My Birthday Card - Art by a New Artist

This is the best, Best, BEST piece of art that I have to show you today!

Rey K. Javic (a.k.a. An Icelandic Rooster)

Isn't he absolutely fabulous!

And, doesn't he look like he knows it!

I so want to make him be a book character so that he can talk to us! 

We don't have a book, but I bet we can make him a character...

Let's see... 

I'll name him Rey... short for  Rey K. Javic.  He'd have gone out just before the sun had shown itself.  I'll put him at the top of the haystack to look around (perhaps a bit haughtily)... to survey his domain.  He'd grin for sure... (Wait... can chickens grin?) His grin would be kind of pompous, knowing he'd be the one to break the morning silence with his crow.  I think he'd love that.  First I'll have him strike a pose because he is quite handsome. He'll bask in the glory of his own handsome-ness for just a moment... or two... a moment too long... because a someone else will be up early...It will be a weasel... no two... wait... it will be a whole "passel of weasels!"This might not end up being a good morning for Rey...

I'm not much of a made-up story writer, but I see a possibility here!  Hmmm... but only if the "passel of weasels" get some really good lines of their own.  Of course, someone will need to learn a lesson... probably that cocky Rooster Rey.

Where did that all come from?
Well...
Occasionally I come across a blog that I thoroughly enjoy.  It may be the writer's topic that draws me in, but it's always her voice that keeps me reading.  Every so often I will go aaaalllllll the way back to the beginning of that blog and read it straight through from the beginning to the present. 
Blogs are written in present tense, like journals... in the now.
I think there's something magical about that present-tense voice.  It transports the reader back in time... to read along until the past (which feels like the present) becomes the real present.

So...

With that long and convoluted explanation, that is how I met this rooster. (And, my goodness, he is gorgeous!)  I saw his photo and kept clicking back to look again.  Finally I contacted his owner, my new blog friend Amy, and asked if I might use his photo as a reference for a painting.

I don't know much about this particular guy.

I know he's from a breed called Icelandic Chickens.

If he was gentle and behaved, I bet he fathered lots of little chickies.

If he was kind of a jerk, I bet he made some fine dumplings.

As for the story character... you see, Amy wrote another post about some unsavory characters that did not make life pleasant on their beautiful farm for a time.  She said they were weasels, a passel of weasels. She said that someone should write a story with that title.  Sooooo.... if you're reading, Amy, I'd love to learn the fate of these guys!  

Dolly, Dominique, Sylvia, Red Red, Fancy, Other Red

What would my happy little hens think if I brought this beautiful Rey the Rooster home!

Original Oil Painting on 16"x16" Wrapped Canvas.
[SOLD]

Indian Paintbrush and Butterflies Triptych

I've been wanting to do another triptych for a while, and this seemed to be the perfect opportunity.

The Indian paintbrush is a pretty little flower... although it's not very showy on its own.  Even though it's a little scraggly and spiky so that you're not sure whether it's a pretty weed or a pitiful flower, I wanted it to be the main character, the most beautiful, the focus of the piece.   The butterflies think Indian paintbrush flowers are gorgeous.  They're fluttering around to help us as we celebrate the beauty of the Indian paintbrush.

This is the third of four painting for the bedrooms of Welcome Home Retreat. 
The first was for the Bluebonnet Room.
The second was for the Primrose Room.
Actually there's another.  A while back I did this one for the tiny private room, the Wisteria Room.


Original Oil Painting Triptych on 8"x 10", 10"x 10", 8"x 10"
[SOLD]

Pink Primroses on the Porch

My instructions for this painting were short and open ended, "It needs to be a painting about pink primroses, and it needs to be big." 

Okay then... Let me think... 
What does a primrose look like? It's a really small flower...  A field of primroses would look like a bunch of pink blobs or sprinkles on a green background...
How can I make the primroses tell a story, be the star of the painting, and still be normal size? I need a background that will be important but not steal the show.
How about a white-ish house... with a white-ish door... and a white-ish rail... on a white-ish porch... beside white-ish lattice and white-ish steps...
Oh, and green plant leaves to fill space and cover up all the places where I couldn't make the edges of the steps look right... I mean... to add a complementary color and organic texture to the background.

This is the second painting that I did for one of the bedrooms of Welcome Home Retreat.   It's for the Primrose Room, of course. You can see the one for the Bluebonnet Room here. 

