New Year's Eve and Arty things..

Today is New Year's Eve, and a traditional time for making resolutions.

Now I've never been one for Resolutions, but in my art there are a few things I'd like to do.

1) I'd like to paint more and compute less.
To that end, I'm only going to publish on my blog 3 days rather than 7 days a week.
The new days will be Mon, Wed, Fri.

2) I received a 3 CD watercolour landscape course this Christmas.
I'd like to have painted every demo on that course by next year.

3) With some of the most recent paintings I have done, I have learned the importance of being bold and making stronger shadows in my style of painting. I want to improve on those this year.

How about you? Is there anything you want to tackle in the new year, or anything you want to improve?

And finally, would like to wish all my readers a happy and healthy 2011 .

Framed.

I received this photo of two more of my paintings framed and ready to hang!

Such a thrill to see them all ready to go up in their new home.

Charcoal Portrait

Beryl and Dennis came over to our house on Boxing Day, and we all had a wonderful time.

Paul and Dennis did some woodturning - and Beryl and I watched and followed an instructional art dvd.
Here is my charcoal portrait drawn whilst watching the dvd.

Not being used to charcoal or portraits, I'm quite pleased with it!

Missy O'Clock

Is that the time?

Missy O'Clock.. always time for Missy!

This was one of our presents this year, from our good friends Beryl and Dennis.
We're thrilled with it.

Bookmark Frenzy

Twas the day before Christmas Eve and what could I do?

Paint!
But what? 

A frenzy of bookmarks :lol:


and here they are - all 14 of them!

Pure Joy

Sometimes you see a photo and it speaks to you....

and this one of Luca with his surprise present shouts "Joy"

Luca and T2

Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my blogging friends and your families.


I think my card expresses what I wish for you all..

May the Light of Christmas bless you...

Hanging 2

How wonderful!
I have a photo now of the darling Roxy hanging up in her new home.
I'm thrilled to see her so well framed and so obviously loved.

An Early Christmas

Celebrations for my blogging friend Tonya came early this year, because the only day all her family could get together was Saturday just gone.

I'd made some bookmarks for Tonya and her family and was delighted to hear that they all loved them. I had tried to tailor each to the hobbies of the recipient.

Here they are

Tonya's blog can be found here Hillbilly Handiworks.

Hanging 1

In her new home,
here's the precious Mo.
She's over the door and facing her mum's chair.
Every time Jenny looks up she sees her.
This painting is cherished.

I love to see my paintings in their new home - its always a great feeling to know they are cherished. 

Christmas bookmarks

I haven't had time to paint a big picture, because of all the arrangements that have to be made for Christmas.

But I have had time to paint a couple of bookmarks, both of which make me smile :)

Hope you enjoyed them too!

Snow.

No dreaming necessary, here's the real thing - and its set to stay for Christmas!

My front garden (under there somewhere!)

So pretty in pictures. 

So treacherous to walk or drive!

Decorations

I thought you might like to see some of our decorations for Christmas:

hand carved snowmen

the fireplace

and the tree

A Special Gift

I had a gift arrive from my friend Marie in Texas.
It is the most beautiful silver leaf.
A real leaf, dipped in silver. Just stunning.

Tomorrow I will post the pics of our tree and you can see it in place.

Card Exchange

On the Painting Friends forum, we have a Christmas Card exchange, which is great fun.

This is the card I sent to a Painting Friend in the US

and this is the one I received from a Friend who also lives in America. ( Though PF's can be found around the world!)

Stockings!

Christmas stockings of course !

Missy's are up by the fireplace, waiting for Santa.
I don't think she'll be disappointed ;)

Of course, anyone who sits still round here too long, may well get decorated also !

The Precious Mo.

Here's the finished painting:

The Precious Mo

Mo 4

Mo, the markings..

tomorrow I will paint the shadows and you will see the finished painting.

Mo 3

Mo, the nose and eyes.
Such pretty eyes..

Mo 2

Mo, the background.

Paints, French ultra, Aliz crimson

Mo 1

This is a painting of a very special girl - Mo - done for my friend Jenny.
Mo was a saluki/greyhound cross, who sadly passed away on the 28th November.
Much loved, greatly missed.

the drawing:

oh yes, snow... and ice

Here in Essex, we've had a little snow!
Some of it has gone now, but not all, because since this fell last week, we haven't had but one day where the temps rose above freezing :(

 Loads of snow..

and ice...

Clearing a path and Missy staying inside, where its warm!

after Edward Hopper

Today's painting was another challenge one at Painting Friends,
this time, painting an Edward Hopper.

Enjoy:

After Da Vinci

On the Painting Friends forum ( link on right ) we had a challenge Paint like the Masters.

Today's painting is my effort at painting like Da Vinci.
I hope you enjoy it :)

The Diamond Roxy

And here it is, the finished painting:

The Diamond Roxy

Roxy 6

Roxy's colouring is black, tan and white.

In this stage, I have painted the tan. The white is, as ever, the paper left unpainted. That doesn't mean I don't put some colour on - I usually put a french ultra/aliz crimson mix on, for the shadows.

Roxy 5

In this stage, I have painted a collar on Roxy and painted the football.

If a dog has black in their coat, I usually add a red collar, no matter what they wear normally - because it makes the whole painting sing. You'll see what I mean when you see the finished painting. A brown collar wouldn't cut the mustard. 

Roxy 3 & 4

A treat today - two photos!

First one shows the eyes, nose and lip - and the second, I have completed the mouth.
I paint the eyes first and once happy with those, I continue. There's no point to carry on if unhappy with the eyes, they are so hard to fix retrospectively.

Roxy part 2

Here in this stage, I have painted the background .
All I am aiming for here is a suggestion of grass and sky, and a little shadow.
Hopefully I have that!

Roxy Begins

Today starts my latest dog painting - that of the very special Roxy.

She was taken in when she was five and a half years old by her current owner; who trained her up and brought out the diamond within.

Roxy is now a PAT dog (Pets as Therapy), she is so steady she has been used as a Stooge dog to help other dogs overcome behaviour problems - and she just won the Golden Oldie championship at Scruffts ( for non pedigrees) this year.

To read more of Roxy, click  HERE

from yesterday

Had a wonderful day yesterday, on my birthday.

Firstly we woke to snow!

but I was indoors and toasty warm, thanks to the fire, which Missy enjoyed too :)

Some of my presents were art books and I look forward to reading them and painting the demonstrations.

 At the top of the photo you can see some paint keys, to enable me to get the very last drop of paint from the tube. Completely necessary when you paint as much as I do :lol: