Beau - 8 x 8 inches - oil on canvas

"Beau" - 8 x 8 inches - oil on canvas

I was commissioned to paint "Beau," a Basset hound mix as a birthday gift.  Beau has quite a personality.  When his "sister" Olivia was getting any attention, Beau would immediately insert himself into the picture.  If there were belly rubs to be had, Beau wasn't about to miss out!

Portraits, whether human or animal, are challenging and require more care than landscapes or still lifes.  I was given a handful of photos of Beau which made my job easier as I could view him from several angles to make sure I was capturing his essence as much as possible.  Below is a photo of Beau getting the attention that he knows he deserves.

The Popcorn Painters

Every summer for the past 4 or 5 years, I've taught a painting class to a group of girls.  They've grown up a lot and now range in age from 9 to 15.  

I always try to find something fun and colorful to paint that they'll enjoy hanging on their wall.  In the past we've painted pears, cupcakes, ice cream cones and Hershey Kisses.

Even though I lead them through the painting step-by-step, I talk about art concepts like forms, shadows and highlights.

The littlest one is very free and easy and always loves what she does.  She realized that she didn't leave enough room for the word "Corn" under the word "Pop."  Her sister looked at the painting and said, "It looks fine ...just leave it as 'Pop'."  She thought for a second, said "Okay!" and then immediately added two exclamations points and underlined the word, "Pop."  No problemo.  We should all paint like 9 year olds!

"Summer" - 6 x 6 inches - oil on canvas

"Summer" - 6 x 6 inches - oil on canvas

The two small slices of light shining through the holes at the top of the blue crate are what caught my eye.  I was immediately drawn to them as these nectarines sat on my counter.  I tried to keep this loose and painterly and am pretty happy with the end result.  (I've often said that paintings go through a "middle schooler stage" where they are awkward, pimply and a bit ugly until they are transformed into a more attractive high schooler.  This painting definitely went through that awkward stage so I was a bit worried for a while but persevered!)

I've made a few additional sea glass suncatchers and posted one on ebay.  It is an interesting one using old brown bottle tops and a rare red glass bead.  You can view the listing here.