These pretty pink primroses are singing, "Come up these steps!  There's a friendly face just inside the door and a porch swing just outside the edges of the canvas.  Sit down and enjoy. Don't be in a hurry."

I do love a good porch.

I do have a good porch.
It wraps around.

If you come, we'll have to make a choice.... 
The rocking chairs in the front corner?
The swing in the other corner?
Or the gliders in the back?

And... If you happen to have enlarged and zoomed in... yeah... that's Ron's Harley on the front porch...  Sorry about that... kind of makes one question whether we're rednecks with our vehicles parked on the porch... That's not it's home, he just had it parked there. 

Original Oil Painting on 16"x 20" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

It's extra special when I get to do a
painting for someone I love!

View from My Art Room

This morning I'd been at it a while and needed a fresh look at the mess I was making on the canvas painting I was working on.  
I got up, stretched, walked over to the window, and... Oh goodness... 
My backyard was a busy place...
9 deer, 6 chickens, and 1 cat.
Everyone was just as happy as they could be.  
All the Eaton animal family members get along just fine.

Field of Bluebonnets

Texans love their bluebonnets.  About this time of year photographs of fields covered with them begin to show up on Facebook. People plop their babies in the middle of them to take their pictures.  Couples get their engagement photos with bluebonnets all around.  It's clear why... they're simply, unbelievable beautiful. 

Ok... I have to come clean... deep breath... I have never actually seen bluebonnets growing in a field!  
I know!  I know!
I just haven't ever been in the right place at the right time! (I know my friend Karen is probably gasping in utter disbelief and disappointment.) 

Although when we were in Maine, the lupines were everywhere, and I couldn't take enough pictures of them. (I think bluebonnets and lupines are in the same family. So, does that count?)

I was asked to paint four large paintings, one for each of the main bedrooms of Welcome Home Retreat.  I started with this one because I had the idea for it.  

Not long ago I painted a field of blue flowers and loved the perspective the depth, so I decided to use that as my model.

I didn't have one reference photo to use, so this project was a series of making it up as I went along.  (That is not at all how I usually paint, but I had an idea and a confidence that I could pull it off... or at least a back up plan that I could paint over it if it didn't work.)

First, I kept this other painting where I could see it.  Second, I pulled up so many photos of bluebonnets... fields of bluebonnets... individual bluebonnets... leaves of bluebonnets... 
Because bluebonnets don't have the tall thing-y like the blue flowers in this painting, I wanted to add something in the background to draw attention and add interest.   I tucked a little cabin in the background, added some closer trees to push the treeline farther back.  And, because it is Texas, a couple of longhorns are back there too.  When Sheila suggested an outhouse, I laughed because, of course, I wouldn't do that... but... somehow an outhouse did appear... far away off to the side and back... as an outhouse should be! 

It had to be big... because...
Well, everybody knows...
Everything's bigger in Texas!

The trick to finishing this painting was simply getting enough but not too many bluebonnets.  I think there are about 13 zillion... at least it felt like it.  

I keep thinking that this whole painting was made from trial and error... but honestly... it all worked!  Everything I tried... well... turned out the way I'd hoped!  That doesn't happen very often!  
Nothing really went wrong... wait... ummm... there was one thing that did go terribly, terribly wrong during the process of painting this painting... If you haven't already, you really must read "A Painting Disaster Story."


Thanks to my sister, Sheila, for the opportunity and ideas.
Thanks to my art friend, Nelvia, for the advice along the way.


Original Oil Painting on 24"x 36" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Pink Daisy II

I celebrated 12 years as a painter last week.
In honor of that, how about 12 things I love about painting:

• I love putting the highlight sparkle in eye of a person or animal.  (As soon as I do, I always say, "Well, hello! I've been waiting for you!")
• I love to paint on a really big canvas.
• I love signing my paintings in the bottom right corner. (Sometimes it has to be bottom left.)
• I love painting with purple and adding turquoise or orange in unexpected places.
• I love using a chisel brush to make straight lines, a palette knife to create texture, and a fluffy brush to soften a background.
• I love when the painting muse appears with a great idea.  (But, sometimes I have to find the next idea on my own. I can't always count on the muse; she has a lousy work ethic.)
• I love to touch a finished painting that was done with a palette knife.
• I love stepping away from what I'm painting then looking back at it with fresh eyes. (That gives the painting fairy a chance to do her magic.)
• I love it when someone wants one of my  paintings for their own wall.
• I love to paint alone.
• I love to paint with creative artist friends. (Thursdays 11:30-3:00)
• I love watching others learn and grow as painters. (Mondays 4:00-7:00)

Look at that proud face!

