Nasturtium in Blue Vase

Nasturtiums are one of my favorite flowers. They are easy to grow with bright colorful blooms and great foliage. I have a small yard where space is at a premium so I grow these guys in pots and flower boxes as well as in my front garden. This painting is 5" x 7" oil on hardboard. I have been working on small paintings lately, and it really has been helping with a size that allows you to finish a painting in about a week. ( for me that is ). Here's how we use Nasturtium in Blue Vase as a greeting card.

My eBay store has prints & greeting cards of this image & others.
My Cafepress store has more samples on my 2nd new website.
My Etsy Store has more samples on my 3rd new website.

Day Dreamer

Day dreamer is an 8" x 10" oil painting on board of my Cogi Lily taking a mid-afternoon nap maybe dreaming of squirrels (yes squirrels!). I painted the blanket in a much looser style, trying to find a balance that works for me. I tend to paint tightly which can sometimes translate into a stiff painting. When I try to loosen up it feels like I am being too lazy to finish a section or too sloppy, but I like the way this turned out. I hope you enjoy this piece. Here's how we use Day Dreamer as a greeting card.

My eBay store has prints & greeting cards of this image & others.
My Cafepress store has more samples on my 2nd new website.

My Etsy Store has more samples on my 3rd new website.

Tumbling Snowmen

Tumbling Snowmen - new Corgi Christmas card for 2007. I had such a good time with these snowmen drawing them tumbling end over end. May your Christmas stocking be brimming full of good cheer this holiday season and may your Corgi’s be full of dog treats and rawhides.

Tumbling Snowmen is an original oil painting on board inspired by many illustrated childrens books. Here's Tumbling Snowmen as a Christmas Card.

My eBay store has prints & greeting cards of this image & others.
My Cafepress store has more samples on my 2nd new website.
My Etsy Store has more samples on my 3rd new website.

Mug Shot

While I don’t have a Pug myself, my niece has three perfect models to chose from. I would like to start adding some different breeds to my yearly Christmas cards besides my traditional Corgi.

Thought that a Pug card might be fun. As usual, I have way too many ideas some sketched out and some just in the thought process were you think that you will remember them. For me it is best to sketch it out, no matter how rough just to have a record of an idea. A month down the road having that sketch will come in handy. I have a bunch of small 5" x 7" sketch books, that I use around the house, one on my drawing table, and one in my work tote bag. I constantly refer to them.

Mug Shot is a pastel painting done on Sennelier La carte sanded paper, and came from a sketch I did of him a while ago napping on a comforter. I loved the pose with the paw behind his head. Here's how we use Mug Shot in our 100 year archival Giclee prints.

My eBay store has prints & greeting cards of this image & others.
My Cafepress store has more samples on my 2nd new website.

My Etsy Store has more samples on my 3rd new website.

Hanging Out The Wash

This fun little illustration is an oil painting on a 5" x 7" primed hardboard surface. I’ve done a few of these whimsical pieces and hope to continue the series because I really enjoy them.

It's such a departure for me to paint bright bold colors and repetitive patterns and not get lost in some minute detail. I have a book on the wonderful artist Charles Wysocki which I've started looking over and studying how he handled patterns. He has a stylized way of depicting the mountains, hills & trees in the background that flattens the object, which is a large part of the charm of folk art painting.

I have a lot of fun when I paint like this - here's how we used Hanging Out The Wash as greeting cards in our new Etsy store.

CAN YOU FEEL THE BREEZE !!

My eBay store has prints & greeting cards of this image & others.
My Cafepress store has more samples on my 2nd new website.

My Etsy Store has more samples on my 3rd new website.

Happy Easter

Doc & Pete

I've always been fascinated by the 'Pony-Pulls' they have at one of our local Autumn country fairs. Pound for pound these little guys show more energy & unbridled enthusiasm than the huge draft horses that also compete in this type of event. The adult horse teams often pull weights up to 18,000 lbs which is incredible to watch.

These little guys pull a much smaller load in comparison, but the best thing about them is the way they seem to really enjoy the competition. I think it's something akin to the way a race horse, running side by side & neck to neck with another horse really is trying, all by himself, to beat the other horse. The jockey is pretty much just along for the ride and it's the horse's heart & spirit that determines the outcome in that indefinable moment.

You see something similar with these teams, when competing. There's a certain something in the look in their eyes, seconds before they're released to try their 'Pull'. The best thing is the way their owners put more concern to their well being than winning a prize. Their drivers often wave off any more attempts when they know their little guys have given enough. It really touches the heart, how much concern is shown to them, and always elicits a big round of applause from the gathered crowd. All in all, the finest side of both horse & man.

