monday, again...

progress report on the 'couch dogs', billie is done...now on to buddy...things are looking pretty good for these portraits...i'm looking forward to seeing how things will work out...

i found this photo that i took last fall of a drive-in near my hometown...my dad would take my sister and i to see a movie there often during the summer...one movie in particular i remember seeing there was 'blazing saddles' and i must say for a kid to watch grown men sitting by the fire eating beans with the inevitable result of, well a round of gas, was hilarious!...i remember the sound of that scene echoed as is was blaring through a hundred or so speakers precariously perched to car windows...the sound was very loud along with the laughter of several kids who were witnessing the mel brooks' directed scene...good times..i was amazed to see that the drive-in was still open for business...i'm not sure if kids today will have the same fond memories of being there as i do...i think i'd like to do a series of paintings of this place someday with one or two pieces being very large in size...might make for an interesting show...

beautiful sunny, cold day here in the big smoke...time for some motown and coffee...

saturday...

a snowy day here in the big smoke...went out for breakfast early this morning, coffee and a half of a bagel...a client just left with her painting and here i sit in the studio about to start work for the day...starting work on the actual subjects of the 'couch dogs triptych'...first up, billie...i don't think this one will take very long to complete as she is all black with curly fur...yesterday i included a rope toy next to billie but will complete it when i finish painting all the dogs...

but before i start work, i have to put a load of laundry in the wash...i wonder if georgia o'keefe ever painted while waiting for the 'spin cycle' to end?...

wednesday...

well not much to report today, as i'm just working away on the 'background' of the 'couch dogs'...it seems like i've been working on this part of the painting for a very long but then again, it is a triptych...

the painting i've placed in this blog entry is of a gate belonging to a church in trampas, new mexico...a small painting, one of the nearly forty i did this past summer while spending a month in taos...

back to work...

monday update...

the movie 'the queen' was fantastic...helen mirren did a wonderful job at portraying someone who has suppressed her emotions and feelings for most of her life...i wonder if the royal family even has feelings or emotions or perhaps they were born without?...i felt rather sorry for 'liz' as i suspect that sometimes she ponders what it would be like to simply drive off in her range rover with her dogs and never return to lead a life of the 'ordinary' british woman...can you see her now, playing bingo in the church basement saturday, getting her hair done (maybe something other than the 'royal' blue rinse) once a week at the local beauty parlour, going out with the girls for beer and wing night at the pub, shopping for bargains at marks and spencer and i could go on...hmmm, would she really like to cut loose?...personally i think she should kick old prince phil to the curb and have a fling with someone much younger for starters...

back to work...

sunday...

spending some time here in the studio working on the 'couch dogs'...things are coming along slowly but in a good way...it seems in my head that i work much faster than in reality and this can be frustrating at times...i'm planning on painting for a few hours today then head out to see the movie 'the queen'...

tomorrow my paintings will be returned as per my request from the gallery that i was dealing with and will no longer have any connection to...why?...well this is a topic i'm going to save to write about at some point in the future, perhaps tomorrow after the paintings are returned...let's just say that i was trying to have a professional relationship with the owner and that just wasn't reciprocated...she kept forgetting about scheduled meetings and never called to cancel or apologise...even after a week of knowing that i was very upset over her last 'missed' scheduled appointment, she still didn't have the courtesy to call to make amends...to add further insult, when i called to ask that my work be returned, i was given the cold shoulder in a very short, curt response that she will return them but won't give me a specific time of delivery!...ok so i'm writing about this and i said i wouldn't but this just makes me feel mad...i have kept my end of the 'agreement' with regards to having four completed paintings for her gallery and i'm given attitude??...and that's an example of why a gallery takes 50% commission of what an artist makes, it's hard work being arrogant and unprofessional...ok enough for now, i don't really want to rock the boat too much...

back to the easel...

betty ford and cadbury...

so, yesterday i stepped out for a bit to have a coffee with a friend of mine (also an artist) and he presented me with the 'biggest' chocolate bar i've seen!...and not the awful north american chocolate that tastes like, well i don't know exactly what to equate it with but i know it's not 'chocolate' in the good sense of the word...anyway, here it sits on my desk...i'm not sure if i want to indulge quite yet, it's so impressive in size and i'm afraid of just how long it will take for me to finish it...the scenario could go one of two ways, either it will last quite a while, say a couple of weeks or it will last just a few days...in which case i would have to seek treatment at the betty ford clinic for chocolate addiction!...i think i would need more than 'twelve step programme' to help in burn off the tremendous amount of calories i've just ingested!...

in any case, i think i'll ponder the fate of the large cadbury bar while i figure out what i'm doing with the couch in the 'couch dogs' painting...it seems i'm stuck on the colour of the couch and it's frustrating somewhat...hmmm, chocolate might help to alleviate my mood and help me think clearly?...

ps...yes, that's a penny next to the chocolate bar 'for scale'...

wednesday...

after a brief stop at my massage guy's place for a session, i'm back in the studio working away on the triptych of the 'couch dogs'...things are going along smoothly, so not much to report...

just to keep you amused, here is a painting that a gallery that i'll soon NOT be dealing with won't be receiving...(this is another long story about how galleries just don't do much for artists in general, still mad about this person/gallery) i would love to actually meet a gallery owner who is very serious about representing me and serious about their job...any takers??