Original Oil Painting 8"x 10" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Scattered Crayons

I love crayons.  
I love them pointy and new and smelling good.
I still love them broken and with peeled paper wrapping.

I loved coloring when I was little.  
I'd lay on the front porch and color the next page in a coloring book.
I stayed inside the lines, always!  And, I always used the right colors.
But, I never called them crayons; they were just my "colors."

I loved coloring with my kids. 
I think maybe I liked it better than they did.  I'm trying to remember, but I'm pretty sure they'd let me color in their coloring books while they played with something else.
Goodness, but aren't they the cutest little green crayon and pink crayon ever!

I like markers just fine.
I really like colored pencils a lot. 
But, I love crayons the best.

** Have you seen those new Twistables crayons?  
love, Love, LOVE those!

This is the second in a series of simple toys. (Unless, I don't ever get around to doing the marbles and whatever else I think of.  In that case, this is the other half of the pair of paintings of simple toys.)  The first one was "Jacks & Ball."

Original Oil Painting on 12"x 6" Wrapped Canvas.
Click "Scattered Crayons" if you'd like to purchase this little painting.

UPDATE:

I'm making this a special, BUY TWO, GET THE THIRD FREE!

**DEAL** Buy two, and I'll send third along for free! 

Crayons link: CLICK CRAYONS HERE

Jacks link:  CLICK JACKS HERE

Marbles link: CLICK MARBLES HERE

First Daffodil of Spring

One brave little daffodil says she will not wait until March!

So many expectations for this little plot of ground!

The daffodils make a dainty green row, but most know not to bloom yet.  Our weather is tricky; 65 degrees yesterday, 25 degrees tomorrow.

The hyacinths are less than an inch above ground, but you can already see the purple in the center waiting for its turn to come up and flower.

The iris flags are making an appearance but will take their time.

The lilies are... well... never mind... Apparently deer like to eat day lilies... I might be bitter... hmph!

I'll have to remember to take a photo from this same spot in a few weeks.

A Piece of Cake

We arrived at Welcome Home Retreat on a Thursday afternoon.  We enjoyed a good supper together, set up our work stations, then each worked on a small piece.  I finished my "Little Red Hen."  The entire next day was dedicated to our big painting.  Besides meals, we basically did nothing else.  By bedtime, "Field of Blue Flowers" looked pretty fabulous, if I do say so myself.  

The project we chose for Saturday morning was meant to be a simple one.  It was easy as pie; literally, it was a piece of cake... 

We chose this lesson from YouTube because it said it was meant to be painted in one sitting, alla prima.  The guy was a very good teacher and explained  every step. This was my first time to use impasto. It's a "goo" that you mix in the paint to thicken it and make a very textured surface. It made the icing look like icing... like you'd want to stick your finger in it and have a lick. I love the look and feel of the finished piece, but honestly, I did not like using impasto at all. 

To sum up the weekend, we ate... painted.. laughed... slept... painted... ate... painted... laughed... painted... ate... painted... laughed... painted... ate... painted... laughed... painted... slept...... just keep repeating that...

I always show my paintings, so how about a look at some of the meals Welcome Home Retreat put in front of us!

Gorgeous AND delicious!



We did find a little time to enjoy the farm friends who live on the grounds there.

These two tom turkeys were the funniest things!  They'd come to the widow of our workroom and have a look at what we were doing!  They'd puff out all their feathers to look as big and manly as possible strutting around.  Every time we'd laugh, they'd gobble to cover over our laughter.  So, of course we'd ha ha ha just to make them gobble gobble gobble again and again!

And how about this rooster!  I think they said his name was Thor.  What a beauty!  I think he may have to end up on a canvas one of these days.






