Portrait of Belle

I never tire of doing pet portraits. This is Belle, a recent commission I completed. It is actually part one of a two part commission and I am currently working on the companion piece, Betsy. I will post Besty shortly.

I Am Back

I am back, finally. Its been a long recovery period for my husband and he still has two more weeks before he can be left alone. I will be right here with him, so may not open the gallery before Dec. 10th. I am feeling the effects of Art Withdrawl.......becoming very bummed over the forced confinement. I am catching up on my art reading, but that just makes me crave the studio even more. I go into the studio here at our home, but can't get motivated like when I am at the Ice House. No sooner do I start something, than I have to stop and help the hubby. Oh well, thats the price we pay for true love.

I thought I would share this drawing in charcoal on blue Canson paper and heightened with white conte. I did it for a competition for a chance to do a posthemous portrait of the Colonel. I did not win, but actually I did. I think just the act of getting a good likeness was a fair prize for me.

Gallery and Blog Downtime

I will not be updating my blog for a while and I am closing the Ice House Gallery from Nov. 16 til Dec. 10th. My husband is having surgery and I will be focused totally on his recovery during this time.

So for my parting pic......my new granddaughter, Izzy. Thats our nickname for her. You can see her father is one proud papa.

I hope you have a very delicious and peaceful Thanksgiving.

My New Friend Daffy

This beautiful Sharp Shinned Hawk has flown into my dinning room window twice now. The first time, I ran out and picked him up out of the bushes before the cats could get to him. I then remembered my husband telling me how much damage this type hawk can inflict on a human. The beak alone would disable me, imagine what the talons would do. So before he regained consciousness, I placed him on top of my flower pot tower and watched as he revived and flew off. About half an hour. Guess what? I was so excited, I forgot to get pictures.

So yesterday, Daffy was at it again. Flew into the window and landed as you see here in the bush below. This time, I grabbed the camera and turned him over onto his feet, soothingly whispered to him and kept guard until he could fly off again. He did not seem to mind my touching him a bit, but all the same I was careful to not excite him. In the photo of my hand, remember that whatever is closer to the camera is going to look larger. My hand is actually about half as large as the bird and it took two hands to totally surround and hold him. I think he is probably a bit larger than the crows we have around here and much larger than a blue jay.

We now leave the dinning room light on when it is overcast or dawn. At those times of day, the trees across the road reflect into the window of the dark dinning roon and appears like sky that the birds can fly into.

Mini Show Ends

The miniatures show has officially ended as of yesterday. I will spend the next week, boxing and shipping artwork back to artists and to our clients who purchased artworks. I am pleased to report that even in this bad economy the sales at our gallery were still strong. We hung 149 paintings this year. Last year we hung 183. This year we sold 22 paintings as opposed to 28 last year.

I have the Rappahannock Artists' Studio Tour coming up on November 6 & 7 and must have all the miniatures out of the gallery and a new show hung for this show weekend. Its a huge amount of work and a very long weekend with long hours. Because of the limited space at the gallery, I can't store artwork there and must transport my work from home for each new show.

I am always dreaming of a larger gallery/studio. How about you?

We are Grandparents

This morning at around 4:30, my first grandchild was born. A little girl who weighed in at 8lbs. 15 oz. No name as of yet. Both mother and daugther are doing fine, the dad survived also. We are on top of the world today.

Focus or Fail

My new slogan is "Focus or Fail". I find that when I am distracted by life going on outside of the studio, ie family, e-mails, or non art errands, my work fails to be worthwhile. I just spent the weekend, totally immersed in my miniatures work at the gallery. I do not and will not have a computer there and I was surrounded by beautiful miniatures, talking to clients about miniatures, selling miniatures (9 this weekend) and working on a miniature. It turned out beautiful and I am so pleased with it. I was focused and it showed in my work.

Photos will follow shortly.