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.

Back in the USA

(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.