Oil Painting on 8"x 8" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

A Painting Disaster Story

Yesterday I started a new painting and worked on it for several hours.  I got the sky, clouds, trees, the cabin and a tiny little longhorn in the background, and all the space for the ground covered.   When I cleaned up for the night and went to bed, I Googled “How to Paint Bluebonnets” and learned what I needed to know.  First thing this morning I was ready to go again.  Not long after Ron left for work, I was completely lost in the process of painting the 13 zillion bluebonnets of various sizes that I’d need to cover the entire foreground.  The country music was loud as usual...  The cat was watching me as usual… The dog was watching the cat as usual… But, because the painting is a really big one, I was facing my stand-alone easel instead of facing toward the table like usual… This different arrangement means I have my things in different places than normal.  I was using two different palettes because I kept switching the ground palette and the sky/bluebonnet palette. I’d keep the one I wasn’t using was on the step of the stool beside me. Maybe because the painting was big and my set-up was different, Pounce (the cat) seemed more intrigued than usual. 

The beginning of the disaster seemed to happen in slow motion…

I was holding a palette knife filled with a blob of blue paint and trying to figure out how to make the flower in the bottom left corner when my right hand wouldn’t turn that way. At that moment Pounce decided she’d come help.  My palette with all the greens was innocently sitting on that low step beside my right knee.  Her foot stepped on the corner of the palette causing it to flip up so that the green-paint-covered palette stuck to her (pure white) tummy. That spooked her.  As she tried to get away, I yelled at her.  (Just an FYI… Yelling at a scared cat does indeed not improve the situation.)  As fast as I could, I peeled the palette off the cat, while still yelling… I was yelling, not the cat… Actually, she may have been yelling too.)  

The cat took off down the stairs.  I couldn’t have her running helter-skelter around the house with oil paint all over her! I ran after her.  In hindsight probably a sweet, “Here, kitty kitty,” would have been more effective than my, “Where are you, Pounce!"   Well, of course, she was in that tiny cat-sized sliver of space between the couch and the wall.  And, of course, she was right in the middle exactly where she couldn’t be reached.  She was scared though, and she did trust me (at this point) so finally she came close.  I timed it right and grabbed.  She was not happy.  Ohhhh, Noooo!!! Her belly and leg were globbed with green paint!  I couldn’t just leave it!  If she got free, that would be all over the house.  I couldn’t put her outside! She was a mess!  I couldn’t leave her to lick it off! Oil paint is basically poison if consumed! 

There was really only one choice.  I had to give the cat a bath… the first bath of her life. (And, I’ll interrupt myself here to say that as far as I’m concerned, it will also be the last bath of her life.) I couldn’t cuddle her close because of smearing the paint, so I was holding her none too gently.  Did I mention that she was not at all happy? She was not.

Trying to put her into the sink brought a fiendish yowl.  I fought to find the correct way to hold while she was ripping my arms to shreds with her back claws.  I got my first look at her formerly white tummy and I knew I might be in for more than I knew how to handle.  I poured Dawn (the miracle dish soap as far as oil painters are concerned) on her tummy, tried to hold her head with my left hand and rub it in with my right.  Oh… my… goodness… greeeeeeeen everywhere… cat, sink, bubbles, me…

As if this could possibly get worse, the only logical thing to do next was spray that green sudsy tummy… Can I just tell you that some demonic guttural sounds came from deep within the very core of my normally sweet kitty’s being. And she was possessed by the savage strength of a hungry lioness attacking her prey (The prey being my arm.) She was not having it.  The hand that held spray of water was at risk.  She managed sink her teeth deep into the pad of my middle finger. (I may have mentioned before, but apparently yelling at a frightened, now very angry and very wet, cat does not serve to calm anyone.)

I pried her jaws from my finger and fastened my grip on the scruff of the neck. Perhaps I could stay out of harm’s way.  (I’ve seen the vet’s assistants do this. It looks easy and seems to calm the animal… Ummm… No…)  I didn’t have a choice, I had to go back in for another round.  I had her scruff held tight.  I squeezed a big glob of Dawn, and rubbed as fast as I could while doing my best to avoid those vicious back claws.  The green poured down and then mixed with the red… Wait… There was no red on that palette… Great!… That was my blood joining the colorful flow. 

Pounce made a pitiful sound...  Maybe I was holding her too hard!  She sounded like she might be choking!  I loosened just a bit…  Nope!  It was a lie!  She got my thumb and ground down. (I might mention one last time, that yelling does not bring havoc to a state of peace. Yelling does, however, encourage the dog who has been dancing with glee over this whole scenario, to start barking.)

Once I freed my thumb from her jaws-of-death grip, I was determined that was enough of that.

But… But… Are you kidding me? How could I end this?

