

Okay, speaking of time, I guess I better get back to my own paintings!

My trip across the country to a new location

2010-10-11T07:28:00.000-07:00

First of all, if you'll check my posts a few down, you'll see that I had the care of my 9-month-old granddaughter a week before the move and then had to fly with her cross-country to our new destination in Florida (from Oregon). The week without her parents started off really rocky, and by the end, we were perfectly intertwined and had everything worked out perfectly! Then the dreaded flight! We had to be at the airport before dawn and had one layover in Denver, so we already had a couple of knocks against us (I had to get her up at 3 am to leave for the airport). Then, after we were through security and were waiting for the plane to board, I decided to give her a little breakfast. I rummaged through the diaper bag, and NOTHING! There was not a sign of the food, including the formula I had so carefully gotten her used to instead of mom's milk. I was horrified!!!! What was I going to do?

I went to every shop that might reasonably have some formula - nothing! I contacted airline personnel, and they pretty much told me I was on my own. So, being the rather resourceful person I am, I went to a news kiosk, bought some crackers, a packet of cheese, some orange juice (she can't have cow's milk), some water, some cookies -- and we "made-do." She was an absolutely perfect baby!!!! I'm not kidding! In spite of the huge change in her diet, she willingly and bravely accepted all the "goodies" I offered her, without a single complaint. She never cried once, slept through almost the entire first flight, and played quietly through the second.

Fellow travelers were in my opinion priceless, too. My seatmates on both legs of the flight were men. The first was a gem, never complained, rolled his eyes, etc., and even offered to help. The second fellow, on the other hand, did a lot eye-rolling, a lot of "why me" sighing, etc., but in the end, he turned out okay, too. I had to change her diaper on the plane only once; and as it was an older plane (aren't they all?), there was no changing station. So the well-seasoned flight crew,also resourceful people, offfered to help and laid out a padded blanket on the floor of the galley and were cheerful and upbeat as any "village" of people could be.

All in all, other than being exhausting - and traumatic when I found I had lost all her food - the flight was a great success. Would I do it again soon? No way!

A Lab Mix Custom Painting I just finished

2010-10-11T07:12:00.000-07:00

This is a painting I just finished for a client. Her name is Molly, and she is a beloved family member. The green faceless frog to her right is her favorite toy - hence, the lack of facial features that she has lovingly, I'm sure, removed. It was a really fun painting, one of those that nearly painted itself. Just for fun, I've also attached the photo I worked from. You can see the black lines at the bottom of the photo where I'm adding in the rest of her face just for a better composition. Also, I changed her body entirely to make for a cuter composition and "story." So, as you can see, I work closely, but not slavishly, with photos. Creativity must be a strong component of artwork. Otherwise, it wouldn't be art, would it?

I'm currently working on two more commissioned paintings for a client of her two sweeties, a weimaraner named Henry and a Rhodesian ridgeback (one of my favorite breeds as I've had two myself), named Matilda. I'll try to include their photos and maybe some interim shots of the paintings, too, just so you (and I)can see my painting process. (I just know there's some sort of method to my painting style if I record the process often enough!)

Regarding my recent move - obviously, off the subject of this post and even of this blog - but I just want to talk about it a little, anyway. I'll do so in the next post.

Here's an offer from Artfire that I want to share

2010-09-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

I do not work for Artfire, first of all; but I love it so far as a venue to sell artwork, crafts, and even vintage. (Not sure about buy/sell, except for vintage - you would have to check. But I hope not.) Anyway, they're having some kind of deal going on now - as a current member, I was allowed to opt-in on it, too - where you get a fixed monthly fee of $5.95 - forever! I've mentioned before, and I'll mention again - they charge absolutely no other fees at all! The catch is that you have to work to bring traffic to your shop - which I'm learning isn't that hard. And I would be happy to help anyone out with my so-far limited knowledge of setting up (easy) and bringing traffic to your shop if you need any. But their tutorials - and help from fellow members - are great. Anyway, here's the link if you want to look at it: http://www.artfire.com/groupdeal

French Bulldog Fawn Original Painting

2010-09-26T16:24:00.000-07:00

LarkStudios

Unique Gifts

Okay, I'm back! My move has been accomplished, and I'm just getting back to work. Right now, I'm testing a shopping cart feature of my new favorite venue (see earlier posts to read all about it) Artfire. The image you see above my notes here allows you to buy this painting directly from my blog. I tried to get it to work on my website, but I've been unable to. I'll keep trying. If not, I may have to get a new website host because I love this feature from Artfire.

Because I've been out of touch for a couple of weeks, I have to keep working right now. But I promise very soon to talk about the move. For now, at least it's over!

Why You're Not Hearing Much from me These Days

2010-08-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

I've been awfully busy lately and will continue to be for at least a few more weeks because -- along with my daughter, son-in-law, and little eight-month-old Elena, my granddaughter, we're moving to Florida at least for the next few months where my daughter and son-in-law have a house they're trying to sell. We'll still have our house here in Oregon, too.

I'm finishing up two commissioned paintings I've been working on, and I'll try to list images of them when I'm finished with them, but that may have to wait, too, because after next week, I'll pretty much be without a computer. I'll have my laptop, but it's old and very, very slow.

If you're one of the people who have commissioned a painting with me more recently, you probably already know all this information; but if you somehow missed it, that's one of the reasons I told you that you won't be getting your painting until either early or mid October. By then, I should have at least a functioning studio set up and be able to paint again.

The scariest part of this whole move is this (I'll take any suggestions, advice anyone is willing to give, too!): My daughter and son-in-law are traveling by vehicle across the country (from Oregon to Florida), and a week later, I'm flying with Elena so she doesn't have to be in a car seat for days on end. We've been doing what we can to prepare her for being without her parents, but the whole thing is really scary. We've gotten her used to formula in the past few days, and she seems to like it fine now. Sleep time, I don't know how that's going to work out because (against my advice!!! only joking - a little bit) she sleeps in the same bed with her parents, so I don't know how she's going to be with me there instead.

The flight is a bit scary, too, but I've been reading advice online about how to handle it, so I guess the good news is it'll be over in a few hours, even if she screams the entire flight. Poor, poor fellow passengers . . . Maybe it'll go well. I'm taking lots of new toys, the formula (I guess I can maybe get warm water from the attendants? If not, I guess she'll have to drink it cold, the baby carrier, a changing pad, diapers, wipes, a change of clothing, snack foods for her.

Anyway, that's why I haven't been posting any images lately! Wish me luck!

Here's a useful tool from Artfire

2010-08-30T10:47:00.000-07:00

LarkStudios

Unique Gifts

Brown and White Shih Tzu Portrait

2010-08-24T16:34:00.000-07:00

This is a little custom shih tzu painting I finished a few days ago. It's already on its way to Bankok, Thailand where the real little guy lives with his mom, who was visiting in the US and asked me to paint her little pup that she missed terribly while she was here.

