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!

Speaking French

I've been noticing something recently that bothers me:  I have many friends who want to go to France, as I'm doing, but who are afraid.  They don't know the language, they might get lost, lonely, have their pockets picked, etc., etc.  Well, I share the fears above, all except for one:  I have worked on learning the language for years -- and for the most part, I've done it with no formal instruction.  And I'm not bragging here; I'm telling you that it can be done!  (Well, I guess I'm bragging a bit because, by golly, I've worked very hard at learning this language!)

I do admit that over twenty years ago, I lived in Toulouse, France, for nearly two years while I did some graduate studies in neuroscience.  However, when I went there, I had had no French language education at all -- well, except for about three weeks right before I left, which only made matters worse, not better, because those pitiful three little weeks gave me a false confidence that I knew at least something.  But here was the problem when I arrived there all those years ago:  I could ask where is something or other --- BUT when the other person responded, I had absolutely no clue about what they were saying!!  I bought a French language textbook before I went; and after I got there, I studied it every day, every chance I got.  And I got by.  That's all I did for at least the first year; I got by.  And I might add, too, that almost no one that I knew spoke more than just a few words in English, too, so I didn't have that "out."  I found out, too, that hand signals were powerful and that I could live with making a fool of myself, very often!  I got by.

After having been back in the USA for nearly twenty years, except for occasional European visits, I didn't study French at all until just two or three years ago.  Then I decided I was getting old and that I wanted to complete what I had started all those years ago.  But still being stubborn and wanting to do everything my own way, I decided, once again, to go it alone.  So I started reading everything I could in the French language.  That meant, of course, that I had to have a dictionary beside me at all times and that I spent more time studying the dictionary than figuring out what the heck I was reading.  And I'm not talking simple books, either:  To this day, one of my favorite French authors is Emile Zola.  I struggled with his novels, one after another, for many, many months at a time, each one.  Not only did I not know the words, but I couldn't even understand the sentence constructions.  But slowly, v e r y    s l o w l y, things started to fall into place.  Progress was very difficult even to measure for many months at a time.  But then it really began to pick up speed.  Today, I read without a dictionary present -- except for the occasional word I need to know.  I found out, too, that I didn't have to look up every single word, even back when I wasn't understanding much at all, because I could get the gist of the story -- and I could learn many high-use words by context after a while.

More recently, (in the past year), I upped the demands on myself.  I got a TV5Monde, French language, subscription so that I can watch French (nearly) TV every day.  I say "nearly" because much of it is subtitled, and I find that subtitles are counter-productive.  Even before the TV5Monde, I had discovered France Inter radio station online, and I listen to it anytime I'm painting, for instance.  (I especially like the channel "France Culture.")

I'll continue this discussion over the next couple of weeks and hope some of you chime in.  Are you studying French?   How do you study?  Do you have any tricks you can share?  Is not knowing the language of a country you love preventing you from doing something you want to do but are too afraid to do?   (I love the French culture, the food, the language, the people, the land, everything!)

A sweet Irish setter painting I finished a few days ago

This is a painting I did of a dog I knew many, many years ago.  Her name was Sean, and she belonged to a dear friend of mine.  I've always thought she was a beautiful dog, and I have intended to paint her for years -- and finally got around to it.  She was a real sweetie.

A Dachshund Painting I think I failed to post

 This is a fun painting I did a few months ago and I'm pretty sure forgot to post.  I call it "Doxie Field of Dreams."  It's an acrylic painting on a 24x30" (3/4"-deep sides, no staples) of a black-and-tan dachshund seemingly flying over a grassy field.  Actually, the dachshund wasn't really flying (really!!) but was moving along at a really fast clip and was caught by the camera as all four feet were off the ground.  A happier dog I haven't seen in a very long time, and I think it well reflects the vivacity and energy of this small dog breed.

