Checkers the Rooster!

This is one of my daughter's chickens, an adorable rooster that my granddaughter named "Checkers" for some unknown reason.  But Checkers it is!  I spent around an hour with him last week, taking photos and making sketches, and here's the painting that resulted from our little visit.  It's an acrylic painting on a stretched 16x20x3/4" canvas and is for sale on Etsy, along with prints of the painting.

I just love how feisty he is, and I think I may have to do at least one more painting of him.

I also redid the sunflower painting again, and I really like it better now.   It's much happier looking!

A Rough-Coated Collie Painting just finished

I just finished this painting a couple of days ago.  It's a beautiful tri-colored rough-coated collie, and the original, an 11x14x3/4" acrylic painting on stretched canvas, is still available.

Also, the original of the cav that I listed yesterday is available, too, and it's the same size as this painting.  Both are in my Etsy shop, along with prints.

Lately, I have been given a fairly large number of photos from a loyal customer, and I plan to paint as many as I can after the holidays.  Many of them are some of the most adorable goats I have ever seen.  I can't wait to get started!  But my family members come first during this holiday season.

We celebrated the fifth birthday yesterday, in fact, of my little precious granddaughter (my only grandchild!), and we did it in as grand a birthday style as we possibly could because, being a close-to-Christmas birthday person, her birthday often gets passed over in all the busy-ness of the holiday season.  Oh, and a happy birthday on the same day to her Aunt Eileen, too!

Another of my Seven Cow Paintings

This is another of the cow paintings that kept me busy all through the month of April.  There are five more I'll be showing.  This is a Jersey cow.  The original was 30x40 inches and has been sold.

Following this past month's marathon, I figured this is a good time to take a new direction in my artwork.  So in addition to still doing custom animal paintings, and the occasional animal painting from my own photographs, I am making two very (for me) big changes in my artwork:  I am going to be painting primarily landscapes from now on (suggestions welcome!), and I'm switching from acrylics to oils as my medium.

I've been practicing both the new medium and the new subject matter, and there's going to have to be a pretty sharp learning curve for me.  It's a whole new field (no pun intended!), and I'm really excited about it.  Please, if you've followed me mostly because I have painted animals for years, stay with me and see how my new work is going.  Wish me luck on this new chapter in my painting career.

One more thing:  For those of you who know of my past ceramic artwork, I am once again making some ceramic animal masks and will be listing them on Etsy within the following few months.  There will only be a few each month, approximately 10 per month, because I don't want to make them full-time anymore.  But I must admit that I am enjoying the several hours a week I've been spending in my clay studio; it's a welcome break from "my day job."  If you have mask requests, let me know and I'll do my best to create something like what you want.  I am going to be doing a few different types of animals this time:  In addition to the usual dogs and cats (and possibly a few fish), I'm going to be making some cow and rooster masks.  Should be interesting.

Little Duckling Portrait

Okay, this is the other one I just finished, a sweet little baby duck portrait.  It, too, was a lot of fun.  What more can I say.

Fortunately, summer has finally arrived, so now, instead of staying indoors for large parts of the day to avoid the cold and rain, I have to stay indoors because it's so stinkin' hot!!  I'm not complaining, though; I love it.  It's been a long, long, long winter, and finally, with the rest of the country sweltering, summer has arrived in Oregon!  Horray!

Getting Back in Stride

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

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.

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

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! 

A Cordon Bleu Fince painting

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!

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

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!!

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 Portrait

This is a painting I did of one of the borzoi's owned by a friend of mine. They're beautiful dogs, I think. I have another photo she sent me that I'll be doing before too long of one of her other pups, who's standing in a pond - a very elegant pose. I think it'll be on a large canvas, though.

Today I'm working on another cat: My cat, actually, whose name is Eliza Doolittle. She's a beautiful and very, very sweet slightly plump calico kitty, who's about five years old now. We adopted her when she was one, and she was so overweight at the time that when she lay on her side, her legs stuck out in the air. She's still "big-boned" but a much more reasonable weight now. She and our three little dogs all get along very well, except our pomeranian/pekingese mix torments her mercilessly, and she just complains and jumps out of his reach. What a sweetheart she is.

Well, I got way off the topic of the borzoi painting, but it was at the same time a reasonable segue in tomorrow's (or the next day's) painting, anyway.

"Furball," the Cat

I am sooooo proud of this painting! I was afraid to do cats because I thought they would be really difficult after all the dog paintings I've done - but believe it or not, it was actually easier! Probably because cats (well, this one anyway) have so much hair! Anyway, this cat is a donation for a fundraiser for the Feral Cat Coalition here in Portland - hope it raises lots of money for them. It was a cat I saw sitting on a porch in my neighborhood. I think s/he was enjoying the rare pretty day we were having that day. I'll have prints of it on pendants and earrings; and if you live around Portland, OR, and want to go bid on it, check with them and find out exactly when their auction is going to be - and let me know if you win it, too!

"Marbles," a Mixed Breed Beauty

Oh, my, where has the time gone??? I can't believe I've been so terribly remiss at posting my latest paintings on my blog. Well, I'll try to make up for lost time. Please excuse me if I mistakenly repeat a few posts as I'm trying to catch up. I'll try not to, though.

This painting was of a dog someone submitted to me and which I couldn't resist painting, even if I probably would never sell a single print - or original - of it. The person who submitted the photo chose to buy just a pendant, which was fine.

Anyway, it was a pleasure painting her, and her original is still available at my website.

Black and White Chihuahua - "Roo"

This is one of my favorite paintings in a while -- well, I say that pretty often, don't I. There was something about this one, though; it almost painted itself. It didn't hurt that the dog, Roo, is absolutely perfect. Anyway, I did him for a customer, so he's already sold.

