Izzy and Georgie

This is Izzy and Georgie. I loved painting their little hands and feet. This painting was also a nice excuse to imagine the magnolias blossoming again. I see the buds forming on the trees in Lower Queen Anne already even though we'll have to wait three or four more months for this kind of splendor.

This painting is oil on panel and measures 12x16 inches.

Sydney

This is Sydney surveying the garden in an early winter snow. His beautiful fur keeps him warm and he looks like the king of the forest. This is a commission and Sydney's people live in a woodland setting much like this. 

I'll be spending Christmas with family in West Vancouver where my Mum and Dad's woodland garden looks a bit like this. I doubt we'll have snow but we will have some holiday laughter thanks partly, I hope, to the pogo sticks I bought for the kids. Either laughter or injury. I can't wait to give it a try.

I wish you all a very happy Christmas if you celebrate it and for those who struggle through this time of year I wish I wish a speedy and joy filled New Year. Eat lots of butter!

Winds of Change

These two mice are huddled together against the cold Autumn wind.  This painting is a commission and shows how love gets us through hard times. The mice are looking toward the winds of change and their tails are entwined.

Autumn is a great time for painting the garden with all the seed pods and twisted leaves. I love berries too. Part of the commission was to paint milkweed and black eyes susans but I have never seen milkweed before so I enjoyed researching it. What complicated seed pod structure it has! I took me ages to figure out what was going on in the photographs.

wet wet wet

 So much rain lately! It is weather for moss. One of these days I'll paint a mossy painting but for now I just take my camera out on my walks in the neighbourhood. Sometimes I stop just to touch these wonderful little puffs of green.

Christmas is Coming

This month I have the pleasure of working on several animal portraits. This is Whiskers.

And this is Bennie.

These pets are loved so much it is a delight talking to the owners and hearing the stories. What a great job I have. Kind of funny. Very heart warming. I feel lucky.

A New Show!

These four paintings are part of Arts West's new show of kitsch miniatures. There is an opening reception on Thursday, 9 December, from 6-7:30 and I'll be there. Why not drop by and say hello. You can meet a skipping lamb, a snowy mountain beaver, a poor little dead bee and a watchful rabbit. Plus all the other great and strange art that is in the show. Read about the show and get directions here. Arts West is in West Seattle.

Love in the Mist is a beautiful little flower that grows as a volunteer outside my studio door. This time of year it leaves seed pods like this.

It can take me most of a day just to paint one seed pod. The structure is so complex. I haven't even put the fun mottled dots on these yet. I am still working on the shape. You can see my finger prints on the leg of the moose. My baby finger is the stablizer for painting detailed work like this.

The whole painting is four feet tall - large for me. And is very unfinished still. I am obviously being influenced by the perpetual twilight of early December. So often the sun breaks through just before it sets.