The New Brood

My husband and I really did it this time. We so missed not having that extra heartbeat in a room. That little creature that loved you unconditionally. That constant shadow who followed you from room to room, well.....if you love dogs you know what I mean.

So we decided to do something we wanted to do for a long time, rescue a greyhound.

Enter "Kiowa Sunbeam", who is now our wonderful girl Kai!

We wanted Kai to have a companion(we always had a few dogs at a time) and we wanted to find a male terrier mix so I hit Petfinder. com for weeks until I found this little guy, Dutch. There was only one problem. Dutch was in Arkansas and we were in New Jersey.

So I have a friend who was born and raised in Arkansas and with the help of another friend's great on gas Toyota , we decided to make a mad dash halfway across the country to his parents home in the northern part of Arkansas.

As we drove out to Arkansas we stopped at just about every TJ Maxx we could find. My friend Shea has a justifiable addiction to these Belgium chocolates that are only available at TJ Maxx during the Christmas season. If you loooove chocolate you know it had to be done!

Now, little Dutch (he was actually called Hutch at this point) was in the south western part of the state. My friend Shea, has a friend Martha, who was not that far from Dutch's location. Martha was going to be heading up to the Ozarks (nearer to where Shea's parents live) and offered to pick up Dutch and drop him off to us. It saved us about another 6 hours of driving, so we thrilled. In hindsight though, we could of found a few more TJ Maxx's but the car was already so loaded down with the stuff I don't think we would have had room for the dog and one more piece.

On the day we were to meet Martha, we had quite a few hours to kill before our rendezvous so my friend Shea takes me to the most incredible natural wonder in the world, the Blanchard Springs Caverns. I highly recommend seeing these caverns if you ever get to the Ozarks. I can not even describe this other worldly experience. Amazing!

Being the artists that we are we had to stop in this art center in the Ozarks and take a look at some of the wonderful handcrafted items from the local artists. Well while we were there Martha calls to let us know she had Dutch and would see us in a few hours but that there was a problem.

About 20 minutes before Martha arrived at the Bailey Family Special Needs Animal Rescue Dutch's brother Starski was returned to the rescue center. He had been adopted a week earlier and the family decided they did not want him. My husband had really liked Starski and we had inquired about him before Dutch, well you know where this is going by now.

I could not say yes, "bring him too", without talking to my husband first. I called him over and over on his cell phone and could not reach him. I called people that might know where he was (most likely on his job site) and left messages to please have him call me. Martha had to leave in a very short time so she would not have to be driving through the night. I needed to make a decision and I was also thinking "two puppies, we would have to be out of our minds". We are!

My husband got back to me in the nick of time. Here is Milo formerly known as Starski. We just had to have the little guy!

This was quite a trip. The first thing we had to do when we got into Arkansas, at about 7 pm, was to pull into a dark bank parking lot and change into black clothes to go to a viewing of Shea's sister's father-in-law, at the local funeral parlor. Shea never met the man and I certainly did not know him or anyone else. We were also the only two people dressed in black looking like we were going to a NY art opening compared to all the jeans and cowboy type shirts. Was kind of surreal. The mourners were the happiest nicest bunch of people you ever wanted to meet. Did not feel like any family viewing I've been to back east.

There were so many little quirky episodes on this trip that we should have been filming it all. Since I am not the best writer I will spare you all from any further details.

Just enjoy these photos of our new family because we are enjoying them immensely!

Happy Holidays from "The Wild Thing"

"The Wild Thing " 5x7 pencil on gessoed linen mounted on board

I am back and I want to wish everyone a wonderful Holiday Season and a better New Year for all!

Happy Halloween

 Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream

                                      Edgar Allen Poe

Degas 1997-2009

"When the Man woke up he said,
'What is Wild Dog doing here?'
And the Woman said,
'His name is not Wild Dog any more,
but the First Friend,
because he will be our friend
for always and always and always.'"
- Rudyard Kipling

Their is so much to say when you lose your very best friend and not enough words to say it. I think Rudyard Kipling said it well for my husband and I.

Big Blue

Big Blue   oil on linen   20x30

I always wanted to do a horse painting and here is the first one!

