Can We Get Back To Normal Now?

 Spring has definitely sprung where I live - primroses and violets in the garden, as well as daffodils and plum blossom.  The year is already a quarter through and I feel as though most of it has been spent either with builders in our house or with me ill.  After the kitchen refurbishment, which ate the whole of January, we were then told they wanted to fit a new boiler and water tank - begs the question as to why this wasn't done at the same time as the kitchen, but I guess that would require some sense and logic...
Anyway, that took place a week ago, and yesterday we had a chap come round to make good the mess caused last week.  We've also had numerous visits by various plumbers trying to sort out why the cold tap in the bath was only giving out a trickle since the refurbishment.  Despite me asking every time if it could possibly be the knackered feeder valve in the airing cupboard, I was ignored and each plumber had a different theory which meant they went off promising to come back and sort it and were never seen again.  However, after pushing to get it fixed before one of us got third degree burns in the shower, the fifth plumber came last week, ostensibly to change the taps (which were brand new six months ago) but after I explained the situation he crashed around for a bit then came downstairs saying he'd identified the problem.  Can you guess what it was?  Yeah...maybe the blonde lady should have been listened to six weeks ago and saved you all a lot of time!  So finally we have a safe bath, and hopefully after they come tomorrow to sort out a radiator that isn't working properly since the boiler was fixed (you really couldn't make this up) I might get my life back.  I wonder just how many days I have wasted on this in total - it has been virtually impossible to get any work done when I have strange men and their tools, dust sheets, and loud drills causing a disturbance.

There has been a fair bit of knitting in the evenings though, most of which I can't show just yet.  You'll have to make do with a small bowl of plums...

I've also been working on this painting - while at first glance it looks pretty normal, I have a bit of a different idea for this one, it will carry a bit of a message.  I'll only show it if it works!

Work In Progress...

I can honestly say I haven't had this much painting time in a very long while!  As the kitchen and bathroom refits  take their course, there is not much else I can be doing around the house while it is full of workmen, dust sheets, equipment and mess.  So continuing the vague theme, I have started another animal portrait in acylics on board, a raccoon this time.  I had fun with the background, using lots of glazes, stippling, sponging, dripping...and then rubbing half of it off in order to get the effect of tree bark.  Nearly over-did it, but luckily I have a magic sponge that takes the paint off very efficiently even when it has dried.  We have another three days of work in the house, perhaps I will be able to complete this by the weekend!

The kitchen & bathroom are nearly done - we are in fact a day ahead of schedule thanks to the lovely tiler staying very late on Monday to finish both rooms, and the painter yesterday finding it an easy job - we look after our home, it just needed a couple of coats of paint, not much else.  It's all coming together and looking very nice indeed. I cannot wait to start putting everything back and returning to normality.  I think the dog must be feeling the same way - I bought a crate for her which has been wonderful, a safe haven as well as a means of keeping her contained if I need to pop out.  She's only been shut in it a couple of times for no more than half an hour, but it's good to know the option is there should we need it and that everyone remains safe. Three more days...

Fine Fox...

Despite the chaos around me, or perhaps because of it, I have finished this in record time - nothing else I could do this week other than sit and paint while they do the kitchen & bathroom.

This is now for sale in my Etsy shop - acrylic on mountboard.

Lurch - A Very Fine Bear...

 I completed this yesterday - it's a portrait of a bear known as 'Lurch' who lived at Brooks Falls,  Katmai National Park in Alaska.  He was a big and powerful old bear, took no nonsense, and I used to like seeing him on the live cams.  However, this July he stopped appearing and a decomposed body was found nearby that was pretty much identified as him by the teeth - it was quite sad, but part of the circle of life.  I didn't plan on painting him, I just happened to see this great photo someone had taken that I wanted to paint from, and the fact that it was Lurch was just lucky.

This has been painted in acrylics on canvas board, and was kind of a follow on from the wolf I painted earlier this month, both close up portraits with no background on square canvases.

 I'd like to do more in this style, just considering which animal to focus on next.

This watercolour portrait has been kept under wraps for over a month as it was a Christmas present for my nephew's wife in the USA.  Hopefully they have opened it by now - I've not heard anything...