The original (as well as prints) are available at my Etsy shop (see the tab at the top of this page, or click here to go directly to my Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/DottieDracos.  I also have the original at the Portland Saturday Market if you live in or are visiting the area and want to see it "up close and personal."  Do be sure to let me know if you're coming to the market to see it because I'm taking a little time off from the market over the next few weeks, and I would want to be sure to be there so you could see it.  The prints, both 8x10 and 11x14, have been slightly cropped to accomodate the different size ratio.  Here's an example of the print:

Holstein Cow, Standing, on Blue Background

This is a sweet painting I just finished yesterday afternoon.  She's a Holstein cow that I saw on my neighbor's field when I lived in Denmark last summer.  I couldn't decide on a background, and I love this color of blue that I had put down just to eliminate the white canvas color as I painted, so I decided to enhance it and keep it.  I like the look, modern but classical.

The painting is acrylic, on a stretched 16x20x3/4" canvas, and has been sold.

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!

Hereford Cow at Tillamook, OR

This is a small cow painting I just finished today of a Hereford cow that I photographed in Tillamook, OR, near the cheese factory there.  It was a fun, beautiful day, and I photographed a lot of farm animals, many of which I've already painted.  This girl was really suspicious of me and my camera but curious enough that I managed to get a few shots of her before she took off to a safe distance.

I'm going back to the Coast next week, so I'll be getting some more good images to be painting.

Pit Bull Puppy Painting

This is a painting of a little pit bull puppy that I just finished yesterday.  It looks just like one I used to have, named Edwin.  This little guy's name is Charlie, and he's one of the paintings I've done for someone who knows that I don't like to do custom, commissioned paintings but that I will paint your dog for you, but I get to make all the decisions -- and I charge less.  Otherwise, it's just like a commissioned painting, but the pressure for me has been lightened, not removed, just lightened.  I don't guarantee to paint every photo submitted to me, but I do my very best to do so.  

The person whose dog this is chose to purchase the painting, but there is no obligation to purchase anything at all from me.  I just need good images of dogs to paint, and I don't have the time to go out and find dogs to photograph and paint on my own all the time.  So it's a win-win situation for all of us.

Hope you like this one.  I think pit bulls are such beautiful dogs.  Headstrong, yes.  Mean, no more than any other dog I've ever had -- which in my case is never, never, never.   You've heard it a million times, and it's true:  Mean or bad dogs come from mean or bad owners.  And the reverse is true, too.

Holstein Cow on Blue, No. 14 of 30 Daily Paintings

The following paragraph is by my sweet son-in-law, Mark, who is helping me out a bit with my online work so I can spend more time painting!

"This is a painting of a Holstein Cow, which originated in the Netherlands. It is today the most efficient dairy producing animal in the world, and in my opinion, also one of the cutest!
Holsteins have been known to be all black, all white, a mix of the two, or even red and white, which is slightly less common than the traditional black and white mix. Their reason for import to the US was due to disease spreading amongst the cattle, and 8800 Holstein cows were imported to the new world, where they, obviously, flourished to become the most efficient species of dairy cows currently in existence."

I think he did a great job - and he's helping me immensely!  Mark, if you read this, thanks so much!

The painting is a small one, 8x10" on stretched canvas, with 3/4" sides, painted blue.  The back is wired, so the painting is ready to hang, either framed or unframed.  This cow is another one I got sketches and photos of on my fairly recent trip to the dairy farms around Tillamook, Oregon, on the Pacific Coast -- well, a bit inland, I guess, but you can certainly feel the sea air around there.  It's available for sale on my website, and here's the link for it - and other farm animal paintings I've done:  http://wildwildthings.com/originalsgalleryFARM.html.

I'm now working on a larger painting, which is going to take at least three days to finish.  I'm really enjoying it so far.  It's an Australian shepherd, a tricolor, sent to me by a dog-lover.  He has several Aussies and I'm going to try to paint all of them over time.  I'll post the painting in just a few more days.

Oregon Junco Bird Art Painting, Daily Painting No. 10

Okay, I'm moving along at a better pace now.  This is my tenth painting, a painting of a little male Oregon junco, a subspecies of the dark-eyed junco, a species of the American sparrow.  They are prevalent in my home state of Oregon, and over a large part of the Northwest as well.  As I've been trying to do paintings in and about Oregon, I've been researching some of the wildbirds commonly seen here.  This little guy -- and his friends -- plays outside my house in some bare bushes.  They are amazingly tiny and so much fun to watch!

