As Promised, Here's the first of the Cashmere Goat Paintings

Here's "Snowflake."  My granddaughter very aptly named her, I think.  And she's adorable, too, along with the other three:  another white baby, a tan-and-brown one, and a light grey one.

The original acrylic painting is on a 16x20x1/2" stretched canvas, already wired on the back so ready for hanging.

Either the grey or the brown goat will be the next to be painted.  Also, I've come across a beautiful, beautiful Jersey cow, with those enormous, gorgeous eyes, in a field nearby, so I'll be doing a painting of her, too, very soon.

I'm settling in to our new country place, and it feels great to be back painting again.

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.

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

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.