Jackie

It seems that painting animals is my forte. When I paint a dog or a cat, it comes out far better than if I paint a scene, a still life or people.

This dog is named Jackie. She belongs to a friend of mine and last April, she almost lost her. We were in Atlanta working an event, and poor Jackie was at home in Colorado and got deathly ill. Her poor owner, nearly 2000 miles away was beside herself with worry. Who wouldn't be? Fortunately, in the end Jackie got better. But this is the life of people with pets. They get sick. They can't tell us what's wrong and the worst of all, no matter how much we love them, we generally outlive them.

Jackie's mom was kind enough to let me download a photo of her, and this painting is the result. I hope she likes it. I think she should have it while Jackie is still alive, don't you?

Apple Annie's

I created this small (5"x7") painting to commemorate the last days of autumn. Last year a friend of mine and I spent hours looking for an apple orchard. The one we used go to for years had closed and we were determined to find one in that area.

The story is that we decided to one morning to go to the orchard in our old neighborhood, about 30 miles from where we now live. When we found the orchard closed, we thought we would go find some of our other favorite places in the area. Much to our dismay everyone of them were no longer in existance. We spent several hours driving around looking for various businesses and getting very discouraged. And to top it off - we didn't have our apples or our cider yet.

Thank goodness for cell phones. We were in the neighborhood of another friend, and I knew she had a local orchard that she went to. So a phone call to Lynn saved the day as she directed us to Apple Annie's in Brentwood, NH.

Apple Annie's has apples, pies, cider donuts and apple cider that hasn't been pasteurized taking all the good flavor out of it. You can pick your own, or buy them already picked. There are other baked goods, fresh vegetables in season, recipes and lots of other things to make it interesting. The friendly farm dog can be seen eating apples in the yard and the place is very photogenic. It's owned by a couple in their retirement and they are delightful. It's a little off the beaten path but well worth the trip.

Remember the old adage about an apple a day....enjoy!

George's cat

I am still playing with acrylic paints, and apparently, still painting cats! The colors in the photo are not as good as the actual colors of the painting, and I can't rephotograph it as it's already on it's way to the cat's owners.

Putting a pattern in the fabric was easier than I thought it was going to be, and painting all those little round beads turned out to be a lot of fun. If you look closely at the top of the painting you can see that the beads are part of the Christmas tree, with just one light and the tips of a couple of branches showing.

I am grateful to my friends who post their wonderful photos on their Facebook pages and then give me permission to paint them when I ask. For their generosity, they always get first dibs on whatever I do. Of course, there is always the fear that someone will decide that you didn't capture the essence their beloved pet, but I've been very fortunate in that so far, that's only happened once.

The next painting I have planned is of two dogs. The scale will be much larger, I'm thinking 16"x20", whereas the last three cat paintings have been 9"x12". I am also going back to oils on this one. It's going to be a holiday gift, so I need to get started soon.

On another note, my youngest cat has a new game - she loves playing with bubbles. We spend ten minutes once a day with me blowing bubbles and her standing on her hind legs batting at them. This has made me rethink the painting I just finished of her, I think I might add some bubbles. What do you think? Let me know, I'd love to hear from you.

Snuggles, the Gentleman Cat

I finally completed a painting of Snuggles where he doesn't look like he's angry or mad. I think it's because his eyes tend to bug out just a bit. He has the best personality, he's sweet and gentle, and I can't remember the last time he used his claws on a human being, unlike our other two. Even if you are doing something he doesn't like, he never scratches.


He is a beautiful long haired tuxedo cat with a magnificent tail that a skunk would be proud to own.


This was the first painting I tried with my new acrylics (even though it's not the first one posted on the blog). I particularly liked the way the Paynes Grey somehow managed to do it's own shading. I did his entire black coat with the grey, and it streaked the lighter shades pretty much all on it's own, I only had to add a few highlights when I was done.


I added the butterfly a bit later when I decided he needed to be looking at something. I always say that I think he's near sighted as sometimes he seems to not be as confident as the other two when he has to jump from point to point. He thinks about it a lot before he makes the jump, he's really quite tentative. So it made sense for the butterfly to be really close and it shows his gentleness. Although in real life, it wouldn't stand a chance!

Playing with Acrylics

I have been experimenting with acrylic paint for the past week. My subject matter has been cats. The reason for the switch (and it's not permanent) is that I find myself 'making mud' when I overwork the oils and wanted to see if I would be happier with acrylics given their faster drying time.

I have now painted three paintings and the answer is a resounding NO. They set up way to fast and I have a real hard time blending the colors when I want to. So, overall, I'll probably stick with oils for the most part. The acrylics have their place, for instance, today when I wanted to paint on the three season porch. I wasn't worried about making a mess, I just sat in my chair and painted.

The painting above is of Dessie (short for Destiny) when she was just four weeks old. I found her in the middle of a busy intersection one morning last October where someone had thrown her away. She was so small that she didn't really walk very well, and she was so lucky that no one hit her. Adding her to our household was a no-brainer. This was my second painting using acrylics.

In the next couple of days, I'll share the other two cat paintings I have completed this week.