I love my "work" more and more every day. And when I'm not painting, I'm thinking about whatever painting(s) I have in progress. I don't "just paint." I plan, look at problematic areas and search for solutions and study, study, study my subject. Some might say too much, but it's how I function. This little fellow, I did several drawings of him first, including one where I studied only broad value areas, using the several different photos sent to me by his adoptive mom. He seems to me to be quite shy, judging from his interactions with people in the photos, so I wanted to convey that shyness, too, in the painting. ---- Well, I'm going on a bit. I'll just say again, he was a great pleasure to paint!

Shih Tzu Puppy Dog Painting

Awwww! Isn't this one cute? I just love it. And I didn't let myself work it to death, either! That's what I usually do, work one until it starts to lose life and spontaneity.

It's a new (old, rehashed?) promise I'm making to myself: I have one job and one job only, to do a single painting a day. It doesn't have to be good; it doesn't have to be elaborate or grand; it just has to be done! I've got to get over this fear of failure, and this has got to work! If they're too awful, I can throw them away. If they just don't look good enough that I would want anyone to see them but not awful enough to throw away, I can put them in a stack and maybe work on them again another day in the indefinite future.

But this little guy, I'm happy with him. I think he's fresh, pretty, and has lots of personality -- just like my Henry Higgins (my shih tzu who's lying underneath me as I write this) after whom he's modeled. I had to do some guessing, though, because I adopted Higgins when he was already around six years old. He's a ripe old 9 or 10 today and going strong, too, I might add. As with all my paintings, this one will be available on my website, www.dottiedracos.com, or www.wildwildthings.com (both addresses take you to the same place).

The Weathermen

THIS PAINTING HAS SOLD. Prints are available on my website. Okay, I've finally reached my saturation point with dogs and took a break to paint this wonderful painting of three crows I saw at a sleepy fishing village on the Gulf Coast of Florida (sorry, I don't remember the name of the village at this moment) when I was there back in February. They were hanging out, sitting atop a sign and looked for all the world as if they were checking out the weather. So this title has a bit of a double meaning: first, the obvious one, that they're looking at the sky to predict the weather; second, refers to a political/protest song by Bob Dylan in which he says something like "only the weathermen know which way the wind blows," speaking of changing times, which we're definitely going through now, obviously. Anyway, I really, really enjoyed doing this painting, and actually, I prefer to think of it in the lighter sense, that these guys know something we don't about upcoming weather and are just hanging out on a beautiful day!

Schnauzer profile 8x10x1.5 inch Original Dog Art Painting by Dottie Dracos

I love this painting. Hey, I'm actually getting better -- I think! This painting was spontaneous, not a slavish copy of the photograph from which I painted it. I photoed the dog, whose name is Smoke, some months ago and finally got around to getting it painted. I've done a couple of paintings of Smoke before, but I think this is definitely my favorite. He's 8x10x1.5" acrylic on hardboard, $150. This painting has sold. http://www.dottiedracos.com/.

Not a Painting This Time - Just a little statement regarding music and art and snobbery

This entry has nothing to do with my paintings, just something that came to my mind that I just have to publish. It has to do with snobbery. While I've been working this morning, my husband has been playing his favorite radio program: KBOO, out of Portland, OR, every Monday at noon plays "Country Music Jamboree."

First of all, I consider myself to be quite sophisticated, knowledgeable, very well-educated, worldly (in a good sense), an over-all cool person -- and I love the music on KBOO's radio program, as well as blue grass, jazz, blues, New Orleans-style jazz, cajun, polka music, music from "musicals," traditional Greek, traditional French, etc., etc., and, of course, my very most favorite music, classical (no particularly favorite composers, just favorite compositions, including operas).

A couple of years ago I was having dinner with a group of fellow artists at a very high-end art show. Talk came around to music as one of our fellow artists had been playing some beautiful Hawaiian music cd's during the slow times of the show (by Ledward Kaapala if you're interested). We spoke of various classical composers for a few minutes, music which drives my art most days, by the way. I then mentioned the country music writer/singer Hank Williams, whose music I had only recently come to know, so I wanted to share one of my new "favorites" with others. Well, it was as if a pot of iced water had been poured over us all at the dinner table. Conversation pretty much came to a complete stop, and the after-dinner banter closed and we all left. I cannot help but think that my favorable mention of a country music legend is what stopped the conversation.

In my humble opinion, great music (and other forms of art as well) can come in many, many different forms, styles, levels of sophistication, etc. I found it so sad and disappointing that these "refined" people appeared to find themselves too superior to listen to, and even appreciate, music outside their customary comfort zone. I defy anyone to sit and listen and feel Hank Williams' song "I'm so Lonesome I could Cry" and not feel that this is a small masterpiece in every sense of that word. Okay, 'nuf said! My next entry will be back to my dog paintings.

Affenpinscher Portrait

This is an affenpinscher, which from research I did, is probably of German origin, and means something like "monkey face," and AKC says its face ought to be somewhat "monkey-like," or words similar to that. I don't see it myself. I think it's just a really pretty little dog with a very cute little bottom lip. Anyway, it's 8x10 on hardboard, with 1.5" black inset sides added for hanging. It sells for $150 and is available on my website.

A really, really special beagle painting

I loooove this painting! Sometimes paintings just don't seem to work for me. This one was an exception; the paint just jumped from the brush to the canvas! It's 24x36" acrylic on canvas, 1"-deep black lath-framed, and sells for $500.00, plus shipping. I've also attached a copy of one of my clocks that I make from prints of my paintings. All my clocks are $20 each, plus shipping. All my items are for sale on my website, http://www.dottiedracos.com/.