At present I'm working on a couple of paintings, one for a contest winner from the June photo-submission contest (the contest is on hold for now due to my huge workload), a Nova Scotia Duck-Tolling Retriever, which should be finished in a week or so more. I'm also doing a formal painting of a show-groomed Yorkshire terrier, which is coming along nicely. It's due the end of this week, so I don't have time for much of anything else. Then I have four or five, I think it is, custom paintings that have to be done one after the other just as quickly as I can do them (it takes me about a week for each painting, unfortunately).

Starting in the next few days, I'm going to try to start listing interim photos of my paintings in progress. I've been shy about doing that until now, but I think it will help me and perhaps others. It'll be good for me, I think, because I can perhaps see some method to my painting madness if I see some paintings in stages of completion. We'll see how it goes. Actually, I think my daughter, Lara, has already posted a few progress shots of the Toller mentioned above that I'm working on as I can squeeze it in.

You will note on the progress photos that since these paintings are for the most part custom portraits and have to be very, very precise, that I draw a grid on the photo I work from and a corresponding one on my canvas. It really helps me keep everything exactly where it ought to be. I highly recommend it for portrait work. I could work without the grids, I guess, but it saves me a huge amount of time. Okay, back to the Yorkie now.

Boxer Portrait with Ball

2010-08-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

I really like this painting! I just finished it yesterday, and it's being picked up this weekend. It's a custom painting of a beautiful young guy named Barolo. Obviously, the original has been sold, but prints are available on my website.

Some days I think I'll never "get it," and then I get a painting like this that give me hope. It's got good color, is "realistic" but not overly so, still "painterly," in my opinion.

Oh, and by the way, the "paw print" on his chest is real, not something I stuck in. Pretty neat, huh?

A Change of Mind/Direction - Again

2010-07-29T06:49:00.000-07:00

A week ago I re-started doing small daily paintings. I was really going to do it this time -- but I'm not, after all. It just doesn't work with my personality - and my method of painting, which is, I'm sorry to say, of a more laborious, yet relaxed, style. I wanted to learn to paint faster, looser, (more profitably?) -- but I have to conclude that it's just not in my personality or painting style to do so. I still found myself painting a bit too ambitious, albeit smallish, paintings - and feeling frustrated that I was spending way, way too many hours on them, and yet still not completely satisfied with the results.

I don't know what drives me sometimes. I'm "of a certain age," heading into retirement kicking and fighting all the way -- but, as I've been all my life, I still have this drive to master whatever my chosen goal at the time is - and for the past several years and I think for the rest of my life, it's been painting. I've mentioned before, maybe not here but in my other blog, that I've had a few careers in my very interesting life, some of which were quite demanding (i.e., neuroscience/experimental psychologist, self-taught and highly successful court reporter, highly successful ceramics artist, to name a few notable ones). But none of my careers prepared me for the challenges or frustrations of being (becoming) a full-fledged, accomplished painter. It is by far the hardest path I have chosen in my life -- and yet the most rewarding when I "get it right," which amazingly I sometimes do.

Well, I don't even know exactly where this post was headed when I began - except to say that I'm giving up the daily paintings again and feel that it's the right move for me. I need to continue to explore and learn and paint for as long a time as I feel I need to on each and every painting to "get it right," even if it isn't the most profitable method of working. It just feels right for me, and I think that's important. And, so far, my happy clients and customers appreciate the work I do. So for now at least, I'll keep painting along in my own slow, probably not-too-efficient style, and loving every second of it. Now for another cup of coffee and a little while with a good art book.

Blue and Gold Macaw, Parrot, with Toy Ball, Daily Painting #6, July 22, 2010

2010-07-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

Here's my painting for today -- again, too ambitious. It's #6, painted July 22, 2010. I think I did okay on it, but it took way, way too long and didn't allow me to do my regular work, too. But it was a lot of fun to learn, and I can see that I am already learning tons more than I was learning by just doing custom paintings. This difficult grind of doing a painting a day I think is going to pay off in huge rewards after even just a few months. I'm not claiming at all to be even a half-good painter, but I think that by learning and studying and DOING (Nike was right with their "Just Do It" slogan), I'm going to progress to be a better and better painter much more rapidly than I would have if I hadn't undertaken this endeavor. Let me know what you think.

I went to the bookstore today and bought another art book, this time on color theory. It blows me away. You know what, I studied neuroscience for nearly five years in graduate school, and this study of art makes that seem like child's play --- seriously! This is a lot of complex stuff to learn and then to keep juggling it all in your mind and through your hands while at the same trying to do a painting - really, it's amazing that anyone can ever, ever master it all. But I love, love, love a good challenge - always have - and this is the best and most difficult one yet. And it'll take me the entire rest of my life to even begin to begin to grasp it. I can't remember who it was, but some really accomplished artist was reputedly said to have stated right before he died something like "and I was just beginning to get it." I know that's very crudely paraphrased, but you get the idea.

Well, anyway, this painting and print are both listed on my website and on my Artfire studio (yes, I'm starting to use it more and more as a "gallery" to showcase my artwork). Here's the link: http://www.artfire.com/users/LarkStudios.

Okay, onto that subject, Artfire, as I've mentioned before, I am getting to like it more and more all the time -- but I still am not selling well on it. I'll let you know if and when that changes; I expect it will. As I may have mentioned before, there's a way to have it be the "store" for my website, some sort of seamless linkage. When I have the time to figure all that out, I think it will really pay for itself (which it has to do at some point or I'll have to drop it.) But again, I expect it will before too long.

Daily Painting #5, July 21, 2010, "You Lookin' at Me?" Italian Greyhound

2010-07-21T16:43:00.000-07:00

Go easy on me with this one. Hey, I finished it today, and it's not as complicated as yesterday's. But I'm not crazy about it. Maybe I shouldn't be saying that about my own work; but again, I promised to put up everything I do - good or bad - during my Daily Painting run. I know I need to loosen up, so that's what this one is all about. Anyway, here it is. It's an Italian greyhound face on 8x10x1" wood and will be available for sale on my website later on this evening. Don't everyone rush to get it 'cause I only have the one!

"True Love," a Mastiff Pair, Daily Painting #4, July 20

2010-07-20T20:04:00.000-07:00

Today's Daily Painting was a bit too ambitious, so I'm going to have to be a little more careful in what I choose to paint in the future for my daily paintings. It took me nearly all day to paint it, and I still had to work on commissions, too. So I'm tired!

These two sweetie mastiffs were painted from a photo sent to me, believe it or not, years ago from someone I met at Portland Saturday Market. Unfortunately, I have had a couple of computer crashes since that time, so I do not have the person's name.

