"Grace"

Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel 8" x 10"

One of my fellow internet artists, Dominique Eichi, was kind enough to send me some reference photos of her chocolate lab, Grace, back in 2008 when I was looking for grist for the creative mill.  Four years later her long wait has paid off (I hope).  You can see from her blog; http://artbydominiqueeichi.blogspot.com/ that Grace is very much her constant companion.  I saw today that she, too, had a go at painting her in September of 2010.  Thanks, Dominique!  She was fun to paint.

"Baby O"

Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel - 6" x 8"

I was going to title tonight's entry "Burn Out" - not because I am burned out, far from it.  Because, once again my painting light has burned out.  It is now nearly impossible to buy a high wattage flood light.  Thanks to those good folks in Washington, we have to suffer the cold pallor of CFL bulbs.  Yuck!!  Today I was experimenting with a tandem light source - a supposedly "full spectrum" CFL and a warm 100 watt "Reveal" bulb in a clip-on lamp just below.  I am not unhappy with the results.  That said, I am not thrilled with the reproduction of this painting. It is much, much nicer in real-life.  The reds of her pigtails on the right got lost and there is a bit of glare on the left. C'est la vie.

"Laissez les bons temps rouler!"

Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel - 8" x 10"

Attention shoppers! Yes, this month's Diana Moses Botkin's challenge is shopping. I was in New Orleans recently, which is why there has been no new work here lately, NOT because I've lost the spark. These girls were in a souvenir shop trying on masks and boas and were kind enough to acquiesce to an impromptu modeling session.

My fellow challengees had some fun takes on the subject:

"Shopping Without A List"
Oil 8"x8"
©2012 Mary Maxam

"Shop 'til You Drop"
Original unframed oil 4"x6"
©2012 Diana Moses Botkin

"Petco with Poppy"
Oil on canvas 8x11"

©2012 Vicki Ross