Cat Buddha

Pastel painting of a cat Buddha. 

New sketch--Roses and cat

Roses and Grady, mixed media

I was hoping to finish the portrait I did of Marley for Jerry's Christmas present. It needs a few little tweaks before I'm going to be satisfied with it (naturally), but I just didn't feel like tackling it tonight. It may be of the verge of being ruined if I do too much to it, yet I'm not happy with his mouth and fur yet. So I decided to do a sketch of the flowers Jerry gave me for Christmas. I was hoping for a Picasso-type look, but didn't quite get there (might as well aim high!) I took some creative license and only painted five of the dozen flowers he gave me and it didn't seem complete without Grady in the window looking for birds.

Just make the world go away! I need a kiss!

Seamus, 16" x 12", acrylic on gallery-wrap canvas

Finished the portrait of Seamus. I can't say that I'm 100% satisfied with it, but I wanted to take something into the art meet-up tonight, so this was the closest I could get to a finished piece. I obsessed over it to a ridiculous degree. I might work on the face some more later, though--it seems to be going flat all the time. Perhaps some gel medium might give me some of the texture I'm looking for. Well, anyway, I like the background. We had a pretty good crowd at the meet-up and a lot of people showed their work--everything from abstract to super realistic. They seem to be a nice bunch of people and we had some good discussions about art happenings, techniques and how to actually sell some of our stuff. Bob Boynton is apparently making it and can hardly keep up with the demand for his paintings. It must be nice! He highly recommends ArtistsRegistry.com and YourArt.com for exposure. Next month's assignment is to do a piece on something laying around the house. Hmmmm! That could be anything from my dog to a spatula. I'll have to start focusing.

Moon Dreams

I haven't had much time to fool around with paintings. I've been writing letters to insurance companies for coverage denied for health problems and Citizens insurance for cancelled home insurance for payments not received (but checks sent and cashed). It seems like our lives are dictated by greedy insurance companies, greedy bankers, greedy politicians, well...everywhere you look the common denominator seems to be greed. Let's wave the flag for the American way! Maybe it should be updated in red, white and green (with dollar signs for stars.)

I worked on another Photoshop painting. This one has a collage background I did recently with Sean/Little Grey (but now I'm thinking he might look more like an Earl Gray). I must get back to that website with the Photoshop tutorials and do another lesson. This one is a recycle of layer masks, but it's still fun to do and I'm learning as I make mistakes (which is often.) I need to work some more on feathering his edges and blending him in. Maybe I might have time eventually to take out the Photoshop book and figure out how to do that.

Tomorrow will be extra busy with a trip back to the rental to work, finishing and mailing insurance letters, calling insurance companies, trip to Lowe's for paint and supplies, on and on.

My brother in Corpus Christi was very excited about buying a house and getting out of his rental apartment, which he had been in for 10 years. How time flies! I hope everything works out and I'm very happy for him and Debra.

Higgins visits Matisse

Today has been pretty good so far. I've learned something new about Photoshop from Sue O'Kieffe's wonderful site Sacred Circle Mandalas. Besides the beautiful mandalas and soothing music, she offers all kinds of interesting tidbits including Photoshop tutorials. I've bookmarked it because it's one of those sites you can go back to over and over and discover something new and exciting--and also relax and meditate on. Anyway, here's the result from her lesson on Photoshop's Layer Masks. I can't wait to try her next tutorial tomorrow.

ACEO Hummingbird, swan and monkey, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", acrylic on acid-free paper

Here are some photos of the ACEOs I did yesterday. I can't say that I'm really pleased with the way they turned out. They seem somewhat distorted. The hummingbird seems a little fatter than in the painting, etc. I don't know whether that's a problem with trying to shoot "macro" but I guess that will entail another google exploratory journey (and trying to figure out my camera—again.) I'm really turning into a mouse potato with all this stuff. Had to include some good pictures that Jerry took of our new addition.

Little Grey and Seamus and Little Grey on bench (must figure out a name for him soon!)