The painting is 8x8x1.5 on gallery-wrapped canvas, with the sides painted the same blue as the background. It's for sale on my website for $50, plus shipping and insurance of $6.

Golden Retriever Swimming with Tennis Ball, July 19, 2010

2010-07-19T15:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, here's Day 3 of my daily paintings. So far, so good, I guess. This is mighty stressful, I might say, but I'm going to keep it up. (However, in the next five or six weeks, I'll have to take a week-or-two break because I have to travel - by car - across the country -- again! This will be about the thousandth time, I think!) But for now, I'll continue doing my paintings a day.

This is a golden retriever, swimming with a tennis ball in his/her mouth. It's for sale, of course, $50, 8x10x1" on prepared wood, with the sides painted the same color as the water, wired and ready to hang. You can find it on my website listed above.

The good, the bad, and the kind of not so great

2010-07-17T21:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I gave a lot of thought to leaving this one off, but I decided recently, quietly, to myself, that I am going to try to branch out a little bit and do paintings other than dogs. I've briefly mentioned it in recent posts, in fact. I've also decided - again - to try to do a small painting every day (except weekends, when I'm always too busy to do any painting at all). So Thursday was my first day, actually, with the little black pug puppy - my first "daily," that is. (I tried over a year ago with daily paintings, too, but I just wasn't ready yet. Maybe I am now. I think it'll be good practice.)

Yesterday, I painted this little group of flowers that I found in a neighbor's yard. I don't know what they're called; I just thought they were pretty. I don't think I really did them justice, but I felt, again, that if I'm really earnest about doing this painting-a-day thing, that I should list each and every one I do, even if I'm not particularly proud of it. Even though it's not the best thing I've ever done, I did get some pleasure from painting it -- and I learned something very valuable: painting something outside my "comfort zone" is much, much more challenging than I ever thought it would be.

Wish me luck on my new little venture. I don't know how long I'll make it, but I promise I will give it my very best effort one month at a time. How about that? One month at a time. And I'll continue to list both the good , pretty good, and not-so-good ones, too.

A new report on Artfire

2010-07-15T21:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm really, really liking Artfire these days - and I think I'll continue to do so the more I get to know it. It has a lot of great functions that I haven't found elsewhere, the artists/craftspeople on there are extremely generous with sharing their support and knowledge with each other -- and I'm finally starting to get sales. I think this venue is a keeper - and at this time, July 2010, I highly recommend it. As I may have said before, I first had a "basic," reduced-function membership at no cost. But I received an offer from them for a $1.00 fee for "Pro" membership for the month of July, no contract required, so what did I have to lose. I have really worked it hard this month and will continue to do so. I have had only a few sales, admittedly, but I see real potential here. And the price is certainly right -- if I continue to have more and more sales. It's $15.95 a month, flat fee, and no percentage fee with sales, just the flat monthly fee. That's it.

I will add one thing, though: This site definitely has to be marketed. It doesn't have the following that Etsy has, nowhere near it. But look out! I think if things go as it appears they're going on it, it's going to be well-known someday. I'll continue to report on it and the other venues I've been checking out as time goes on, but so far, it's my favorite new one.

Black Pug Puppy Portrait on Red

2010-07-15T21:09:00.000-07:00

This is a little 8x10x1" black pug puppy painting I did today. It's acrylic on wood paneling with sides painted the same as the red background. It was a pleasure to paint, as are all pugs -- and I know because I do paint a lot of them. I've never had one, but I've had the great opportunity to meet many of them in my dog-painting career, and I find them to be very friendly, gentle, outgoing but calm dogs. I won't mind it a bit if I find myself with one someday.

As usual, the prints are available on my website, and I also have the original listed there as well.

A quick note: I no longer sell the pendants from my website, but they are for sale on Artfire.

Crater Lake vacation nightmare

2010-07-14T20:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know this has nothing to do with painting, but I just finished the most miserable camping trip - ever (well, almost ever, anyway). We went to Crater Lake to spend a few days, got there in the afternoon, started setting up the tent, and realized there were massive swarms of mosquitoes (think Hitchcock's birds but substitute mosquitoes), attacking us as if we were their last chance at avoiding certain and imminent starvation! Really, when one of us was in the sun, there was this aura of the blood-sucking creatures floating around the entire person. We thought it was because it was a bit late in the day, so we stuck it out and stayed the night -- after we killed around a hundred of them that had gotten into the tent. The next morning, at around 5 am (really!), we thought everything was great - no mosquitoes. But by around 6 am, they were out again! They were even diving into my "camp coffee" as I tried to boil it. No kidding; I've never seen so many at once in all my life. So we took a hike and came back around 11 am, and they were still there, in full sunlight. By 2 pm, as we sat huddled in the tent slathering ourselves once again with $11-per-bottle mosquito repellant bought at the camp store, we decided just to give up and leave -- forfeiting our prepaid nights at the campsite but saving what little blood we had left. We counted the number of bites on my daughter's back when we finally got back home, and she had 22 bites just on her back.

I took my paints and some 8x10 boards, and I had every intention of doing quite a number of small landscape paintings - finally. But the paints were never touched : (

Anyway, it was quite a disappointment. We're going to try the coast next time - it's got to be better.

Okay, thanks for listening to me. I feel much better now. But I don't think I'll ever go back to Crater Lake again. Let's hope the coast is better.

A Cute Italian Greyhound on a Purple Bed I recently finished

2010-07-11T13:38:00.000-07:00

Here's a cute Italian Greyhound painting I finished just yesterday morning. It's acrylic painted on a 16x20x3/4" staple-free canvas and is available for $150 plus shipping of approximately $12 (includes shipping insurance). As usual, it's being sold elsewhere, too, so let me know if you want it and I'll send you an ebill and pull it from the other location.

I'm also doing a small head shot of a yellowish Italian Grey, too, which will be done probably by the end of the week.

My daughter asked me again to remind you to check out our Facebook page, too, so here's the link:
http://www.facebook.com/LarkStudios

Re my running commentary on online art/crafts sales venues

2010-07-10T19:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't have a whole lot to report at this time. I got a couple of sales on Artfire.com, but they were to other artists/vendors on the site - due to my having made comments in the discussion forums. Absolutely no "outside" sales. However, in fairness to artfire, I haven't had (or taken) the time to do much marketing, either. I'll keep working with it, I think, though, just to see how it goes if I give it more of a chance.

Etsy is still going strong, although it's slowed down a bit I think because it's summertime. I still haven't checked back with 1000 Markets, but I promise I will soon. I'm also looking at another venue now, too, but so far, I haven't done much yet with it: It's called http://www.fineartamerica.com/. There's supposedly a free membership or a $30 annual membership. I'll report my findings on it probably next week (we've got a camping trip coming up for a few days! Horray!)

