Tuxedo Cat Peek-a-Boo

 Fun fact about Greece: There are little cats everywhere... everywhere!

Our guide assured us that the cats are loved by Greece and taken care of when needed.  He also assured us that they kept them spayed and neutered... Hmmm... if that was completely true... wouldn't there be fewer of them? ... just wondering...

They were happy little things.  They seemed quite at home where ever they were.  They were never bothered by people visiting their spaces. They liked to be petted, but we learned that they weren't having any part of being picked up.

When I say that they were everywhere, I mean...

...under bushes.

...beside fences.

...on steps of convenient stores.
(Yes, marble steps to a convenience store.)

...on top of mountains.

...at bus turnouts.
(...with my friend Kim.)

...at monasteries.

...in courtyards.
(... with my brother Curt.)

...overlooking valleys.

...on ledges.
(...with Ron.)

...on ledges.
(with my sister-in-law Kittie)

...along evening shopping areas.

...in plazas.

...in gardens.

...on ancient building blocks.
(...with my friend Lisa.)

...on ancient ruins.

...beside trees.

...in the sunshine

...in the marketplace.

...above the marketplace.

...on the rooftops.

...along the pathway.
(I know this one looks to good to be real.  It's real)

...on statues.

...in the ancient ruins.

So... yeah... everywhere.

As I was telling my art partner Cheri about the trip, she declared that our next weekly-ish challenge would be "Cats."  So this little kitty showed up on the canvas.

Original Oil Painting on 8"x 10" Canvas Board

Click Tuxedo Cat if you'd like to have this sweet little painting.

Santa & Christmas Lights

Why does this Santa look so familiar?

I think I know him!

He's the guy who's fought with trimmed the tree's light every year. No one was happier than he was when I bought a pre-lighted tree.

Well... maybe Buff was equally excited about the lights on the tree.

How did it get to be mid November already?  I guess it's time to make things look like Christmas again soon!

Original Acrylic Painting on 8"x 10" Canvas Board

[NFS... I think I better keep this one!]

I Like... (10/25)

Thank you to Leeanne of Not Afraid of Color for reminding me to notice things I like. 

Click on HER BLOG to see what positive things others like.

I like the songs this guy and his friends make every evening.

I like home.

I like going to amazing places.
It's hard to pick from the bazillion photos that I've taken in the last couple of weeks!

LeeAnne's  conversation starter topics this month:

Do you enjoy podcasts?  I do, but I don't know the trick of how to find ones I'd enjoy. Can you direct us to some you like?  Dolly Parton's America was 9 episodes and so good. I love Dolly. I enjoy.  I like to listen to Family Secrets. She interviews a lot of people who've written memoirs.  I love reading memoirs.  

Do you decorate at all for Thanksgiving? No. We just let Mother Nature decorate with yellows and golds outside in the trees. 

Do you remember making construction paper turkeys in elementary school using your own hand? Coloring them in or pasting on cut out colored feathers? Taking them home and having a parent put them up in the house? Okay, going a little rogue to answer this one, but it's a fun story. I taught 4th grade for a few decades, so there have been many versions of turkey making in my time.  One year we were going to make those turkeys where you fold every page of a Reader's Digest then fan them out.  Well... I happened to have a couple of kids who were of a religion that didn't allow them to participate in anything holiday related.  That year I decided we'd do the project anyway with a non-holiday choice for everyone.  I told the class they could choose to make theirs to be a  Thanksgiving turkey or an autumn peacock. It turned out that most of the kids chose to use blue instead of brown giving us a bunch of peacocks to line the hallway.  The kids were all so proud.  As it turns out, that  very week our school hosted a group from the State Department.  As they toured the building and commented on all the lovely autumn decorations and Thanksgiving art, they came to my end of the hall and had some very interested and confused faces over our decorations.  Ha ha ha ha! 

Would you rather go to someone's house for Thanksgiving  or host them in yours?   I don't mind enjoying a Thanksgiving meal at someone else's house, but I'll always make a Thanksgiving meal at our own house even if it's not on the exact day.  I love making the dressing and deviled eggs and having the leftover turkey.

Willowing Arts: Mastering Mixed Media (#11-20)

I purchased the Mastering Mixed Media  course from Willowing Arts quite a while ago.  I'm grateful that I have the lessons forever; there's no hurry to get to them, and I don't have to do them all at once.

  

Three years ago, I'd have never believed that I could draw a face so easily.  I guess practice does pay off. Another surprise is how much I love working inside an art journal.  I would never have guessed that I'd enjoy that so much

.

Here's the next batch of ten that I've completed.

This one turned out to be a favorite.

Although this one got a post of its own,
it started out as one of the lessons.

Indonesian Beach

 The year after I retired, I spent an amazing 10 days in Indonesia. My Weekly-ish Challenge was "Far Away," and that is definitely the most far-away place I've ever been.

I took the photo for this particular view on our first day.  After landing at the airport, we were taken several hours away to our first village. Along the way, we stopped at their version of a convenience store where there were soft drinks, a kind of bathroom facility, snacks that were unrecognizable to us... and this view from the small parking lot.  

Can you imagine seeing that every day? 

If you look closely, you'll see guys standing barefoot on the big rocks in the surf.  They were fishing with really long poles!

To this middle-of-the-country Arkansas girl, the waves looked like what the news shows when there's a hurricane, but they were just their regular every-day waves here.

I have about 900 more photos of this trip, the orphanage, the high school classrooms, the kindergarten school, the homes, the meals, the villages... but perhaps another time.

Here are a few other paintings I've done from that trip:

https://wordweaverart.blogspot.com/2024/06/underwater.html (turtle release)

https://wordweaverart.blogspot.com/2023/03/fruits-vegetables-under-umbrellas.html (village)

https://wordweaverart.blogspot.com/2022/12/lily-pad-pool.html (lily pond)

https://wordweaverart.blogspot.com/2018/05/indonesian-sunset.html (sunset)

Original Palette Knife Oil Painting on 8"x 10" Wrapped Canvas

Click Indonesian Beach if you'd like to purchase this little painting. 

Hummers & Hostas

This sweet little painting brings two of my favorite things together.  

First, hummingbirds... well, of course, who doesn't love seeing a hummingbird?

We had so many visiting our feeders this year. It's always a treat to be sitting in my spot on the back porch, hearing that familiar little bzzz, then spying the tiny little green thing flitting around. Sometimes one will land for a sip and stay until the bossy one comes to shoo them back into their tree. I don't know why they can't just relax and share.  There's always plenty of their red juice to go around. 

Second, hostas...

My front flower beds are so shaded that nothing I'd tried really thrived. When my dad moved from his home into a senior living place, we dug up a few of the hostas from his flower bed and gave them a try around our porch.  They not only survived, they did thrive!!

And they kept on thriving! Growing bigger and thicker!

And they kept on thriving!  Filling the bed and flowering at the end of summers.

This year was the first time I'd seen hummingbirds stopping by the hosta flowers for a drink.  

I tried to snap a photo.  Ha! How does anyone ever catch a photo of a hummingbird?!  They're so fast! Bzzz... Zip... Zip... Sip... Zip... Gone!

Original Oil Painting on 6"x 6"x 2" Canvas.

And If you'd like this painting for yourself, click Hummers & Hostas.  It's on a chunky little thick canvas. The sides are painted, so it could be displayed just sitting on a shelf.