Boots Say "Get To Work"

20 x 16 x 1 1/2 Oil on gallery wrap canvas

These are my stompin' boots I bought a year or two ago, since we have a little problem with rattlesnakes around our property.  I usually only put them on when we have recently sighted one because they aren't as comfortable as I hoped they would be.  But when it's time to do serious work outside (as in, moving rocks or anything where those lovely creatures might pop up), I will don these babies.  I probably mostly just like how they look :-)   Regarding how this was painted, I felt like laying it down pretty darn loose today.
I haven't gotten a ton of painting done lately but I have lost 14 lbs since the photo of me driving the boat (that was in June).  Hooray!  Two steps forward in one area, a step forward elsewhere;  yin and yang and all that...
Oh, one more thing, Donna Crosby honored me by asking me to be her invited artist for an upcoming Austin Art Space Resident Artist Show on Saturday, October 15th.  I need to choose one large or two small available paintings to display that night.  Any opinions about which ones?  I love Donna and am so stoked she asked me to do this.  Thanks for stopping by.

Looking Out From Within

26 x 11 oil on panel

 This was a 'getting back on the horse' exercise today.   I've got my studio set up back where I had it before, which really doesn't have the greatest natural light at this point in time.   I found that if I stood in the family room looking into it (the family room having super bright natural light) that I could really see my palette and I was able to focus and get after it.  It will all work out but ideally I would just take over the entire family room for my studio!  I'm sure no one in this house would have a problem with that.  :-)

We watched the old Kirk Douglas/Anthony Quinn movie about Van Gogh last night.  I had never seen it before and it got me all inspired to get my rear in gear today.  Thanks, Kirk!   I also found out I got in the Plein Air Austin juried exhibition next month (reception is Oct. 16th, 2 to 4 in the Chase Bank Building).  First time I've entered this show so I was relieved not to be... r...r...rejected!  Only entered one painting, the one of Boggy Creek Farm.  I feel like things are looking up in my art world; I've had a really good year so far on painting sales.  This could be my first year to qualify for paying taxes on my art income -- yikes!  It helps that I have weaned myself off of giving paintings away.  :-)

Sunset Profile

5 x 4 inches, oil on canvas, NFS
Again from the same photo but this time I painted her in oil and trying Hawthorne's 'spots of color' approach. I was just looking at Frank Gardner's 100 Mudheads Challenge site today and was glad to be reminded that I need to make paint spots that don't blend together. Every once in a while I have to relearn things because I get mentally lazy (or because my brain is just plain impaired). So in this study for the future portrait of my niece, I was attempting to follow Hawthorne's rule. And this is tiny if you will note the size. I'm not used to making such small strokes with a little bitty brush. Tricky, but a good exercise for me.