A Rottweiler commissioned painting I did recently - with Mount Hood

2010-07-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

Lest you think I haven't been painting lately, I truly have. It's just been almost all commissions, which often don't appeal to much of anyone other than the pet's family member who commissioned the painting. Here's one that I feel might have a bit more universal appeal, though: It's a painting of a rottweiler, named Porter, whose family love the outdoors, especially being up on or around Mount Hood. This is Porter at an area where his family like to go camping; that's Mount Hood, in the Oregon Cascade Mountains, if you're not familiar with it.

I like this painting for a couple of reasons: First, it's my first real landscape painting - yeah, I know, but I've been so busy with animals that I really haven't had the time to do any landscapes. That's going to change soon, though, because I'm really, really eager to do more now that I've had a taste of it! Secondly, I think Porter is a beauty, and I really enjoyed painting him. Note those dark spots on his tongue. They're not shadows but actual dark markings. Anyway, hope you like it, too. It was a great pleasure to paint.

More Feedback on 1000 Markets and Artfire

2010-07-04T09:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been writing much lately. I've been really busy with custom paintings, and they're still coming in. But I did want to give you a quick update on my "research" on the above-mentioned two online venues.
First, I can't even tell you exactly why, but I just haven't had a good feeling about 1000 Markets - it seems very restrictive, I think is one of the main things - so I've kind of dropped it at least for the time being. I haven't closed my "shop," but I'm just not doing anything on it.

But Artfire, I have a much better "feeling" about, and I plan to give it a really good try. I've had a couple of sales - I know, that's not much, but, hey, feelings count for something. And the other sellers on there are just so nice and extremely supportive.

Example: I was really frustrated that I hadn't sold anything after having been on there for around two months, so I researched around to find out how to move my Etsy listings over there -- and managed to move them, all 500-plus of them. Still no interest - or sales. So I wrote a plaintive request for what I was doing wrong, not doing right, whatever, on their forum - and got around 45 responses, all very supportive, informative, and encouraging. Plus !!! I sold a couple of items to other vendors. And, after having done some of the "tweaks" that were suggested to me, I'm getting a lot more traffic, too.

Let me go over a couple of reasons why I really like this venue: First of all, they're not at all restrictive, like the 1K Markets site - or even Etsy for that matter - about your promoting yourself within their site regarding other venues you sell (such as my own website, etsy, facebook, whatever, there are absolutely no restrictions on that kind of self-promotion.) In fact, I think it's even encouraged.

Secondly, although for my first couple of months I had the absolutely free online shop on artfire, they made me an offer I couldn't refuse: $1 fee for the month of July and no commitment to do more. So what did I have to lose. This site has absolutely no sales fees, no listing fees, just a flat monthly fee of around $16.00 (a few cents less, I think). I know I sell quite well on Etsy, so consequently my fees are rather high, but I'm hoping someday soon to sell well on this site, too. The big difference I see in this venue and Etsy now is that Etsy has earned a big name and a really big presence in the online world - thus lots and lots of traffic; this venue does have the big name, etc., and thus not lots of traffic - yet! So you have to promote it -- and, of course, yourself, through whatever means are at your disposal. I personally don't have a whole lot of time to promote myself on there due to my large custom workload, but I'm doing what I can. I'm telling customers at Portland Saturday Market where we have had booth for years about it, and I'm even going (haven't done it yet) to try to make use of it on my own website as a kind of "checkout" for website sales. I don't know exactly how I'm going to do that yet, but I think it will work very well once I get it figured out.

Okay, I've got a huge commission that's due TOMORROW - YIKES!!!, so I better get back to work on it. When I'm done with that one, I think I can take a little breather and will list some of these custom paintings I've been doing lately. I haven't been able to do much painting on my own lately due to the customs, so I'm really hoping to be able to do my own thing again soon, too.

Check out the two sites I've talked about and let me (and others) know what your thoughts are on them. Let's all help each other in this business of art/crafts.

1000 Markets & Artfire report

2010-06-08T17:48:00.000-07:00

Well, so far, I don't have much to report on my testing of the two above art/crafts venues, 1000 Markets and Artfire. I've only listed a few items on each one and have gotten only what appears to be views from other people selling art or craft items on the sites. I will continue to list more items, though, and report back.

I don't want to judge either site at this point because on the surface, at least, they're nice looking. I just don't know if they get enough traffic to generate much income. (But that could change in the future, too.) And although I do quite well on the biggie site, Etsy, and rather well on my own website, I would rather be able to sell more of my work online rather than primarily at art shows -- just easier. Although I might add that an artist's presence at art shows is essential, too, even with a better sales volume online.

All this being said, I am first an artist and next a person who has to pay her bills. I have chosen to be an artist, and I love passionately what I do - but those darned bills still have to be paid. And if I'm going to stay at home in my studio and paint all day, every day, I've got to pay the bills with the results of my fun but hard work - i.e., my paintings and prints. More to follow . . .

Okay, I don't see the facebook page, so I'll try again by putting it in the body of the post

2010-06-08T17:41:00.001-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/#!/LarkStudios

There, that should do it!

English Springer Spaniel enjoying a Yummy Toy

2010-06-08T17:39:00.000-07:00

This is Lady. She's an English Springer Spaniel, and she's May's winner of a monthly contest we started last March. The winner of this entry, Missy Reynolds, Lady's mom, gets a free 8x10 print or a pendant, her choice. Plus, she gets first choice at the purchase of the original 8x10 on wood paneling painting for $50 if she so chooses. If she doesn't want the original, I'll make it available to the general public. So, in other words, there's no requirement to buy anything at all if you enter the contest - in fact, you get something free if you win. Also, if your entry didn't win in the month you entered, you have the option to contact me to say you're resubmitting for the following month.

To enter your pet's pic(s), send high-quality photos (at least three) of your pet. We'll let you know at the end of each month if your pet was chosen. We, the family members involved in my business, vote on our choice; then the winner from the final three of those choices is drawn from a hopper. If you want more info on entering, just get in touch with me, dottie@wildwildthings.com, and either my daughter Lara or I will write you back with more info. Also, there's a lot more info on the contest on our facebook page, listed I think above this posting -- well, somewhere on here, anyway; I'm not really sure where.

What do you know about 1000 Markets?

2010-06-03T14:16:00.001-07:00

1000 Markets

Dottie Dracos, Animal Artist

Visit the Shop

This is a link to an online venue, "1000 Markets," that I'm giving a try. If anyone out there has any experience, positive or negative with it, I would love to hear from you.

Leonburger

2010-05-28T20:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is the last one I'm posting tonight. I'll try not to be so slow in posting my next batch of paintings. This is a really handsome young guy I met at a little art show in Corvallis, OR. I wasn't familiar with the breed at the time, and I was amazed, first of all, at his size, then at his gentle nature, his very soft fur, his sweet, sweet face. I could go on and on. I expect I'll be doing more paintings of Leonburgers in the future. So beautiful.

