Small painting - owl

I painted this fellow a few months ago, he's not a true miniature, just a small painting.  I took the reference photo for him a number of years ago when I was at a show in Kansas City which was supporting a wildlife rescue and rehab.  This little fellow was such a cutie, he had only one eye.  This is what I came up with to paint him, and I rather like it.  Sometimes odd things can create new ideas.  :)

Yes, I'm still alive and kicking!

I fear life is just running by me so fast I can barely keep up!!!  I am so sorry dear blog followers (if anyone is still here!)  I am hoping to be a bit better now that fall has arrived.  I am still busy canning my garden produce but once that has finished perhaps I can get back to more regular blogging. 
This will be a quick post, just to show a bit of the lastest artwork.  I hope you'll be patient with my absence and join me again when I am more "together".  :)

The egg, side one, is completed.  I am deciding what I would like to do with the second side.  Meanwhile, I've been working on another carving...

This is what I've been carving on now...

It's a cypress knee.  Believe me, just getting it hollowed out has been one BIG job!

Already many hours along and still blocking it all in...

Can you make "heads or tails" of it?  LOL.  I am further along, but need to get more photos taken.

Meanwhile I've also been painting some minis.  I'll try to get them photographed and posted soon as well.
Thanks for your patience and continued interest. 

Latest news, trip, and artwork

Once again we were on the road, this time east to Maryland, the Ward World Championships to visit with old friends and see some great sculpture, and then on to do the tourist thing in DC and vicinity.  Saw Valley Forge and Daniel Boone's boyhood home before heading up to participate in the opening of the annual miniature show at the Snow Goose gallery.  It was a whirlwind trip, we had a great time, but I'm glad to be home and back to my fur babies and artwork.  :)
Here are just a few highlights of the trip and the show. 

I also got to meet a couple of ladies I've been wanting to meet for awhile now- other miniature artists ofcourse.  Judy Lalingo and Linda Rossin...  and ofcourse Mary Serfass, artist and gallery owner extraordinaire!!!

I was lucky enough to walk into the show and get to meet with a couple who were waiting for me to arrive!  They had just purchased one of my pieces.  Here they are with me the next day.  :)

I also recently purchased a new "toy" and am trying some new things with it as well as planning to get back to my sculpture which I've been missing greatly.  Here's the new toy...

and here's what I've been "playing" with...

It's getting scarier as I go and it gets more delicate.  Wish me luck!!!

Some New Art

 OK, so here is the latest art I promised to post.  The fountain is done in acrylics.






Both pieces are miniature paintings.






The peonies are done in inks.

Yup, I'm Still Alive!!!

And even doing some art now and then.  I have to admit, life just got a bit overwhelming for awhile, and something had to give (actually several somethings).  But I'm finally getting back to my blog and hopefully will get back into being consistently blogging again.  I rather miss it.

I'll begin with our wonderful, loooong trip in Sept.  My DH and I have been wanting to do the National Parks and Monuments for several years and this was the year.  We saw Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Badlands, Devil's Tower, a huge buffalo jump, Capital Reef, The Arches, Pipe Springs, Grand Canyon (north and south rim), Kaibab, Petroglyphs, Walnut Canyon, Petrified Forest and Painted Desert, Bandalier (not sure if that name is quite right, but it was wonderful), Zion, Anasazi State Park, Aztec, Bryce, Mesa Verde.  I am probably forgetting something, we saw SO much!!!  It was phenomenal to see all this landscape and history.  We even did a bit of other stuff and took 1 day off!  For a pair of "old folks" we moved along pretty well!  So, here are a few of our photos for you to hopefully enjoy.  I'll be back with a few pieces of new artwork over the next week or so.


          I tried to enlarge, but it will only show so much of them so to open up any of the wider views you can click on it.  They lose soooo much in smaller size.  :(
AHHHH...  I just realized you click on one, you can then see them all.  BUT you miss the comments, not many but still I think help make it more interesting so maybe quick look at the comments then the photos.

Oh, yes, we also had a quick trip to CA this past July and stopped in at Yosemite and another Petrified Forest there.  San Francisco Wharf, and John Muir Woods.  First the July trip.

 Always gotta have one of the locals photos!  
                                                  

                               

Now for the BIG trip! 

This is California Condor #87   

      Grand Canyon.

     

                              Capiall Reef

               Yellowstone  (below is buffalo herds)

                             

             Back to the Grand Canyon.

Devil's Tower, above,  Coral Reef below

               Bridges Nat'l. Monument- there are cliff dwelling ruins all over Utah, AZ, and NM/Colorado!!!

                     Coral Reef.

                           South Dakota homestead

                Badlands

              Yellowstone

                                   A couple of cuties.  :)

              Grand Teton

   Beauty, beauty, EVERYWHERE you looked!

 

 This was the scene each evening when we stopped for a camping spot.  :)

                        Grand Teton

                

 That is smoke from a forest fire.  We saw several of these and it made the Teton area and Yellowstone somewhat gray quite often.  Mornings seemed to be worst.  Seemed to clear up some later on.

 Eagles nest on top of the rock ridge.  (Yellowstone)

                                           Another eagle's nest.

  Just beauty along the roadside...

                                  Yellowstone

                                One of my favorite "buddies".

                                   Mesa Verde  (above)

 LOOK CLOSELY-  there are walls and old homes here in these next photos!

             Petroglyphs...

        The Painted Desert at Sunset

        Back to the Grand Canyon...

    This one is blurry because it was actually nearly dark.  Notice the car lights.  Well, people are NOT supposed to stop on the road like this (no shoulder, traffic jams- Grand Canyon) and dangerous.  This was the rutting season and the bulls were not in good humor.  This fellow would have rammed a car if not for the quickness of a tourist bus driver honking his horn and distracting him.

      We saw 3 of these fellows along the way, this one was one of 2 alike- Grand Canyon, the other was a 
  little larger and all brown, in Zion.

I hope you've enjoyed these photos.   I didn't come near to showing everything, let alone all my photos!  LOL.  We were gone 5 wks.  This is just a smidgeon.  Go out and explore our great country.  It is AMAZING!

                     GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!