Monday, July 26

Paintings for Nicaragua

I'm very, very excited to announce that my church, Woodcreek Church, is putting together its very first art show, coming up on August 29. The show is going to feature the amazing photography of Clint Brewer, who spent two weeks this summer in Nicaragua, documenting the everyday lives of people living in Managua as well as the missionary work that is going on there and being supported by our church. Clint has asked me to create a couple of paintings for this art show, and I'm greatly honored to be a part of this. You can read more about our church's involvement in Nicaragua here: http://woodcreekchurch.com/twenties/nicaragua-10/.

In the mean time, I have some painting to do! I'll keep you posted... :-)

Tuesday, July 13

Domestic Goddess?

I was sick with a nasty cold over the weekend, which made it difficult for me to work on painting; however, I find that "busy work" helps distract me from how crappy I'm feeling, so I decided to be a good steward of our small rented space and take up...(drum roll, please)...canning!

We may have the dinkiest back yard in the whole neighborhood, but in that yard are two trees: a fig tree and a peach tree. This year they were both in their prime, their fruit-laden branches drooping from the weight. I can barely keep up with harvesting them, although thankfully, some neighbors are relieving my burden somewhat by coming over and helping themselves to some of the fruit per my request.

So, assuming I did everything right, I now have a humble collection of pints and half-pints of: canned peaches, peach jam, fig preserves, strawberry-peach jam, and strawberry jam just for kicks. :-)

Yummy canned delights

Friday, July 9

Dog vs. Oil Paint!

I've already posted these pictures on facebook, but for those of you who read my blog, I just had to share!

My dog of almost two weeks had her first major run-in with oil paint yesterday morning.

My sister came over to paint with me, and had her box of oil paints sitting on the floor. We try to keep Bella supervised in the studio, but for one reason or another, she was able to steal a tube of paint from Emily's box while nobody was looking. The next thing we knew, Emily and I were both screaming, "Bella! What is on your mouth?!" We realized that besides having a giant green mustache, the dog had giant globs of paint all over her neck, her two front legs, and paws. She had also destroyed the oriental rug in my studio with what we discovered to be a tube of Thalo Green, arguably the oil color with THE MOST intense tinting strength - a color which, when I use it (and that's rarely), I only dab a tiny dot onto my palette because it can spread among your other colors like a disease.

Yep, Bella chose to rip open a tube of Thalo Green all over our floor, and though I was thankful we don't have carpeting, and the paint wiped off the wood floors just fine, she still destroyed my rug, and when I gave her a bath, I realized that bright green paint was on her for good.

Thankfully, Thalo Green is non-toxic. Bella will have green droppings for a while, and a heck of dye-job, but other than that, she's fine, and Emily and I have one fantastic memory to laugh about!

Bella, you've been initiated now: you're officially the dog of an artist!

Bella covered in Thalo Green

This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it...

Bella covered in Thalo Green 2

Bella covered in Thalo Green 3

Here's what she looked like today, after yesterday's bath and some time to dry off, shed a little, and go for several walks outside...much improved, but I think I'm going to have a green dog for quite a while.

Bella covered in Thalo Green 4

Various nicknames now include, "Witch of the West," "Elpheba," and "Shrek," although personally, I think she looks like a poorly dipped Easter egg, but I'll let you judge for yourself. :-)

Friday, July 2

"Twin Arts:" Almost Finished!

I haven't had much time during the past two weeks to work on "Twin Arts," but I thought I'd post an update anyway. I worked on the piano and piano bench quite a bit (sorry about the glare in the picture - this painting is so large, it's somewhat hard to photograph).

Twin Arts - with piano bench

Then today, in between several hellish sessions of trying to leash-train the dog (she's an angel indoors, but a devil as soon as you step outside with her!), I finally found some time to work on "Twin Arts" once again after a two-week hiatus. I've posted a detail shot, since mostly what I worked on was Emily's hair, back, and arm.

Twin Arts - Detail of Music (Emily)

More to come - this piece is almost finished!
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