Butters

Hi Folks,

It’s been quiet on the painting front since returning home from my residency, but I’ve been busy in other areas of life. Honest.

Go visit multicraftual.wordpress.com if you are interested in crafting and want to watch my friend Liby and I in a new video podcast. We yammer on about crafting, we sing songs and put knitted garments on her cat pancake etc. Pancake is a star. The podcast is worth watching just for his expressions.

Crafting podcasts (and there are many: dramatic knits, stockinette zombies, 90% Knitting, the knit girllls, whatcha swatchin, yarnivore, craftstash, to name just a few) are most often watched while engaged in knitting or crocheting yourself. As I recently explained to my mother, it is not meant to be captivating in the same way a tv show or movie is… rather, it is like sitting down with friends to knit and gab together. That is the best I can explain it.

In other news, the Brit (husband) and I are gearing up for a move into a new home July 1st. Same town. Portales. It means “porches” in Spanish. We like it.

The move means less time in the future with the neighborhood cat Butters. Since I got back from residency, Butters has been visiting me every morning for pats and scritches. His meow is a scratchy pathetic sound like something from a dying animal. But he is nevertheless quite talkative and affectionate. I will miss him (and frequently walk through our old neighborhood just to visit him).

Butters, mi amigo

on the porch

Wouldn’t you like to be Elsewhere?

Here is a postcard I made recently to accompany a residency application to Elsewhere in Greensboro, NC. Check it out, it looks like a fabulous place. Oh, and wish me luck!

Here is the front of my postcard:

Elsewhere, mixed media on paper, 5 x 6"

And here is the back:

Back of postcard, mixed media on paper, 5 x 6"

The county fair is here! Along with a vampire cat…

I’m entering some paintings and photos in the county fair tomorrow. I don’t think I would have thought to enter except I was told they have a new category this year for professional artists and well, can you really resist participating in a fair? Animals of all sizes, all the best (worst-for-your-heart) food, plenty of lit-up rides to make you want to vomit… and then all the pies and cakes and crafts to oogle. I’m having a flash-back of the fairs I attended each year growing up. The only difference now is that I have to worry about a tooth filling or crown coming out in one of those candy apples…

Here’s one of the photos I’m entering. I took it of my friend’s aunt’s cat. Gotta love cats with fangs! I’m not making fun… too much. I think she’s gorgeous, fangs and all.

And a side-note: there’s an event in the fair called a “pig chase” in which participants can enter in these age categories: pre-school, 5 year olds, 6 year olds, 7 year olds or 8 year olds. I am most excited to attend, for I imagine I get to watch pre-schoolers chase a pig? Or maybe the pig chases the pre-schoolers? I simply can’t wait.

Vampire Cat, photograph

New Work!

I haven’t posted in a while but there are plenty of new works (and some old ones too) posted on my website! Go check it out. I’ve added some new galleries as well as some new works to some of the existing galleries.

Below is a snapshot of my new “Commissions” gallery on my website.

I do many pet portraits, house and property portraits and any other sentimental still life or landscapes you can think of. The majority of the commissions I do are for friends or family of the purchaser. They make great thoughtful gifts.

 

Commissions, various media

Not a bird but…

I don’t have a bird painting for you today, but I didn’t think you’d be upset because I have a sketch of a chihuahua in a car. It’s just rough but really, how could that possibly disappoint, right? Right. Chihuahua… heh.

Chihuahua Being Patient at the Corner Store, watercolour and ink/paper, 3.5 x 7"

Let us stick with the bird theme for at least another post…

Hens, watercolour media on paper, 4 x 6"

Some friends

Pair of Pigeons, watercolour and graphite on paper, 4 x 6

Visit to the farm

There are few things better than having a friend with a hobby farm. You get to visit all the pretty and often hilarious animals (making special visits when they have baby chicks and ducklings to come pet) and you don’t have to deal with all the chores every day. Best of all, the animals you visit and paint and pet don’t get sent off to become burgers the next month. My friend has a rooster. This is him.

Cocky but Curious, watercolour and ink on paper, 4 x 6"

Still in the sun

Oh this sun. What can I say… here:

Spotty in the Sun, oil on canvas, 10 x 10"

Portrait of a ranch hand

Goggs Ranch, oil on canvas, 18 x 24"