This painting has been very challenging. I’m working with multiple photos, combining them, and making stuff up, hoping for it to be believable. It is very large for me: 20×28? 24×30? Can’t remember. Huge. Because this is not a commission, there is no deadline, no requests or requirements, no money waiting at the end to […]
Is This Little Boy Finished?
Remember this? With nothing to lose except some time and perhaps any requests to ever do portraiture, I dove in to finish this. I am annoyed that I began painting the boy before I evaluated his placement on the canvas. Other than that major composition error, I am happy with the painting. I think his […]
Sawtooth in the Fall (and in the Wrong Location)
I erroneously thought I could finish this painting in just two more sessions. (This could be called The Triumph of Hope Over Experience.) My painting sessions are shorter than I like right now. Some of this is because the tech troubles continue, necessitating a trip to the Apple Store in Fresno (to no avail). Since […]
Because I Want To —Wait, Sawtooth??
Been painting things lately just because I want to, so why am I painting Sawtooth? I began this painting because there is a messed up wall in the foyer at church where I hung a large painting of Sawtooth with lots of wildflowers just to cover the mess. The woman who keeps things looking good […]
More Painting Because I Want To
In my recently reduced 36,000 photos on my laptop, there are many that I want to paint. Some are simple single subjects, and others are complex scenery requiring many photos. Occasionally I scoot the photos into a folder on the desktop in case I get an opportunity to just paint because I want to, instead […]
Odd Job | Painting a Bear
One hot morning I decided to tackle the newly cleaned bear, an odd job. Not literally—figuratively speaking. It’s probably never a good idea to tackle a bear. The bear arrived essentially just three colors: black, white, and faded black. Using my mural paints, I mixed up a color as close to black as possible. I […]
Cabins as Inspiration
I’ve shown you random cabin photos of cabin details over the past 2 posts. Here are a few drawings of various cabin details I’ve depicted in pencil and colored pencil through the recent years. Some of these were commissioned drawings; others remain in my flat files. Should you be interested in purchasing, just email me. […]
An Odd Job | Bearly Working
I forgot to warn Trail Guy that there was a bear in the workshop and thus, it startled him. The cats were fine with it. He had some spots—bird droppings? dust on his feet? —that I really noticed when I set him on the table to begin painting. Since these customers (very close friends, actually) […]
SOLD in Summer 2026
Every so often I need to see what has sold, or I begin to drift into thinking that I am irrelevant, semi-retired, on the edge of obsolescence, and possibly about to go under. Entirely realistic, as you can see. Not. You’ve seen several (many?) of these in progress, after they were finished and scanned or […]
Cock-a-doodle-doo and Gilroy too
I started this 8×8″ painting of a rooster from A Housewife Writes because I wanted to, not because I think it will have a large market among my tens of followers. I finished it for the same reason. He is wet and shiny in this photo; when he dries, I’ll try to remember to scan […]