I've posted quite a few paintings this evening. Do let me know what you think about them if you have time. I really appreciate all the comments I get. Painting is a lonely job . . .

Keeshond

2010-05-28T20:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, all you people who have been requesting that I paint a keeshond: Here's my first one! So sorry it took me so long. I'll try to do another one or two in the months to come. (Too many pretty dogs, too little time!)

He looks an awfully lot in form like my little Pomeranian, Harry. I did some reading and found that they indeed are quite closely related, only quite different in size.

Jack Russell Terrier with Yellow Ball

2010-05-28T20:08:00.000-07:00

This also is a painting I finished this past week, today actually, and it's another painting done from a photo submitted by a customer. His name is Chico, and I think he's a beauty.

When I first painted him, I had him on a greyish-blue background - and it just didn't work. So I just "abstracted" the actual background in the photo, and I really, really like the results.

Great Pyrenees Portrait

2010-05-28T20:05:00.000-07:00

This Great Pyrenees painting is one that I just finished this past week. I'm quite happy with it. They're beautiful dogs. Nothing more I can say.

It's painted from a photo submitted by a customer. Hope you like it.

Golden Retriever with Ball

2010-05-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

This is a painting I just finished today, and I really like it. For me, it is a wild departure, though, which made me really uncomfortable, I'm afraid. It's a bit more abstract than most of my dog paintings, but I think I needed to do this - be a bit more spontaneous, that is, in doing the painting. Scary!

It's 16x20x3/4", staple-free sides, wired and ready to hang -- Sorry, this painting has sold.

I should mention that, actually: I sometimes mention here that certain paintings are for sale. As my paintings are also shown in other venues, I cannot promise that they'll always be available if listed here. So if you're interested in a painting, just email me to check on its availability.

German Shorthaired Pointer by Lake

2010-05-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

Well, as you might notice, I'm listing these recent paintings alphabetically rather than chronologically -- but again, they all were done within a two- to three-week period up to the present.

I really enjoyed doing this painting. It was a bit difficult for me, but I think it came out pretty well. I love shorthaired dogs, especially to paint them, because you can see their body shape so extremely well. German shorthaired pointers are especially beautiful, and it seems that every one is different from any others. I had a magnificent best friend up until just a few years ago, named Dune, who was part GSP and part greyhound - what a beauty! And what a wonderful, wonderful dog and friend. I'll miss him forever.

Dalmatian Puppy

2010-05-28T19:50:00.000-07:00

This is a small painting I did recently of a little dalmatian puppy I spotted and photographed (with permission) at Portland Saturday Market. He was so sweet looking to me. I used to have a dalmatian, so I have a soft spot for them -- well, I do for all dogs, actually.

Anyway, he's on 8x10 wood paneling and is available for purchase at $50, plus shipping. Email me if you're interested in purchasing him and I'll send you an ebill. As usual, prints and pendants are also available on my website.

Dachshund named Sue

2010-05-28T19:46:00.000-07:00

This is a commissioned painting I finished about a week ago. Her name is Sue, and she is very much beloved. The recipient of this painting likes the color orange, and it was requested as the background color. I think she turned out great.

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Ruby

2010-05-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

This is a ruby Cavalier King Charles Spaniel that I painted recently for a customer. The original is sold, but there are prints and pendants available.

I'm going to be posting quite a few images this evening, but I don't know if they'll be in the order I produced them because I've been really busy lately and haven't had a chance even to think! Just paint. They're all within two or three weeks of each other, though, and I'll try to keep them somewhat in a chronological order -- if that matters.

Oh, regarding my endeavors to be looser and brighter, it's meeting with only limited success. I manage to do one like that, and then I'm back to painting individual hairs and worrying about being nearly photo-realistic again. Gotta loosen up!

Red Australian Shepherd

2010-05-07T20:07:00.000-07:00

This is a commissioned painting I finished about a week ago -- I've been really busy with commissions lately. That's why I haven't posted much lately.

This girl's painting was a Mother's Day gift for a customer of mine. I think she turned out very nicely.

Obviously, the original is gone, but you can get prints and pendants on my website.

Yet another pug! This is Lola's sister - whose name I can't remember!

2010-05-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

This is the other pug I finished for my friend. Her eyes really, really are this wild looking, and my friend says she sees fine, though. Weird! But cute -- as a button!

This original has also already sold, but again, prints and pendants are available on my website, http://www.dottiedracos.com/. (I'm going to gradually end using my "wildwildthings" name because it no longer reflects my current artwork. I started it when I did my ceramic animal masks, and it was great for those. But it just doesn't go with my more "elegant" work these days. (I think, by the way, I really, really have quit doing the ceramic dog/cat/fish masks - for good this time!) I have a few left that I'm selling on Etsy, and then they're gone! Forever!

Another Pug!!! This is Lola

2010-05-07T19:35:00.000-07:00

This is a painting of my friend's little pug, named Lola. I also painted another of her pugs -- whose name I can't remember right offhand! She's coming up in the next post.

The original of Lola is already sold, but prints and pendants are available. I really enjoyed painting her - what a sweet little face.

Cocker Spaniel, Black

2010-04-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

Finally! I have received so many requests for a black cocker spaniel, and I have finally gotten to it on my huge to-do list! Sorry it took so long for those of you who have patiently waited for it to be done.

I'm also working this week on a commissioned German shepherd painting, which is proving to be a really difficult one. She, Zoey, is lying in the snow and looking up at the viewer, so the pose is adorable but awkward at the same time, details are difficult to see due to the lighting, and it's just difficult to paint because it's a full-bodied painting on an 11x14 canvas. But I think it'll come out great when it's completed. It's a challenge but a good one.

I have another painting in progress, too, a standing German shorthaired pointer, for which I also get many, many requests. It'll be completed sometime next week. Oh, and one more painting in progress - and put aside for the moment! : a single daffodil I had in my front yard early this spring. I thought, oh, painting a daffodil will be so easy compared to painting dogs. Absolutely not! Not for me, anyway. It's much, much harder for me -- but I will tame this daffodil eventually!

Brindle Pug Painting

2010-04-16T11:03:00.000-07:00

This is a sweet pug painting I recently completed from photos submitted by a customer. She said she never sees any brindle pug artwork anywhere, and now I understand why. It was really hard to get the brindle "feel" in the painting without trying to paint every hair -- which is what I'm trying to learn to avoid!

The original is a bit different from this 8x10" image in that it's on a 24x24" canvas. It is for sale. Contact me if you're interested.

