Why You're Not Hearing Much from me These Days

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

LarkStudios

Unique Gifts

Brown and White Shih Tzu Portrait

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

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?