Mother and Son

Mother  oil on linen   8x8
Son  oil on linen 8x8

This  mother and son  were out on a cold  NYC day. Of course you wouldn't know they were in NY because I decided to not place them in Manhattan. I was more interested in them, as oppose to the city. There was something isolated about the two even though they were together. I thought they would work well out on what looks like an icy lake in Minnesota.

Top Hat , a Dreamer and time to Surrender

This piece is "Surrender ",  20"x 20" oil on linen. It is based on a musician I knew at what seems like a  lifetime ago. It was at the point when he finally decided to let the dream go. He never did become that "star" but I hear through the grapevine that he invented some board game and made a ton of money. Go figure!

This piece "Dreamer" is pencil on mylar mounted on a board with an oil color wash. Well the title says it all.

Here is a small painting from a series of pieces I am working on involving a top hat. This piece is 8"x8"  oil on linen and is titled of course,  Top Hat. 

A Loooooong Time

Lilly of the Fields

I have been busy, busy, busy but I feel like I am not getting enough done. Painting has been going slowly. I have always been able to "whip 'em out" but for some reason it is not moving along as quickly as I would like it to but I am determined and will get through this.

Anyway... here is a piece I did about a month ago to loosen up and have some fun,

"Lilly of the Fields." I love goats! Never owned one but I love them just the same.

A dear friend of mine, (who is a best selling and inspirational author, that you must go here to listen to her talk about nurturing creativity on TED.com) stopped by and when she saw this goat painting , I thought she was going to cry .

"Lilly" she shrieked "it's my goat Lilly!"

Liz, grew up on a Christmas tree farm and had a number of goats and apparently this goat looked just like her all time favorite love, Lilly. Needless to say , I titled this goat painting Lilly of the Fields and it is now on her wall and not mine!

Enjoy it and I will be posting more soon and don't forget to go to TED (which is a fabulous site) and listen to Liz's talk!

Something Different

Tara
Leah

While I am busy painting and finishing up my garden I thought I would post a couple of my photographs. These are photos which I  take of my models and use as compositional references for my paintings. These  lovely ladies will be in some of my new paintings soon. I will post more later! 

Na-a-ay-Sayers

 naysayer:  one who denies, refuses, opposes, or is skeptical or cynical about something..... and in my point of view, when a naysayer screws up, instead of taking responsibility for their actions they would rather find a scapegoat!

Been a While

This is a much better and accurate image of  "Madame". It was tough photographing it because of the high contrasts in the piece. Looks much better for sure!

 " Madame" oil on linen 6x6

" Lila" oil on linen 6x6

                      "Envy" oil on linen -SOLD

Well it has been a while and I finally have been able to get back to work! I am a little rusty but hopefully I will get back up to speed!

Neoteric Art Interview

I was interviewed by Norbert  Marszalek  for his really cool art site,  Neoteric Art.

There are a number of  great interviews and articles that are worth  checking out!

 

I have been doing a whole lot of painting lately but unfortunately, it has been walls and a very unusual library. My husband Michael, is a woodworker and he is making  a large "Dr. Suess" type library for a client. Very different indeed. Whimsical. He needed a  meticulous painter so I told him I would help.

I should be finished this week. Hurray!! Then back to the studio.

A Wondrous Life

Andrew Wyeth had been an artist that the public loved and the critics loved to hate.

I am on the "loved" side. If it wasn't for Andrew Wyeth I don't know if I would have found art.

When I was about five or six I was looking through a book my mother had about American artists. This was the only art book I can remember my family having at that time. I came upon an austere, somber painting of a cross with old white rags blowing in the wind against a barren landscape. I don't know why this painting moved me the way it did but it did . 

That painting was "The Scarecrow" by Andrew Wyeth and I have kept that book with me for decades.

I have been lucky to be only about an hour from the Brandywine River Museum that houses a wonderful collection of Andrew's, N.C's and Jamie Wyeth's (love their work too) works and I have gone to the museum often.

So today I was feeling melancholy as I drove around the countryside of Bucks county Pa. to pick up my eggs from a local farmer (I live along the Delaware River on the NJ side). The sky was sooooo grey , the forests tall and vacant and there were remnants of snow on the hills,  and I felt I was in a Wyeth painting.

He lived a long and enviable life. A  life consumed with the brush. We are so fortunate that the best part of him will be with us for lifetimes to come!