The original Pen & Ink of this work took me months to complete because of the countless tiny dots of ink that makes up the image. It's probably the reason I don't do Pen & Inks very often. Here's how we use Doc & Pete as greeting cards in our new Etsy store.

WATCH YOUR STEP !!

My eBay store has prints & greeting cards of this image & others.
My Cafepress store has more samples on my 2nd new website.

My Etsy Store has more samples on my 3rd new website.

Sleeping Beauty aka 'Reclining Dude'

Ember has lived with us for at least 10 years. He is a fairly good sized Tabby male with a large flat head and sweet face. He has one of the most patient dispositions I have ever had in a furry friend. He first started coming around when we had two (fixed) Calico females, 'Roos' & 'Chloe'.

Ember loves the women folk, but unfortunately the only female in his life right now is Lily, our Corgi, but that does not deter him. He is also extremely cool, something I think he prides himself in. His fur is so complicated with the various shades of grey, tan, brown and flecks of gold that it can be intimidating to try and paint him.

What I love about Ember is the way he dominates his space. When he is in a chair he occupies the whole pad, with a little overhang at both ends. When sleeping on the bed or the couch he seems to really enjoy stretching out - I guess you could say he's extremely comfortable in his skin.

The original pastel of Ember - Sleeping Beauty aka 'Reclining Dude' - was a pastel on Sennielier La Carte sanded paper and came from a sketch I did of him a while ago napping on a comforter. I loved the pose with the paw behind his head. Here's how we use Sleeping Beauty in our 100 year archival Giclee prints.

My eBay store has prints & greeting cards of this image & others.
My Cafepress store has more samples on my 2nd new website.

My Etsy Store has more samples on my 3rd new website.

A Christmas Gift Of Peace & 'Thank You'

A big ‘Thank You’ to our eBay and Cafepress customers. We have had a wonderful Christmas season and hope our greeting cards and gift items add to your holidays too! Merry Christmas and looking forward to 2007.

'A Christmas Gift of Peace' was as usual, a collaborative effort between my husband Frank and myself. For my models, I had photographed he and our Corgi together, with him offering 'Maggie' a treat, because I had planned to have Santa offering the Corgi in the painting a wrapped gift. However as an image it just didn't work. Somewhere in my sketches I had done a snowman offering the Corgi that same gift, and I love to paint snowmen. Frank suggested the bone instead, a cat to give it a story-line and the name 'A Christmas Gift of Peace' & the rest as they say 'is history'.

The little cat ‘Twinks’ loves our yard because we feed the birds. She is very furry and friendly with no fear of Lily our Corgi. She has a tendency to nip playfully when she gets excited, so we’ve learned not to pet her too much, but she’s really just a big lovable ball of fur. Here's how we use A Christmas Gift Of Peace as a Christmas Card.

Most pet lovers (the lucky ones) at one time or other have a pet that you just connect with, & Maggie was mine. I think our personalities were similar and she always made me feel special. This card is dedicated to her and that rare bond only a very special companion can bring.

Merry Christmas Maggie.

My eBay store has prints & greeting cards of this image & others.
My Cafepress store has more samples on my 2nd new website.

Friendship Going Downhill Fast

There is a cute little Basset Hound that lives two houses down the street from me. He lives with about fifteen cats. I really don’t know anything about him, I just see him sitting outside enjoying the day surrounded by all his furry friends.

Taking a little 'artistic license' - he now has a Corgi friend to share a Winter's ride with, and I confess I still enjoy Tobogganing myself. The original painting is in oil on hardboard & I think my husband came up with a great title for this one.

Here's how we used Friendship Going Downhill Fast as a Christmas Card.

Let It Snow !!!

My eBay store has prints & greeting cards of this image & others.
My Cafepress store has more samples on my 2nd new website.

Trim'n The Tree

This is the finished painting

This is my initial sketch

I love painting snowmen, the rounder the better, with big wide grins and twinkling eyes, wearing colorful hats and scarves. You just have to have some bright colors to jazz things up a bit. After all it’s the holidays!

This is the sketch I worked off of for this year’s Corgi Christmas card - I do a new card every year. A very 'Rubenesque' snowman is helping to decorate a “Charlie Brown Christmas Tree” (I think I have had a few of these). Shiny beads, some glass balls and a star for the top just overwhelm the flimsy little sapling. I really don’t think that these two Corgis will actually be able to get all of the decorations that they plan to on this poor little guy.

