Another Cute Photo

I know it seems as if I'm taking more photos than doing any art these days but I am painting - I'm just not painting anything I can show right now.

But, back to the photo. That's a cute little frog stuck to our glass kitchen storm door in case you can't tell. He was there when I came back from the barn after tending to Bonnie. It was still fairly dark out and I had a hard time getting a good photo. I tried to take a picture from inside but the kind of glass we have in the door evidently isn't good for shooting photos through as all I got was a yellowish blob!

I don't know what it is with the wildlife lately, but our porch has been attractive to it. Yesterday morning as I was going out to the barn to feed Bonnie, there was a little rabbit not far from the kitchen door! Again, it was still pretty dark outside and I didn't see it until I was right up on it! It startled me good, let me tell you! Of course, I'm sure it was startled more than I was! Since I'd come from around the corner (we have a wrap-around porch and I'd gone out another door) I guess it didn't hear or see me coming.

He hopped down the steps ahead of me and couldn't get away fast enough! The little frog didn't hang around very long either. I'd planned to try for more pictures after the sun came up but he was gone by the time that happened.

Oh, well, at least I got this one! I don't know what to expect for tomorrow morning but I'll look carefully before going out - there's been a whiff of skunk in the air the past couple of mornings!

Tulip Photographs

Here are a couple of photos of the tulips in our yard. We're almost too warm for them and many people around here treat them as an annual instead of a perennial bulb.

The bottom photo is the one I used for the reference for the painting. I've tweaked it a bit more but am still unhappy with it. I know it's not good and keep telling myself that Rome wasn't built in a day and I didn't learn to paint with any other medium in one try either. Still, it's a little disheartening. The bright spot is that the canvas can be washed & I can use it for something else!

Hope everyone had a great Easter. My granddaughter arrived from Maine and we had a great visit yesterday. She's not staying with us but is only about 30 miles or so away so I hope to see her a lot before she has to go back home.

Unfortunately, I probably won't be painting nor posting a lot here until she's gone but I'll see you here again as soon as I can!

The Trials of a Pet Portrait Artist!

I have a new commission to paint a very sweet, but lively, LowChen dog. The owner did not have any good photos of him and he's definitely a dog who wouldn't sit still long enough to have his portrait painted so I took some photos of him for references. It almost seemed like a scene out of a Laurel and Hardy movie or something! Just as I'd snap the picture, Samson would turn his head
or scoot completely out of the frame! Food was a great incentive for him - an incentive to dance around until he got a treat from you, that is. At one point, it almost seemed as if he was laughing at us!


I did end up getting some decent photos of him and it was really a fun challenge doing so. Not only did I get some reference photos, I also got to know Samson a bit better. I had never seen a LowChen in person and had only recently even heard of the breed so this was a great opportunity for me. If Samson is any indication of the traits of the breed, I'd definitely recommend one for a pet. He's loving and lively and really beautiful!

Rain

Today is a rainy and dark gray day which is very good even though rainy winter days are usually depressing. We've been in an exceptional drought for months and the larger cities have imposed severe water restrictions. We are blessed with a deep well, however, and have not had problems with running out of water.

So, I'm grateful for the rain and can even deal with the dark grayness of the day especially since the cardinals are visiting the bird feeder this morning. I've been trying to get them used to me being on our back porch so that I can eventually get some photographs of them but they are very skittish. They fly into the branches of the nearby apply trees and wait for me to leave. It's times like this that I wish I had a better camera as the males make such bright spots in the bare branches against the lowering sky! Even with the dark clouds pressing in and the day sort of ominous and forbidding, the bright plumage of the male cardinals offer a cheery counterpoint guaranteed to raise your spirits!