Alpaca painting

Once again, I've been remiss at getting my posts up, and I'll really, really, really try harder to do so from now on.  Summer has been here; and although I have been painting regularly, I've also been busy with gardening, playing with my granddaughter, visiting with the rest of my family, attending Portland Saturday Market regularly now!  Well, as you can see, I've been busy.

This is one of the paintings I've finished recently:  a little alpaca, or also called a vicuña.  They're related to the llama and the camel but are smaller and awfully cute.  It's just one more of my farm-animal paintings I've been doing lately.  I'm still really enjoying doing them and even went to the Oregon State Fair yesterday and took a ton of photos (most of them awful!!) that I hope to get a few more farm animal paintings made from.    (I never thought about how the animals are in stalls and not sitting prettily in fields.  I'll see what I can do with them, though.  If they don't work, I guess I'll have to go back out into the country and see what I can find.)

If you have any photos of farm animals that you wouldn't mind if I use for paintings, I would really appreciate it if you could send some to me, dottiedracos@gmail.com (my new email address for the time being at least).  I'll give you a free 8x10 print of the painting if I do use one of your photos.

I've been making a few other changes lately, too.  I'm dropping my website of 16 years because -- well, for various reasons.  Some of the more important ones are:  one, the software provided with it doesn't work very well and crashes frequently; two, I've been having trouble getting my shopping cart to work correctly (that led to disasterous results recently); three, I feel I'm being ignored by the webhost; and, lastly, I'm being charged a much higher monthly rate than the current monthly rate for my level of hosting service - and cannot get the webhost to respond or to lower my monthly fee.  (The hosting service, by the way, is Yahoo; so at this time I certainly wouldn't recommend them to anyone just starting a website or thinking of switching.)

Back to work now on my latest painting, a long-haired dachshund that someone at Portland Saturday Market graciously allowed me to photograph and paint.  He's a beauty; can't wait to see how he finishes up.

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.

English Bulldog Painting - just finished today

This is the sweet little English bulldog painting I mentioned yesterday; I worked all morning on it to finish it, and I really like it.  It's light, not too serious, has an all-around happy look about it.  It feels good to get one kind of right again.

Still working - on an English Bulldog

I'm still working on an English bulldog that I promised someone months ago.  I expect to finish it tomorrow, so I'll post it then.

Life has gotten too complicated again lately, but not in a really bad way.  It's more of a time-management problem than anything else.  So with that in mind, my daughter and I have agreed that there are certain times during the day that I absolutely, positively must not be disturbed.  Those are my painting hours (and other work, too, of course).  I can already tell a difference in my painting time; it's becoming more productive.  And I'm hoping that we'll all have more quality time together as a result, too.

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!

Three Little Piggies

This is a sweet little painting I finished yesterday.  It's just three little pigs, hanging around.  I did it just for fun, and it was fun!  I'm finishing another one today that I did for fun, too, and it'll be listed just after this one.  I think I'm on a farm kick.  But then I have to get back and finish a few promised paintings, too.  I'm painting again!  That makes me really happy.

This painting is, by the way, an acrylic painting on a 16x20x3/4" stretched canvas and has been sold.

Grand Canyon Kaibab Trail on North Rim, Mules and Rider

I'm finally getting some work done again.  I mentioned this painting in a previous posting, and here it is.  It took forever, but I'm pretty happy with the final results.

This painting is created from photos I took when my daughter, Lara, and I went camping on the north rim of Grand Canyon and took a trek down the Kaibab Trail to the bottom.  It was exhausting and exhilirating.  I took these photos of a rider bringing three mules and some supplies out of the bottom.

I must say:  Landscapes are much, much harder than they might seem.  But I'm hooked!  I'm still going to paint dogs, cats, and other animals, but I'm definitely going to pursue more landscape paintings.

Following this listing, I'm going to be listing two more paintings I have recently finished, one just today, in fact.

Yes, I am Alive

I'm still having problems painting, but I'm still working on it.  Unfortunately, I spent nearly a month working on a single much-too-difficult-for-me landscape painting, which I'll build up my nerve and post in the next few days.  It's a painting from some photos I took of a Grand Canyon trip I took quite a few years ago and had meant to paint someday.  I've only recently started doing landscape paintings, and I have a lot (a really LOT) to learn, it turns out.  I had no idea there were so many different greens!!!

