54 Donald Street - work in progress

Way too much glare on this photo due to wet paint, but I promise a better one when it's done.

Early this spring, I had occasion to walk down a street where I usually just drive. This gave me the opportunity to admire the gardens and plantings along the way. This particular garden struck me because of the chair holding the bucket of geraniums, and the sun on the back wall. The chair was the same color as the wall, and I so wanted to remove it from the garden and paint it color that would show it off. But since it was not my garden, and I am sometimes a sensible human being, I just kept walking.

About a month later I went back with may camera and spent some time photographing the garden from the street. It had lots of wonderful elements in it like the boots and the planter off to the side, but as a painting it was going to need more.

Over the past few months, I have been observing gardens along the way and have grabbed quick camera phone snapshots of various elements that I think will work in making this garden still life. And as I paint, I have added items straight from my imagination, like the shrub on the right and the ivy on the left which I felt was needed to balance the painting. More flowers to come, more detail everywhere and a lot more time to be spent on developing shadows, reflections and highlights. But I though you might like to see that I am still painting. It's taking me longer as I am working on larger pieces and only get a couple of hours a few days a week.

My painting today was cut short by one female cat who jumped up and walked through the ultramarine blue paint. I thought I grabbed her in time, but when I put her down, I discovered that she was tracking dark blue paint with one paw. And of course, now she had to be caught, and the goop in between her toes was scaring her so she didn't want to be caught.

Thanks to help from hubby, he managed to capture her and hold her while I cleaned up the paint on the floors. Then it was off to the kitchen to try to get the paint off the cat. I knew I couldn't use turp, so I grabbed my container of Master's Brush Cleaner which is water based. After lots of soaping, scrubbing and rinsing we finally got to a point where no more paint was coming off on the towel, although her white fur is light blue on that foot. I was absolutely amazed how still she held during the entire process. Cats hate it when you touch their feet, and she doesn't like to be held for more than 30 seconds at a time. We gave her lots of praise when it was over, and she doesn't seem to be any worse for the wear. She also isn't trying to lick the foot, so I am comfortable that she won't be ingesting stuff that's bad for her from this adventure. And that's life here on the hill, one adventure after another.