The original painting is available on my website, http://www.dottiedracos.com.  It's an acrylic painting on an 8x10x3/4" canvas, with the sides painted the same color as the background.  It's wired to hang immediately, either with or without a frame.

I have twenty paintings to go in my Daily Painting self-challenge, and I do feel that I'm finally starting to benefit greatly from my challenge.  One of the things I've most learned about is using my palette more wisely.  In the past, I included way too many colors of paint straight out of the tubes instead of mixing my own colors.  With this bird, I had a palette of three colors:  phthalocyanine blue (cyan blue), magenta, Naples yellow, plus white.  So I had a lot of mixing to do, but I feel I am really getting to know the properties of each color I use now.  It's amazing to me how many wonderful colors, including a dark purplish black, that I can create with just these three colors.

Border Collie on Green, Number 6 in Daily Painting Series

This is the sixth painting in my 30-day/30-paintings daily personal challenge.  It's another border collie (and there will be more border collies to come as another person has submitted photos to me of his border collies), and this one is on a green background.  Also, this one has erect ears.  I read up on their ears, and AKC, the ruler of all things pure dog, says that the ears can be either erect, as these are, fully hanging down, or partially hanging down.  So, there you have it on border collie ears.

I'm finally beginning to see a bit of progress in my paintings - horray!  This intensive work schedule for me is so far quite grueling, gut I'm so happy that I feel I'm finally beginning to benefit from it.  I don't want to say too much, though, because although I'm not superstitious, I don't want to jinx things -- just joking.  But I don't want to get overconfident and in a way mess myself up, either.

Let's just let it stay at I feel I'm beginning to feel as if I'm making some progress in what I'm trying to achieve with this project.

As with all these project originals, this one is for sale at my website, http://www.dottiedracos.com, either as a print or as the original painting.

Dark Grey Cat on Light Yellow background, Daily No. 3

This is the third painting in my daily painting series, and it was a challenge for me.  I realize after having painted a couple of cats lately that I didn't know the anatomy of a cat's head well enough.  So since I have quite a few models both in my own house and in my neighborhood, I've been doing a lot of sitting around, studying cats' heads.  My own cats probably think I'm pretty weird because, being a very tactile learner, I have held their little heads in my hands and felt all over them to feel the skull under all that hair and muscle.  They probably thought they were getting strange but nice head massages - no one complained or tried to leave.  Anyway, now I feel a little more comfortable about the head anatomy and am ready to tackle more cat paintings in the near future.

Still on the topic of my daily paintings, I am finding myself becoming more knowledgeable of my brushes and even my paints.  It's amazing:  I've painted for quite a number of years now, just blithely going along, grabbing whatever brush was handy and whatever in-the-ballpark paint color I needed.  Now, I'm actually (yes, I know belatedly) studying the properties of said brushes and paints.  I even did a very simple color chart of all the paints I have and actually studied their properties.  (I have a lot!!! to learn.)  And brushes, they're finally beginning to make sense to me.

My family, on the other hand, are beginning to be concerned, I think, about all the time I'm spending locked up in my studio.  Wow, 30 days is going to be a lot longer than I expected it would be.

Day before yesterday, I did take a wonderful break, though.  My daughter, son-in-law, and little granddaughter and I took a beautiful hike on one of the "Rails-to-Trails" paths fairly near where we all live.  (It was near Vernonia here in Oregon, and I'll be happy to provide exactly where it was if anyone is interested.)  It was beautiful, and I took lots of photos with the hopes of doing a landscape from some of them.  There was an old train trestle, the top of which had been converted into a footbridge, but the old beam and timber supporting structure still stood.  It was amazing to be able to study the intricate way it had been put together.  We had a long discussion about all the workers it must have taken to build it, and out in the middle of a forest, too.

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.

Another Day in Denmark

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.

A Sweet Female Bernese Mountain Dog Painting

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. 

Where does the time go!!

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.

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

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.

German Shorthaired Pointer by Lake

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.

Another Pretty Kitty Cat!

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).