Also, if anyone is interested, I am back at Portland Saturday Market again; so if you're going down there, check with the information booth (the red booth near the fountain at the "entrance" to the market) to find out where my booth is, and stop by and say hi.  It's good to be back down there, and I hope just again being among people who like my work will give me more confidence in my painting.  I did sell a large original painting last weekend, so that helped my ego a lot, I must say.

Haystack Rock, Oregon Coast, Painting

This is a painting of Haystack Rock, just off the Oregon coast, at Cannon Beach.  My family and I went there a few months ago and couldn't have chosen a better day to go.  Plus, it was a bit late in the day, so we stayed until sunset.  I sketched and photographed the scene depicted in this painting just as the sun was setting.  It was so beautiful, and I've done my best to communicate the peacefulness, calm, and beauty of that special evening.  Hope you like it.

As I've mentioned before, I'm not stopping doing dog and other animal paintings, but I certainly do want to throw a landscape into the mix every chance I get, too.  It was a bit intimidating to tackle this one, but I'm quite pleased with the results.  Hope I can do it again with my next landscape!

Curious Horse, Paint Bay in Stall 11x14 Painting

This is one of my most favorite paintings I've done.  I went with my daughter out to the barn where she rides these days; and while she rode, I visited with the other horses in their stalls, sketching them and just talking to them.  This particular horse really got my attention, though; he was really friendly and curious about what I was doing.  Anyway, I did this painting from the sketches and photos I shot that day.  It was a really fun painting to do.  It's an acrylic painting on an 11x14x3/4" stretched canvas and will be available on my website as well as other venues.

Australian Cattle Dog "Mr. Redneck"

This is Mr. "Redneck."  I painted him for a customer a few days ago.  She said he's more popular than she is and that he has one of the best personalities she's ever seen.  I can see that personality not only in this painting but in the other photographs she sent to me.

I am currently working on a different painting -- it's not a dog!!  But it is a horse.  My daughter, who is a dressage rider, asked me to accompany her and my little granddaughter to the barn where she rides a few days ago, and I did lots of sketches and took some really great photos.  This painting is coming out of these sketches and photos.  It should be done in a couple more days, and the original will be available on my website.

Australian Shepherd, "Aussie," Tricolored, with blue eyes 11x14x3/4" on canvas

Here's a painting I just finished of a really beautiful Australian shepherd.  She is part of a family of humans and dogs belonging to a friend of mine, and he kindly gave me photos for me to use in paintings.  (Thanks again, Chris.  Two down, two to go!)

It's an 11x14" original acrylic painting on stretched 3/4"-deep canvas and is available for sale at my website.

Basset Hound Puppy Sitting in Field

I really enjoyed doing this painting.  It took me way, way, way too long to paint, but I enjoyed it so much that I took my time.  Some paintings are like that.

Once again, I need to try to paint a little faster - I do have bills to pay, unfortunately - but sometimes I do enjoy really slowing down and savoring each blob of paint I add and work into just the right place.

This painting is an acrylic painting on 11x14x3/4" stretched canvas.  The sides have no staples and are painted the same color as the green and blue background, so it can be hung either unframed or framed, as you wish.

Pygmy Goat on Green Field Painting

This is a painting I finished yesterday.  It's a pygmy goat, who I'm sure is thinking about what she's going to eat next -- the newly planted flowers or the beautiful small pink dogwood tree that I loved so much.  I've had a few of these little adorable and frustrating creatures back when I had a horse farm and lived out in the country, and every day I altered from wanting to make them wear a sign that said, "Free, take me," to hugging them for making me laugh so hard.  And, yes, the one we had the very longest, Sophie, really did eat my poor little dogwood down to a stump -- and my forsythia and all my flowers -- and then went and danced on my beloved Porsche.  And that was all in just one day!

Anyway, the painting is acrylic on an 11x14x3/4" stretched canvas, with the sides painted green, so is ready to hang with or without a frame.  It's available at my website, http://www.dottiedracos.com.  I really like this painting and enjoyed doing it.  Hope you do, too.

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.