German Shepherd Profile

2010-04-09T10:35:00.000-07:00

And last for today -- but definitely not least!! - is this German Shepherd painting I did just two days ago. Now, I feel that I'm really starting to change. I feel that I captured the "shepherdness" of this dog (her name is Zoey, and I'm doing another painting of her as a commission for her mom) but gave her a lot, lot more life than many of my more serious paintings had (in my opinion), and yet with the bright background, gave her some playfulness, too, without taking away from her beauty at all. Again, this painting makes me smile. I would hang this one in my living room even if I didn't have a German shepherd, just because I like the looks of the painting. That's a good thing. I like this direction. I dooooooo hope I keep it up (fingers crossed -- much too tightly!).

I'm currently working on a really, really hard painting: a brindle pug. I've had a few pretty good paintings over the past few ones, and now I'm nervous. Can I keep up the momentum of change? Or will I choke? Seriously, this becoming the best painting I can is the hardest endeavor I've ever, ever taken on in my whole life -- and I've taken on some doozy challenges, I promise you. They all pale in comparison to this one.

What do you think about my new direction?

Another Pretty Kitty Cat!

2010-04-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

Okay, this little kitty painting just makes me smile. Could I have worked on it for weeks more? Sure thing. But I resisted! And I'm happy with it. Makes me smile - big time! That's a good thing. Hope it made you smile, too.

Just a reminder of my daughter's facebook page for us again: http://facebook.com/larkstudios.
(Oh, a quick note about the facebook name she chose: Often in error, I would be talking about my daughter and her husband and call them "Lark" by mistake (Lara, and her husband, Mark). Now, it's become a bit of a family joke, and the collective name has stuck. They are now Lark - much easier than Lara and Mark, don't you think? Now, how are we going to include my precious little almost-four-month-old granddaughter's name into the mix? (Her name is Elena).

Red Miniature Pinscher, Min Pin

2010-04-09T10:23:00.000-07:00

A red Minpin I finished in the last few days. Well, I'm finally getting somewhere. This looser (but controlled) style is starting to feel a bit more comfortable. And I'm getting back to something I lost somewhere along the way: bright, happy backgrounds, more graphic overall feel, if that makes any sense. Although I added a bit of -- dare I say it, the "W" word - whimsy to my work, I think I'm still being very faithful to the structure and personality of my subject. Let me know what you think of this new direction if you have the time. I'm anxious about what others will think. I'm showing the most recent ones for the first time this weekend. Scary.

Shiba Inu portrait

2010-04-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

Wow, I had no idea I had not posted on my blog in such a long time! I've got a lot of paintings to catch up on. I'm afraid I've missed a few, but they're all on my website (http://www.wildwildthings.com/) if you absolutely must see every single one. I always list them on my home page just as soon as they're done.

This is a shiba inu portrait, still just coming out of my "dark days." I'm pretty happy with this one. I didn't feel the need (well, I might have felt the need, but I resisted!!!) to put in every single hair on ths one. That's a good thing!

Pretty little Yellow Kitten on Black

2010-04-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, change is starting to show with this painting. It's small, but it's much looser, makes me smile. Can I keep up this direction? Or will I head off in another completely different one? Who knows? I certainly don't! We'll see. Stay tuned.

Again, here's Lara's (my daughter) facebook page for us:
http://facebook.com/larkstudios

Shar Pei Puppy portrait

2010-04-09T10:11:00.000-07:00

Another painting, a shar pei puppy, as I'm coming out of my "dark days." This one was really, really difficult for me.

My daughter has also started a facebook page for my/our paintings (she does paint, too, from time to time. I wish she did it more!) Check it out if you have the time. It's http://www.facebook.com/larkstudios. She also gives a bit more info on where our original works can be seen/purchased, what we're up to in general (Too much info in my opinion! But, hey, I'm from a different era, I guess.)

Samoyed Portrait on Teal

2010-04-09T10:06:00.000-07:00

This painting is of a Samoyed. Still coming out of my "dark period," and I think this one is a bit looser. I'm getting somewhere now, but I still have a long way to go.

Miniature Pinscher, Minpin, with Pillows

2010-04-09T09:28:00.000-07:00

This beautiful black-and-tan miniature pinscher, "minpin" or "min pin," is one of the next paintings to come out of my "dark days" that I described in the previous entry. I'm trying to get them (the paintings) out in pretty much the order that they occurred, and I think you can see the changes occurring in my work these days. Who knows where I'll end up? But, wow, is the "trip" challenging, exciting, the hardest work I think I've ever done, FUN!, SCARY, SCARIER!!!, horrifying, but thrilling, exhilirating, frightening, FUN, and finally, I hope rewarding and pleasing to both you, my viewer, and me, the creator/painter.

The original is still available.

Border Terrier Face

2010-04-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

I've been working a lot lately, going through some difficult times with my work and not producing much. I can't explain exactly what was going on, but I knew I was going in a direction that I wasn't especially happy with in my work -- too "photo-realistic, not grabbing me and making me - and you - smile the way I like. (There's just enough negative or even neutral in this world these days that I want my work to help bring even just a bit of cheer into our lives.) So, anyway, I've been working away, really hard actually, but not able to get off that path I had started going down -- well, I think I finally have started forging a new path for myself. I expect you're going to be seeing some - for me, anyway - exciting changes in my work in the future. I made the hurdle!!!!

This piece is the first to come out after my few weeks of wrenchingly hard work - with almost nothing to show for it - except in my head, of course, where lots, lots, lots was going on! This is a border terrier, and the original as well as prints and pendants are available on my website. There'll be other images to follow in short succession after this one until I am current again.

English Springer Spaniel doing Agility Test

2010-02-18T09:30:00.000-08:00

Okay, here's my painting for today - and I think I've loosened up a lot in my painting. I really love the motion, the "painterliness" of this one. I didn't draw in every single hair and be slavishly driven by the photo of the dog. I used the images of this dog to create what I feel is an exciting, colorful, filled-with-personality painting. I hope (fingers crossed!!!) I can continue in this direction!!!

This painting is for sale, by the way. It's an 8x10" on wood panel, unframed. It sells for $125, and I'll frame it for you for an extra $15. Of course, as usual, prints, pendants, and clocks are available on my website, http://www.wildwildthings.com/.

A Cordon Bleu Fince painting

2010-02-18T09:21:00.001-08:00

Here's my little painting from yesterday: A little finch with a fancy name: Cordon Bleu finch. I enjoyed painting it.

Now, today I must do another dog painting. I'm slowing returning to dogs but am still going to continue to paint other subjects, too. Wish me luck!

A Macaw painted by my daughter, Lara Aguilera-Mogensen

2010-02-15T11:06:00.000-08:00

Here's a painting done by my daughter, Lara, recently. She doesn't have a blog yet, so I'm taking the liberty of listing a few of her paintings on my blog until she does - so I can show off her work, of course!

