Good Morning, Goats!

Can you just imagine the conversation as their farmer opens the barn door?

FARMER: Good morning, goats!

GRUMPY IN THE BACK RIGHT: It's about time!

FLOPPY EARS IN THE BACK LEFT: You're late!

CUTE KID IN THE FRONT: Hurray!  A new day! Let's go!

MOMMA IN THE MIDDLE: Did you bring the food? 

OLD GOAT SMIRKING ON THE SIDE: Y'all know I go first, right?

I was scrolling along through Instagram when this image flipped by. Wait!  Go back! I love this!  I looked at it a long time... took a screenshot of it... kept going back to look at it again.  Finally I got up the courage to send a direct message to @birches_hobby_farm to ask permission to paint their fabulous goats.

Every once in a while an image does that.  It tells a story and begs to have that story put on canvas.

When I learned that my painting challenge for the week was "Something Old, Something New,"  I decided to make it work! Yippee! There's an old goat and a baby goat. It fits!

Original Oil Painting on 16"x 16" Wrapped Canvas

I'm going to love having this on my own wall while it waits for its forever home.  Click Good Morning, Goats! if you'd like to purchase this painting.

That's Just Ducky!

Don't you just want to listen in on their conversation!!

• Bottom Right just asked a simple question.
• Middle can't believe she'd even ask such a thing!
• Front Left agrees with everything Middle says.
• Top Right does not want to get involved this time!
• Back Left is late to the meeting... again!

The image of these ducks deep in conversation has made me chuckle since I first saw it. 

I "met" these particular ducks inside a blog called Chickens in the Road. They lived on a farm in West Virginia along with lots of chickens, some goats, a few sheep, dogs, cats, a couple of donkeys, a milk cow, and a farmer named Suzanne.

In the days after I broke the two lower bones in my right arm, I had a lot... really a lot... of time that I couldn't do much of anything but click and scroll with my left hand and read on the computer.  That may sound dreadful, but during those days I got to thoroughly enjoy every bit of Chickens in the Road from the early posts of 2005 to the recent ones of 2019. 


I suppose I don't know any ducks personally, but oh, how I have always loved Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, Quack, and of course, Mr. & Mrs. Mallard!

Make Way for Ducklings was written over 75 years ago, but I have a feeling that my grandchildren will love it as much as my kids did and as much as I did... still do!

A few years ago, we'd been on a trip and were to fly home from the Boston airport. We had allowed ourselves one extra day there, but I'm such a not-city person. I'm sure there are dozens of museums, historical monuments, and not-to-be-missed sights to see.  But, there was only one place that I wanted to go... Boston Public Garden.  

I might have cried a little when I saw Mrs. Mallard and her 8 ducklings.

Even the Swan Boat was there!

I might have cried again to see a real Mrs. Mallard with her ducklings.

Ducks just make me smile... well, and cry... but mostly smile. 😊

Thank you to Suzanne McMinn of  Chickens in the Road for letting me use her photo as a reference for this painting.

Original Oil Painting on 11"x 14" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Who's the G.O.A.T?

Who's the Greatest Of All Time?

• Garth? or George?
• Kermit? or Mickey?
• LeBron? or Michael?
• Tom? or Peyton?
• The Beatles? or The Eagles?
• Michelangelo? or DaVinci?
• Dolly? or Taylor?
• Dr. Seuss? or... Well... no one comes close there...

Ok... that little exercise had nothing to do with these guys, but it was fun to come up some G.O.A.T.s for the list.  

These 3.5 goats were my dad's neighbors a few years ago.  The teenager who lived next door to him raised goats for his 4-H project.  They were funny and friendly. And who doesn't love a funny goat!

So... if you're wondering about the 1/2 goat on the left... When I was taking the picture of the other three, he literally butted in and photo bombed the shot.  

I worked on and "finished" the painting without him, but I never felt satisfied with the painting as a whole.  My painting partner / daughter-in-law said, "Put that other half a goat in!!" Turns out he's the star of the show... the G.O.A.T!

Original Oil Painting on 14"x 18" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

We'll Just Have Salad

How important is the title?

I've gotten good advice from people who sell a lot of paintings about naming pieces.  I understand that the goal is to get your art seen.  I understand that when people go to Google they type in Cow Painting or whatever subject they're looking for.  I understand that my pieces would probably be seen more and sell more quickly if I'd give them titles to sell. 
Oh, but how I love to choose the just-right title!  Sometimes I know the title before I begin.  Sometimes I try out several throughout the process of painting.  Sometimes I get it about the time I sign my name in the bottom corner.  This time... nothing stuck... Two Cows... Black and Brown Cows... Flossy and Bossy... After I'd finished and was cleaning my brushes, my husband got his first look and said, "Wow!  I love it.  I love the grass hanging out of their mouths.  It's like they're out to lunch and you've bothered them. 'We'll just have the salad, thanks.'" And just like that "Two Cows" had a title that I loved!

[SOLD]

Little Gray Donkey

Who's that next door?

Meet LeRoy.  
LeRoy lives next door to my parents.  He's a scruffy little thing - on that fine line between adorable and ugly.  He's very friendly though.  It was hard to get a photo of him because he kept trying to walk right up to me.  I'd scoot back; he'd follow.  Finally he got distracted by something long enough for me to snap his picture.  

As I was painting him, I kept thinking of stories I might write about.... Then I put the three tiny white highlight dots in his big ole' black eyes... I just sat back and said, "Well, hello there!"  It amazes me when that moment comes for the painting to become real!

It made me think, not of one of the donkeys I've known, but of a donkey song.

When my daughter was about three (two decades ago), her little choir sang a song for the church Christmas program.  There were about a dozen little ones all dressed up and holding a pair of rhythm sticks.  They sang:

     Little gray donkey,

          Clip-clop, clip-clop,

               On the way to Bethlehem...

     Little gray donkey,

          Clip-clop, clip-clop,

               On the way to Bethlehem...

I don't think there were any other lyrics to this song, but it was so cute.  Just picture those little ones clacking their sticks together - some in rhythm, some not... some singing, some not... 

Maybe this painting should be titled, "Clip-Clop!"

[SOLD]

Mallards

Have you ever had a wild pet?

When I was a kid we had a lake on our farm.  (You can see a view of it in Lake at Nunnely)  One year a pair of mallards made their home there.  We named them Patsy and Bill.

This couple was part of a community of ducks that live on the river behind the Old Mill Restaurant in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  They're used to tourists and completely ignored me as I snapped their pictures.

It just doesn't seem fair that the the daddy duck gets to be so beautiful; however, I think the mama is lovely in her own way. 

Original Oil Painting on 6" x 12" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]