Do Blue Cows Make Green Cheese?

I left the ladies here a few weeks ago.

I picked it up again yesterday.  I have toned it down a bit with two thin washes, one of phthalo blue, and the second of cobalt blue. Then I painted a graded wash of quin. burnt orange form lower left towards upper right. I finally worked out a spot pattern for Les Girls, and have done two thin glazes with a black mixture. Looks like I'll need to do more of the black, and figure out what to do with the background.  

Miss Clementine has had some minor touch-ups, and I have made her available on Daily Paintworks.

It is raining like mad, so no riding today. I might take the lad out for a walk on hand later. And I think I'll have to take a boat into Vancouver to visit my sister. Stay dry. It's only two weeks till the days start getting longer again! YAY!!!  

As always, your comments are most welcome.

SOOO Close but not Quite Finished ...

Here is Clementine right now, with some touches here and there, and some work on her ear. She is not QUITE done, but I had a request from Hilda Muxo, that she couldn't wait for the next post.  :)  So here it is.
Now I want to head out to the barn for a short and sweet ride on Bruno - short because the ground is quite wet and soft, and I don't want him hurting himself or pulling a shoe. Then off to Aldergrove, further east. I had a response to the posters I put up on Sunday, so it may mean another horse portrait.

As always, your comments are wonderful and most welcome!

Miss Clementine Is Almost There ...

 Here is where she is now.

Same stage, just different lighting and editing. It seems to make her coat colors more realistic. I am still not thrilled with editing photos of paintings. I recently had a friend mention that watercolors always look much better in real life than in a photo. Hmmm???
I am thinking of putting a soft w/w wash around her as a background, using a pink- and a blue-gray.

As always, your comments are most welcome.

I Was Swept Away by Clementine ... WIP

This is Tiberius, a somewhat grand name for a rather small-in-stature Pug. But what he lacks in size, he makes up in attitude. I was over at his home, taking photos of the owner's Highland cattle, and I couldn't resist taking some shots of Tiberius. This was painted about five years ago.

While driving off to get some groceries, I saw Mike and Tiberius out walking with the new kid, an English Bulldog.  Her name is Clementine. She is extremely friendly, and most photogenic. I've been looking at her photo for a week or two, and finally had to do a sketch yesterday, and start painting her today. This is probably about 1/4 of the way done.

As always, your comments are so welcome!

Rolling Along ...

The girls are coming along nicely. The masking is off, and I have placed some shadows on the cows.

The portrait is looking suitably weird. It seems all portraits [paintings, too, I suppose] go through this incredibly strange-looking phase, and I am definitely there!

I've also been busy making posters to take to some of the large boarding barns and riding facilities, advertising my availability to do commissions.

As always, your comments are most welcome.

And if any of you are interested in a painting, please contact me. 

Alive & Well & Still Painting ...

I started off a small color and compositional study ...

... and reached this point, which I like. This is only a 5 x 7 inch study, but I think it captures the idea I wanted to express about knowledge, the church, and the time frame of the early 14th c. I will get to a larger, more finished, and hopefully more impressive piece in the future.

I also started a small [5 x 7 inch] goose. Not thrilled, but I'll see what I can do to improve it.

This summer, I took some photos of an acquaintance. She has the most beautiful red-head coloring - just gorgeous! However, as soon as you point a camera in her direction, her expression becomes that of a deer caught in headlights. ACK! Not easy to photograph at all! Above is my 1st attempt at painting her. I didn't like how it was coming along, so I have started again, using a different technique than the last one.

I have started very w/w, with the board at quite an angle to encourage paint flow. I am also using a different palette. It looks more promising.

Earlier this week, I sold one of my goose paintings. The  buyer is a fellow blogger, and she left me a note saying she LOVED my cow painting, so I sent that along with the goose. Above is another version on the same theme that I have just started.

As always, your comments are most welcome!

ALWAYS on the Day before I Have to Go the Office ...

I decided to psychedelicize the wasp ...

This is another oldie I would like to re-work. I'd keep the same composition, but change the colors.

And another one that is crying to be re-done. This is from my botanical stage. :)

Still working on detailed sketch.

Possible values for background

More of my scribbled sketching

It seems the day before I head to the office, my mind is full of ideas that I want to paint. After a day slaving over hot mouths, so to speak, I am too drained to do any decent painting, so it's a bit frustrating.
The sketches are for a landscape I'd like to do, inspired by the movie "The Name of the Rose". I LOVED it - the scenery, the characters, the plot, the time period ...  I would call the era the end of the Dark Ages, still very grim, but with some intellectual light peeking through. The protagonist is a rebel, almost a heretic, and the story revolves around several mysterious and bizarre murders at an abbey. It brings in aspects of medieval peasant and religious life, religious schisms so prevalent in the era, the Inquisition, and many other sub-plots. All is set in the depths of winter, in an isolated abbey in northern Italy. The scenery and cinematography are fabulous! Parts were filmed at the Rocca di Calascio in the Abruzzo region of Italy. It is this bleakness and darkness, yet with a glimmer of light, that I will be trying to portray.

As always, your comments are most welcome. :)