Puppies and Miniature Painting- Doe and Fawn

Time for an update. I just finished this piece yesterday. Now to let it cure before I varnish it. It is a traditional miniature, acrylic on board.

Evening Stroll
3.5"x5.5"

Here is a close up of the doe and fawn- being a true miniature you can enlarge it and it still looks good. I've had it fairly large on my computer screen and it holds up to that. :-)


The puppies are growing like weeds- all except for my little tiny fellow. He went over the rainbow bridge 3 nights ago. It was very hard after doing so much with him, but when you breed these little guys you know it happens. So it wasn't unexpected. The others though are doing wonderfully well and so fun to cuddle. Trying to get a photo of them can be tough! Wiggle, wiggle.

This one and the black one are Widget's babies- just over 2 weeks old. This little girl opened her eyes 3 days early! That's a first for me, never had one open them early before.





This little gal is the "complainer"- I could NOT get a photo of her face being held or of her full body. It was all I could do to get a photo at all- she just cries and wiggles so much you just get a blur. But what a sweet face it is!


This last girl is Pooka's baby. She's 3 days younger than Widget's girls. Very quiet, very self-satisfied. :-)

Puppies, Gardens and Latest Landscape Painting

I finished this several days ago but have been so busy with my puppies I just didn't have time to get it posted. I hope you enjoy it- it's a watercolor. I love the midwest scenes. They are so nostalgic and peaceful feeling.




Here are the latest photos of the babies. Widget, the black mama is very laidback. She's a wonderful mama. Pooka is much less stressed now, and she's a good mama, but not quite as devoted as Widget. Widget sometimes helps me out with feeding Tiny Boy. She would adopt him happily. Unfortunately her little "horses" (my name for her babies) are doing so well he would NEVER get a place at the table!


Here you can see a bit better how much smaller he is than his sister, and she is not that big. Both are smaller than Widgets babies. They are 3 days younger, but also will be smaller dogs.








Lastly- here is a new joy in my life! My small garden plot my husband dug for me. It isn't large and as you can see I've crammed as much in it as I possibly can and still get to the harvest! I am hoping next year to have another small plot added and that will be enough for me (and my back!) Fresh green beans and summer squash tonight! :-)

Duck update and PUPPIES!!!

It's been a VERY hectic week. We now have 2 litters of chihuahua puppies! It's been happy/sad for me. I lost one and have been working to save my littlest guy. I'm crossing my fingers, so far so good. He seems to be getting a bit stronger. I am getting up several times a night to feed him and also supplement him throughout the day. Mostly I'm doing "puppy, puppy, puppy"!
I have managed to fit in a bit of work on my art. I've added some darkness to the water, but I just can not get the color right on the computer. It looks too yellow and dull. It has a bit more life to it. Computers are wonderful things, but... I'm also working on another landscape miniature and hope to complete that tomorrow.

Here is the finished hen mallard...


I hope you enjoy seeing my babies. I absolutely love to have these puppies, even with all the work, heartache, and sleepless nights. They are little miracles to me.
This is the tiny fellow...
I show him with a quarter so you can hopefully get an idea of just how tiny he is.






Here's daddy. The baby by birth weight is weighing in to be a lb. smaller than his daddy, who is a bit less than 3.5 lbs!

Here are the two mamas. Both are good mamas, but poor Pooka seems to me to know her baby is having troubles, so she is more protective (with me) and seems to be "worried". I hope that is soon in the past. Widget, the black mama is protective with strangers, but not nasty, just very "on top of things". Otherwise she is laid back and relaxed with her babies. They are eating so well they even have chubby legs!

Happy Birthday America!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!

I hope you all had a great Independance Day. We had a wonderful day of enjoying family, good food, and celebrating this great country's birthday. May she live free and stand for all that's good in life forever. May her coming year be a blessed one.

Experiments in Colored Pencil

In my search for artwork that can be done at times I can't be in my studio I keep coming back to colored pencils. I find my strength in the "art arena" seems to be anything done in a "drawing" style. Such as scratchboard, pastels, colored pencils, and ofcourse illustration done with pen and ink or graphite.
I had my mom here for a few days again to give my dad a short break (she has alzheimers for new readers). When she's here I can't be in my studio, thus this is part of the reason for the search. I have to say if I can get it worked out to my satisfaction I think colored pencils will be the answer.

Experiment #1 was done using MDF board. It was going well until I needed to put more layers on in some areas and the board wouldn't take any more. So I sprayed it with workable fixative- either it did NOT like the board or it was because it was the bottom of the can. I'm suspecting the latter. It was like I had sprayed the piece with varnish- so that was it. I couldn't do another thing. :-( It was looking somewhat like a watercolor before it was ruined.




2.25"x3.25"
I finished this piece done on Arches water color paper yesterday. I was able to achieve my darks that I wanted, but still not really happy with the support. I'll keep experimenting.