This is a parrot, obviously, a macaw, I think. We had for many, many years another kind of parrot, a blue-fronted Amazon, named Jolie. She was a sweetheart with a voice that would break crystal! But we loved her very, very much. She left us, though, and went to live with some neighbors who had several Amazons, with whom she immediately bonded. Fickle bird! No, really, she was much happier because she was alone, with only us as companions, and she's much happier now with all the other parrots. We were really boring, I think, and didn't appreciate her fine voice nearly as much as her other bird-friends did. Here's Lara's website address: http://marezidoats.com/. The name of the site is a cute one, by the way: Lara also teaches horseback riding (dressage specifically), and the name "marezidoats" stems from a song that my mother sang to me when I was small and that I subsequently sang to her: It starts like this (written much, much more clearly than it's sung) Mares eat oats and does eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy. A kid'll eat ivy, too, wouldn't you?"
(It sounds more like marezidoats 'n doesidoats, 'n liddlelamseadivy. A kid'lleadivy,too,wouldn't you?)

Chinook Dog, Sled Dog, with Helicoptor Ears

2010-02-15T10:57:00.000-08:00

I love dogs with helicoptor ears! This is a painting I did from photos that were submitted to me by a person I met at the recent Rose City Classic Dog Show, here in Portland, OR. I think their ears are generally upright, and I'll eventually get one painted in that orientation. But this one I just couldn't resist. She, his mom, calls him "silly Willy" in this painting.

She gave me a bit of info about Chinooks, too. They're quite rare and really are sled dogs and I think are located mostly in the Northwest US - and maybe Canada. They're really beautiful, I think.

By the way, this painting is one I decided to do while in the midst of my painting anything-but-dogs phase. I'm pleased with the results -- and I think it is looser, not so serious, and was just a lot more fun to paint! So those of you waiting to have me do a commissioned painting for you, the wait will be worth it! I can tell!

Some Other Paintings I've been doing lately and haven't had time to post!

2010-02-15T10:43:00.000-08:00

A precious little pygmy goat I painted a few days ago. Believe it or not, I'm actually painting a "one-a-day" now -- well, I've done it for one week. We'll see if it holds long-term. By the way, don't let this little guy's sweet, innocent face fool you: I've had many goats over the years, and they are just as precious as they look -- but at the same time, are real terrors! One I had, I caught dancing on my pride-and-joy car at the time, a bright ruby red Porsche 944! (I came close to changing my vegetarian ways over that one! Only joking, of course -- well, kind of.)

Three geese. These were actually a pet goose my daughter had, and I just took multiple photos of her and combined them together into this composition. (Geese all look alike anyway, right?) Like the goat above, she was a terror, too -- but she was actually mean! In the left two images of her in the painting, she was threatening to bite me (probably thinking about it in the right one, too, now that I think about it), and she actually did attack me before I could finish taking more photos. And geese bite hard! I finally learned not to run from her but to face her head-on and grab her mean little beak when she bit at me and just hold it until she calmed down. Finally, she didn't like to chase me anymore and chose other victims instead.

This is a painting I did recently and forgot to post of a couple of cows. I don't really know what kind they are (a jersey and a holstein possibly?) I think cows are sweet looking, though, whatever kind they are, and always seem interested in me and curious about what I'm doing. I'm not afraid of cows. Probably because I don't know any better, now that I think of it, though.

Black-winged Stilt, or Avocet - another non-dog painting! Yay!!

2010-02-15T10:37:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry; I know many of you follow my work because of my dog paintings, but I'm having a really, really good time taking a break from dogs for a while. I know it was prompted by my total overload at the recent Rose City Classic Dog Show I did here in Portland, but it was also just something I knew I needed to do for a long time and didn't really have the nerve to try. I know it's going to allow me to paint dogs with a fresh perspective - and I and my customers and followers will be happier for it.

borzoi profile painting

2010-02-09T15:33:00.001-08:00

This is an 8x10 Borzoi painting I finished last week before I started my "other-animals-than-dogs" painting sidetrack. I love it, and it's more what I'm after than the too-tight work I had begun to do before I decided to take my break. It's the last dog I painted before my self-imposed break from dog paintings. I hope to have more in a similar style when I return to dogs. The original is still for sale.

Oops! I forgot to list my rooster that I painted yesterday!

2010-02-05T21:50:00.000-08:00

I don't know what kind of rooster this is. I only know I found him to be very beautiful. We used to have chickens (for eggs only) and this one poor, lonely rooster, who had the most sickly-sounding crow that we felt sorry for him. Plus, we kept him locked out of the hens' house, so he was a pretty sad figure -- but so very beautiful! Anyway, this is another of my recent non-dog paintings that I wanted to share with you. Hope you're enjoying my "entr'acte." I'll be back to dogs before too long.

a Jersey Cow - Holy Cow! Where am I going with this??? Having fun, tho'

2010-02-05T21:42:00.000-08:00

Wow, I needed this!! It is soooooo refreshing to be able to paint something besides my beloved dogs. Please don't get me wrong: I still love painting dogs, and I love dogs. I just was in desperate need of a break!

It also shows me how very hard dogs are to paint -- in my humble opinion, that is. They have awfully complicated faces, with very distinct bone structures, which in addition to hair color, length, degree of straightness, etc., vary from dog breed to dog breed. But, hey, they're beautiful beings, whom I love dearly.

I don't know yet what I'll be painting tomorrow, whether it'll be a dog or yet another farm animal. But, again, I promise I'll be getting back to dogs soon.

A Toggenburg Goat! I needed a break from dog paintings for a while!

2010-02-04T21:49:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know it's a goat, not a dog! It's different, but I really needed a break. It'll be good for me. With all the commissions I've been doing, I've been working tighter and tighter, and it's not a good direction for me. This being an artist is always supposed to be fun - because it's what I love doing more than any other "job" I've ever had in my whole life! I was reaching a point where I dreaded going to work each day. So it's time for just some fun, loose, no-stress (well, a little bit of stress still), non-threatening types of paintings. So look for more non-dog paintings for the next week or two. Then I'll get back with a fresh, clear, eager mind to painting dogs again.

All you people, by the way, that I met at the Rose City Classic Dog show -- all those of you that either allowed me to photograph your dogs or that sent some of your own dog's photos to me ------ thank you, thank you, thank you! It was wonderful to meet and talk to you all, and I promise I'll do my very best to get every one of your beloved dogs' paintings done. So please bear with me while I clear my mind, loosen my brush strokes. We'll all be happier for the wait, I promise.

Black Pug in Park

2010-01-29T15:24:00.000-08:00

Here's a little girl I just finished painting for a client; so obviously, the original is already sold. Her name is Prescilla, and I hear that she's a real sweetheart.

Rose City Classic Dog Show, January 20-24 - I'll be there!