I couldn’t dry her off because I didn’t have a towel and both hands were clasped around the beast.

I couldn’t toss her outside because it was 29 degrees and she was sopping wet.

I couldn’t put her in the garage because I hadn’t disarmed the house alarm.  That would be just great to add a loud beeping siren to the cacophony in the house.

There was dishtowel on the counter.  Almost tripping over the jubilant dog first, I plopped the cat onto the towel, removed my vice grip on her and did my best to soak up some of the water before she escaped.  The dog immediately started the chase…. Right… back… up… to the art room…

Poor pitiful little thing… the cat, not the dog.  The dog was delighted with the entire affair.  I wish I could tell you that she was back to being a black and white cat, but alas… she may be black, white, and green for quite a while.  I got most of the paint off, but the stain isn’t going anywhere.  And I am not about to risk another cat bath.

When I dragged my battle worn body in to the bathroom to shower, I discovered that my neck and half my face were green and my arms and cheek had lovely streaks of complementary red.

The cat settled into her favorite chair, but seemed a little… skittish. 

The dog was simply giddy while she kept a close eye on the cat. 

The palette of green paint had black cat hairs in it, and it went into the trash.

The painting is still coming along really nicely.  It’s going to be beautiful... I hope.

And I’m fine… although I’m wondering if the fact that my cat-bite punctured middle finger being swollen so big that there are no fingerprint ridges is kind of a not-good thing.   Hmmm… It’s been a pain to type an “i” or “k” or “8” or “,” (all the middle finger keys)

Pounce, now dry although still tinted green, is my sweet kitty once again..

Field of Blue Flowers

I can not stop looking at this painting!
I'm not a fan of blue (I know, I know!  Nearly everybody in the world is a huge fan of blue... sorry!) and this is clearly a painting about blue, but I love so may things about the piece overall. Honestly, it was an unexpected treat to like it so much.

This painting was the our biggest project of our painting workshop weekend at Welcome Home Retreat.  My Thursday-afternoon-art friends and I  traveled to Weatherford, Texas for 3 days being pampered, being very well fed, and being creative.


On other times we've had a teacher, but this time we had to come up with our own lessons.  Hooray for YouTube!    Julie & I would watch a little while, try to understand the colors and techniques, then turn to our canvases to try it ourselves. 


The whole painting was kind of one experiment after another. 

We got to use our fingers (in rubber gloves) for whisping out the clouds. We needed a fan brush for the trees in the distance. We used a big wide flat brush for the field and a color that didn't make sense at all until the end. There were layers of paint on our canvases that ended up being important when we dragged an erasing tool through them for some of the grasses. Then we got to load palette knives with lots of blue for the flowers. Finally a long bristled signature brush finished out the grasses.

Packing supplies for this kind of trip is tricky.  There's limited space in the car, but it's hard not to bring every single thing! Would you look at all those brushes!  Really?  Did I think I'd need all those?  


We began this painting first thing Friday morning, and stopping only for meals, we stayed with it until a late-night bed time.

What a fun day!  My sister Sheila worked across from me.  She was sewing gorgeous new pillow cases for each bed there. She finished all 28 during the weekend.  Can you see that little old machine she's sewing with?  It's a Featherweight that she bought (already old then) in 1970 when she left home for college.  She says, "It still sews like a charm!"

Our friend Jeanne was working across the workroom on her mixed media assemblage.   She looked up and said, "Oh, you're finished!"  I asked how in the world she knew that.  She said, "I can tell.  You have your signing-your-name face that you have when you're putting your signature on."  What?  Do I have a signing-your-name face? Hmmm...

Ta-Da!!!  
A pretty good day's work!


And a good fresh Coke in a pretty goblet is pretty standard sight at my art table.
Mmmmmm....

Does this painting
a.) Draw you in?
b.) Draw your eye back through the field? to the trees?
c.) Draw your eye up through the sky? to the clouds?
d.) Make you feel like taking a deep contented breath?

For me it was a yes, yes, yes, yes... 

Thanks to our YouTube lesson painter lessons.rybakow.com. (In case you want to give it a try... A little tip... He doesn't speak at all and has the most annoying music ever. Unless you want to hear an 80 minutes of that, mute the volume.)

Oil painting on 18"x 24" wrapped canvas
[SOLD]

Valentine Paintings

Happy Valentine's Day!

Some love & kisses for you today!