back to work...

triptych...

today i begin to work on to a triptych, three dogs sitting on a couch...one puli named 'billie', one jack named, 'buddy' and one beagle named 'roxy'...the client provided amazing photos of each dog and the simplicity of the 'couch composition' will really put the focus on each of the dogs' character...

in fact the next several portraits on my schedule are going to be very unusual and i look forward to working on them...

as far as the 'painting a day' is going, well, slowly but surely things are progressing...

back to the post...

snow day!...

i woke up this morning to the sound of silence...the city was almost at a standstill due to the freezing rain storm that started sometime during the night...what actually got me out of bed was the sound of an accident outside my bedroom window...yes two cars in a fender-bender...once up, i had to decide if i should cancel work due to the weather and stay in bed reading or brave the elements and head off to work...i choose the latter because i am truly a hardy canadian girl...i didn't experience any trouble getting to work and i am sitting in the studio drinking my morning coffee, eating an amazing biscotti and listening to some great jazz on the radio...the weather outside may be stormy but inside here it's rather pleasant...did i mention that the distance i travel to work is about twenty feet down a flight of stairs into the basement?...

i love snow days!...

'kelsey'...

tobi and murphy, the 'boat dogs'...

sometimes i wonder...

i'm listening to jazz on the radio at the moment and i really love jazz, most of it...what i just don't understand is the 'experimental jazz'?...is it 'experimental' because a group of untrained musicians walked into a recording studio and picked instruments for the first time in their lives and started to gnaw away at them?...i'm guesssing the 'experiment' in all this is to see if the general public will be fooled into thinking that this 'music' is worthy of $14.99...

i think i'll change the channel to classical...

sea dragon...

not much to report as i'm starting work on a new portrait today...so i thought i would post this slightly blurry photo of a very cool sea dragon we saw at the tampa aquarium, a sea dragon...it grows up to twelve inches and has the sweetest eyes...i'll post another photo at a later date as i made a short video of the four dragons in their tanks...

going to take my coffee outside this morning for a short sit in the sun...

a couple of small paintings...

moon over palm

florida beach 1

as mentioned yesterday, here are a couple of small (4"x6") paintings i did while on vacation...these and the others i did in florida will be included in the '100 for $100 each studio/show sale'...

today i am back in the studio and ready to begin my winter painting schedule...several commissions have to be completed along with the new additions that came up over the holidays...judging by what i have to do, i think this schedule is going to be a lot of fun as some of the compositions are very unusual...including 'charlie and fletcher' painted in full 19th century dress!...of course, i'll be once again posting the work once completed and the client has received the portrait...

i'll mention here to that if you are interested in receiving updates to the studio show and sale, please visit thehowlingcanvas.com and sign up for them...the first of five commercials should be hitting the 'cyber-waves' sometime later this month...very cool if i say so myself...

off to work...

back home...

after a gruelling twelve hour drive yesterday (gruelling because a certain part of my anatomy was extremely numb from hour eight on and frankly still is this morning...) i have compiled a list of very strange things i saw on both the drive down and home...

here goes:

an elderly man with a huge walking stick crossing the four lane interstate...he wasn't in any hurry, in fact it looked like a leisurely walk with his dogs-did i mention he had two dogs?...they were waiting for him on the shoulder...

two wild pigs eating the grass on the shoulder of the interstate...completely unfazed by the fact that one false step and they'll end up on someone's bbq!...

a family of four sitting in the hotel lobby with all their luggage for hours...why?...they were in a car crash where they were side swiped by some idiot who just swerved in their lane...their car completely rolled over and luckily no one was seriously hurt, including the two year old girl who was strapped into her car seat...this incident occurred christmas eve...

a man on the shoulder of road comforting a dying dog who had just been hit by a passing car...this of course was difficult to look at and it's image is still vivid in my mind...

a very tattooed man wearing a baseball cap standing on a street corner watching traffic go by while holding a very long boa-the snake not the fashion accessory...

a man sitting on many garbage bags in the back of a car/pick up going down the highway...he was also on his cell phone...

these are just a few of the interesting sights seen on the u.s. interstates on the way to florida...

great vacation but now it's time to begin work again...tomorrow back into the swing of things...

i did manage to paint ten 4"x6" paintings while away...the same size that i'll be selling at the '100 for $100 each studio show and sale'...i'll post a couple of these tomorrow...

as well, i received a couple of new commissions one of which is going to a lot of fun to work on...five paintings of pugs in the tropical setting of their home in puerto rico...very cool...

i need a coffee...

new year...new day

sitting here listening to the rain fall outside and the pounding of the surf from the gulf, i wonder what 2007 will bring?...resolutions, will they be 'resolved'?...peace, will it be achieved?...will humans take responsibility for the damage they have done to the planet?...who will win american idol and will that person change the current status of pop music into something more interesting and unique?...jack bauer, will he use all of the 24 hours to find the bad guy?(actually, if he just lock the backdoors of the warehouse where these guys hang out they wouldn't get away so easily!)...and many more deep questions going on in my mind...

what's going on in your world?...

may this year bring you peace, good health and prosperity...(there is a crane in this photo and the chinese regard these beautiful birds as symbols of a longevity, wisdom and good luck...i wish this for you...)