Ultraviolet Quartz

Sometimes its a good idea to paint in one colour, it helps you with seeing lights and darks. This is what I did with this little painting - an 11x8 inch, all painted in Ultramarine Violet from the Winsor and Newton artists range of paints.
By the way, there's not a scrap of white in this painting :) 

Glynis, I hope you notice the FeltPet of my little Spotty! She stands right here on the glass computer table, where she still brings me much pleasure.
There is a FeltPet of Missy too, but that wasn't in the right place for this painting :)

Ultraviolet Quartz

For love of Spot

Painting the Spots

A gift from God, you came to me,
My darling little Spot
You made me laugh, you made me love
You made me proud - a lot! 

You taught me much, my darling Spot
I remember to this day
That love's a wonderful thing to have,
But better still to give away.

I painted these pictures, my gorgeous girl
That all should know the love
A rescue dog can bring to them
Like you, my friend above.

There'll come a day we'll meet again
What joy that will surely be
I hope when that day comes, my love
You'll be just as proud of me.

*

This is the final painting in the Painting the Spots series:

Nalah and Mollie

and the others who were painted are:

Scrappy

Chance

Penny

Hope and Jade

Wishie and Heidi

Jazzie

For an explanation of "Painting the Spots" please see previous post. 

Painting and Sketching

It seems like forever since I posted a painting.
Today isn't going to change that.
I do have a painting I'm working on, but the progress is slow due to the emotional attachment.

Six years ago I lost my first dog, Spotty. She was a rescue we adopted at 18 months old and she lived to be 18 years old. I loved her immensely. Still do.

 This is her photo on a picnic set that Tonya from  Hillbilly Handiworks made for me.







In honour of her, I offered to "paint the Spots" on a jack russell forum I belonged to. (Jack Russells Online, owned by Bill Tomei, r.i.p.)   The bronze, silver and gold of beloved dogs who were adopted, and the bronze, silver and gold of the dogs belonging to that dedicated band of people who rescue dogs.

Five portraits were done within a couple of months. The sixth is the one I am currently working on. The rescuer involved is Suzy, who runs "Saving Georgia Dogs" . Sadly she's kept so busy it took her til now to photo and send the pics of her two dogs.  So that's what I'm working on and its bringing back all sorts of memories.

I'm also keeping up with the sketch-a-day challenge. The finish line is 75 sketches. We're in the thirties now :)
For this lot, I swapped to a coloured background and an inked subject.  Fast sketching at 3 minutes, then stopping - finished or not!   Wonder if I'll ever paint this fast? :)

Art in everyday life

Hello friends!

I have a real treat of a post today and some beautiful pictures.
I have a friend in blog land called Tonya from Hillbilly Handiworks.
You can see her blog HERE

I approached her to make some picnic sets for myself and my husband.
I knew she could make photo quilts, so I asked her if she could somehow make a photo picnic set, with a picture of each of our darling dogs in it.

She did it - and they arrived today!
My word, but they are beautiful. I love art that I can use as well as admire!

Tonya makes these from your own photo and she can make them any colour you want! They cost $20 each. (That's about £12 in sterling)
You aren't limited to dogs - you could have a photo of anything!

here they are

I should have waited to take pictures, so you could see them nice and flat, but I was too keen to show you all :)

And further in my parcel, was a surprise gift from my friend, Marie!
She had asked Tonya to make an arty gift for me.
This is a dual purpose roll - it holds my delicate brushes for doing fine work, to save them getting battered by the big brushes - and it also doubles up as a watercolour pencil holder! How neat is that!  I can't tell you what this cost, because it was a gift, but I'm sure if you contact Tonya, she'll quote you.
Here's my newest piece of art kit :)

In praise of good friends.

The internet can be a wonderful thing. Within the worldwide web we have made some good friends, who we love very much.

Recently, one of those good friends - Amy Tomei - sent us a parcel, just so we knew she loved us too!

Missy was fascinated by the parcel.

Is this for me?

Its a locket for mummy, with mine own picture in it!

and the picture of my sister in Heaven, Spotty

Pleeeeze let me habs it, mummy!

Comes to me, Foxy!

and Heffalump - meet my teeth!

Den me hypnotised mummy to gib me a tweet

and it werked! 

 Thank you so much Amy - the locket will be treasured forever - the watercolour paints and paper will be used to create something nearly as beautiful as your friendship -- though I have a sneaky feeling that Missy's toys won't last that long!

Waking, sleeping and a special blankie.

We took some beautiful pics of Missy this weekend, so I wanted to share them.
Firstly, Paul took one of her after she had just woken from being asleep on my lap.....


and then I took one when she retired to a very special blankie, that was Spotty's. I recently came across it in one of the boxes I was unpacking. I scrunched it up and held it close, remembering my first girl. When I put it on the sofa, Missy jumped straight up on it and curled up! No sniffing, no turning, just a comfortable curl and sleep.
My precious girls.

Angel hair

Here in this stage, I painted the angel hair.

Painted in a glorious cobalt turquoise, initially it seems an odd choice, but it fits.
You might think, given what the ginger jar is used for, that this would be a hard piece to paint - but its not.
Just as Spotty gave me so much pleasure, painting her jar is giving me pleasure too :)
I may be an odd duck!
(Eccentric, for those who have never heard the saying)

Poole Pottery

I have a beautiful piece of Poole Pottery.
Its a ginger jar, bought to house the ashes of my first dog, Spotty.

I fell in love with the design, which reminded me of angels' wings; with the angels gathered round a central light.

It seemed quite fitting, for I truly believe my little girl is Heaven, with the angels - probably chasing them, as she used to chase the seagulls, just to see them fly!

Missy doesn't chase seagulls - but she will have a bark at them if they fly over our garden - after all, its her air space :)

FeltPets

FeltPets
Delightful miniature replicas of your own pet. The above shows my darling Spotty and below my darling Missy.

The lady who makes these is an artist in needle felting and I am honoured to own some of her work. She is very talented.

Click the link to view her blog and gallery and you will see artwork I guarantee will make you smile.