My first Corgi was a 'Fluffy' and I drew the Corgi in the foreground much like him. He was built like a tank, solid as a rock. If you look at the sketch you will notice that I moved this dog several times and you may be able to see the erasure marks.

I started out with the snowman since he is the biggest object and central in the design. Next I placed the two Corgis around the tree and tied the elements together with the string of beads that run thru the tree.

My husband & I work together on these cards. I may start a sketch or an idea and then we bounce it back and forth. He adds elements or has a critical eye that notices things that I may not because I'm too close to a painting.

Here's Trim'n The Tree as our new Christmas card for 2006 in our eBay store.

Happy Holidays!!!

My eBay store has prints & greeting cards of this image & others.
My Cafepress store has more samples on my 2nd new website.

Boo To You Two !

Happy Halloween - the season is here & most of the yards in my neighborhood are decked out in their scary best - blow up witches, goblins and even some good old-fashion hand carved pumpkins. With our new kittens this year I have been a little careful about what I put out, as they get into everything. We have had a beautiful Autumn weather-wise, however the colors seemed lacking. And as I was driving home tonight you could feel and see November in the air.

Thought I would just share with you my version of the 'Great Pumpkin'. He rises up in the pumpkin patch just in time to surprise two Corgis that were using it as a shortcut. Here's how we used Boo To You Two on a daily journal in our Cafepress store.

This painting is oil on stretched canvas. Oils are my favorite medium to work in. I am a slow painter, and oils allow me the flexibility of being able to work in one area without the paint drying for a couple of days. For awhile I was painting on small stretched canvases, but now have gone back to gessoed hardboard. With hardboard I can get the detail that I want.

I should say that when I started this blog I wanted to at least do one post a week. I knew that I would not be able to post every day or two, so I approached this with a workable goal. Of course intentions are good and then my computer decided to act like the 'Wicked Witch' in The Wizard of Oz, and had a small melt-down. All is well now and we are back up and running and I will try again.

TRICK or TREAT!!!

My eBay store has prints & greeting cards of this image & others.

My Cafepress store has more samples on my 2nd new website.

Pumpkin Head & Francine

Here's my second pen & ink drawing for Halloween. This work, which I call 'Pumpkin Head', came from old photos I had of decorations on my parent's porch, and what a trip down memory lane this one has been. The Calico cat is Francine - actually she was my sister's cat when we were growing up and she had a natural mean look.

Francine loved my sister - it was just the rest of the family she could have done without. Francine is long gone, and I now live with a whole new 'Fur Family'. No one in this current batch has the evil eye, although Ember (our oldest male) is having to adjust to kittens in the house. He just looks disgusted!

You can see 'Pumpkin Head' on various products in our new Cafepress store - here's an Art Tile Coaster as an example.

The trees around here are just starting to show some fall color & we actually had one night last week in the high 30's. I have not had a frost yet which is nice as I get to enjoy my Cosmos in the garden a little while longer.

My eBay store has prints & greeting cards of this image & others.

My Cafepress store has more samples on my 2nd new website.

Wanna Be My Late Night Snack!

This is one of my pen & ink drawings done with a crow quill pen on Bristol board. I used a stippling technique, dot after dot to produce different shades of gray. While I love pen and inks they are exceedingly time consuming, as well as a little tough on the wrist. My fist Christmas cards were done in this technique, I must have done twenty designs in black and white before I switched over to color.

I had such a good time using this image in my Cafepress store. Halloween is a great season to have fun with. I came up with three versions of products for this image, Late Night Snack, the slightly risque Wanna Be My Late Night Snack (sexy version) & Big Boo & Little Boo Boo (Mom & Baby matching 'Scary' T-shirts).

If you love Halloween as much as I do, check back next time to see what else I've come up with.

My eBay store has prints & greeting cards of this image & others.

My Cafepress store has more samples on my 2nd new website.

Hello World - My First Post!

This is my first post - welcome to my little corner of the Universe. Here I hope to share my love and passion for art and creativity. My happiest moments of the day are spent at my drawing board. You Are My Sunshine - is a pastel inspired by my corgi Lily resting on her sun pillow. She is not always this calm and quiet, and that sun pillow was destroyed long ago.

Pastels have opened up a whole new world for me. The intensity of color that you can achieve by laying one color over the other is exciting. I have even found that I work from a richer palette on my oil paintings. I work in Faber-Castell hard pastels, Sennelier soft pastels and Derwent pencils on Sennelier La Carte Sanded paper.

This blog will continue to be a work in progress & I will be posting new work frequently, so please check back often.

My eBay store has prints & greeting cards of this image & others.

My Cafepress store has more samples on my 2nd new website.