2010-01-19T10:16:00.000-08:00

No pic this time -- just a note to let you know I'll be showing my artwork at the Rose City Classic AKC Dog Show in Portland, OR, at the Expo Center, January 20-24th. If you attend the show, stop by and say hi and see my latest paintings, pendants, and prints in person. Look forward to seeing you there. Wow, am I tired! Need lots of coffee and tea to get through this week! Wish me luck! Dottie

Great Dane Portrait "What, Me Worry?"

2010-01-11T13:13:00.000-08:00

Here's another acrylic painting I just finished. It's obviously a Great Dane, fawn in color, that I photographed (with permission) at the Portland Saturday Market in Portland, OR, this past autumn. He was a real sweetheart and posed very nicely for me for quite a few photos. Maybe later when I have more time, I'll do another painting of him. The painting is available for sale. It is on a 16x20" canvas, on 3/4"-deep sides, painted same as the background, staples only on the back side, wired and ready to frame or hang as is. The price is $250.00, plus shipping.

This painting, along with many others I've done, will also be shown between the days of January 20 to 24 at the Rose City Classic Dog Show, so there's a possibility it will sell at that time. So if you're interested in it, please be sure to contact me before the show. Oh, and if you're at the show, please stop by and introduce yourself; I would love to meet those who follow my work.

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Black and Tan Puppy

2010-01-05T20:51:00.000-08:00

This is a painting of our latest family addition, a little Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (black and tan) puppy, named Sammy. He's a little terror at the moment, driving all the other dogs mad with his constant flurry of activity, but he's a sweetheart, too.

The original is not available, but prints and pendants are available at my website, http://www.wildwildthings.com/.

I'm on a bit of a painting run these days and don't even have time to list everything I've been painting on my blog -- but they all can be seen at my website, on the home page. So if you want to see them all right away, be sure to stop by and check them out. I'll eventually try to get everything on my blog, too, just not right now because I'm awfully busy!!!

Speaking of being busy, and on a non-art note to be sure, I am a Grandmother now!!!!! My daughter and her husband on December 14, 2009, had their first child and my first granddaughter, a precious little baby girl named Elena Noel Aguilera Mogensen. Mom, my daughter Lara, and baby Elena and Mark, the very proud dad are all doing very well -- well, Mom and Dad are exhausted, but little Elena is quite happy and well-rested, too. Mark's parents are here as well, visiting us all the way from Odense, Denmark, Mark's home town. Elena is going to be raised knowing both languages and grandparents and other relatives on both sides of the Atlantic (and I'm even sneaking in a bit of French as much as I'm allowed, too, so she'll possibly be a tri-lingual, not just bi-lingual, little girl!)

Maltese in Afternoon Sunlight

2010-01-01T11:13:00.000-08:00

This is a sweet little maltese commission I finished recently. His name is Bentley, and he's a beauty.

I'm taking a short break from doing commissioned paintings, probably until around the first of March, 2010. Commissions are a bit stressful, just because I want so much to do the best I can do for the client, so from time to time, I need a break so I can "loosen up" a bit. So be looking out for what I hope is some looser work for the next couple of months.

I'm currently working on a giant schnauzer, a black pug (for which I get requests ALL the time! and I'm finally taking the time to paint one), and our own little black-and-tan Cavalier King Charles spaniel, named Sammy. He's an adorable puppy of five months at this time and is a real challenge for our other three older dogs, Higgins, the shih tzu; my precious Harry Barker, the pomeranian; and Casey, the rat terrier mix. So I'll be listing those very soon. And then who knows what I'll do. Maybe a few non-dog paintings???? Sounds fun!

But first: I have a big dog show, the Rose City Classic, here in Portland, OR, which starts, I think, on January 18 - more exact details later - that I'll be attending to show off (and hopefully sell) my paintings, prints, and pendants. I have a LOT of work to do before the show, so at least for now I'll be doing dog paintings only. Wish me luck!

Bernese Mountain Dog Painting on 11x14 gallery-wrapped canvas

2009-11-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

This is a painting of a Bernese mountain dog on a muted red/orange background which I recently finished and which was not a commissioned painting. Thus, it is for sale. It's an original acrylic painting on an 11x14x1.5" gallery-wrapped canvas (1.5" sides, painted same as the background, no staples, wired to hang). I'm selling it for $100, plus shipping costs. It is also available for sale elsewhere, so I can't guarantee that it's still available. If you would like to buy it, email me, dottie@wildwildthings.com, and I'll send you a bill for its purchase.

Leaping Belgian Malinois, a Recently Completed Commission

2009-11-23T06:39:00.000-08:00

This is a recent commission I've done for a customer's wife's birthday. I love the action in the dog's body, the intensity in his face, and the soft colors except where the strong sunlight hits the high spots on his body. It was a pleasure to do this painting.

Boxer Portrait, all Brown Face

2009-10-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

This is a painting I finished rather recently. I took his photo at Portland Saturday Market I think in around September or October of this year. I think he's so beautiful. I've been taking quite a few photos lately of dogs at the market, which I hope to be painting over the winter break, so I'm looking forward to the break so I can do some serious painting without as many distractions as I have going on now.
The original of this painting, 8x10, is available. Contact me if you're interested in purchasing it.

Leaping Belgian Malinois

2009-10-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

I love this painting! It was a commission I just finished, so the original is sold. But, as usual, I have the image on other items at my website, www.wildwildthings.com.

Australian Cattle Dog, Blue Heeler, Portrait

2009-10-23T15:37:00.001-07:00

This is a fairly recent painting I did, and the original of it is available, for $75. You can also purchase prints or other items with this image on it on my website, www.wildwildthings.com

Alaskan Malamute Portrait

2009-10-23T15:33:00.000-07:00

I'm just going to try to list a few items over the next couple of weeks to catch my blog up. I've been listing regularly on my website but completely forgot to be listing here.

This is a painting I did probably a few months ago; I don't remember exactly when. I still have the original. It's 8x10 on 1/8" wood, and I'll be happy to add 1.5" sides to it, painted black, all for $75.00. Contact me if you want to buy it. Prints, etc., are also available on my website, www.wildwildthings.com

OMG, I've been away from here for a LOOONNNG TIME!

2009-10-23T15:32:00.000-07:00

I've got a LOT of catching up to do. I'll once again be posting here, though. I've been really, really, really busy -- really!!!

Boston Terrier Portrait on Red/Yellow Background

2009-05-28T19:04:00.000-07:00

Wow, I'm on a roll! This is a little guy I just completed today. The same as the previous painting, I was attending a little art show in Corvallis, OR, around I think May 2. Again, I asked permission to photograph this boy so I could do a painting of him. So if this is your little guy down in Corvallis, here's his painting! I really, really enjoyed painting this one.