a very happy Missy

Christmas Eve Missy had an end of year check at the vet's surgery.
Everything was well, she's in fine physical shape, with only the beginning of slow growing cataracts. That's probably due to her age - she's 14 now!
But, they show no signs of stopping our darling girl enjoying life - as you can now see :)

Here's my Christmas goodies!

I particularly like that one - there!

How did mummy miss the hedgehog out?

wrapping paper's all mine too!

You're not tidying my hedgie away!

All that playing makes a girl hungry!

After a good lunch comes a snooze! 

We're fortunate to be off work now until the New Year, when we'll be back and ready to resume normal blogging. Have a great time all, til then xx

Ding Dong, Merrily on High

 Ding Dong, Merrily on High

In Heaven the bells are ringing

Ding Dong, verily the sky

Is riven with angels singing

Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis

A very Merry Christmas 

to all our friends

much love

Pat and Missy

xx

Year of Painting, Rose.

On the Painting Friends forum, its time for the Year of Painting. This month we had a white rose as a reference to work from.
The idea of painting once a month is for you to analyse your work and grow from the experience.

Today, I thought I'd share the whole post with you, not just the final painting, as I did with V: The Other Side of the River.

Year of Painting (YOP)

Number Nine, Rose

Personal Goals for this Painting:

Firstly I set some goals for my thumbnail sketches.

These were :

1. do a thumbnail showing the scene as is.
2. on the other thumbs, show different crops and ideas
3. Paint all four thumbs.

I chose to paint all four thumbnails. Why I did this was to push myself to get more out from these YOPs. To try each technique and crop. To find something in each I could like and learn from.

So, here are the paintings:

Dark Rose 

 

8 x 11 Arches 140 Rough

I changed the colour of the rose. Solely because I'd not long since painted a white rose in “The Shadow of Your Love.”

I like this rose in parts. I love the bud and the background and leaves. Also the outer petals of the rose, but I feel I made a mistake to paint all the petals because I feel I've lost it in the inner shadows. I've painted in glaze after glaze to give a richer colour, therefore I can't lift the shadow without ruining the petal. A lesson learned – plan more if you want to be that literal and paint your shadows first!

Christmas Rose

8 x 11 Arches 140 Rough

Love the richness of this impasto version, it feels like a oil. That's probably because for the first time, I've painted it completely with a palette knife.

Its taught me that although its ok as a small painting ( 8x11 ) it would be stunning as a large, full sheet version.

Rosebud

8 x 11 Arches 140 Rough

This , I love everything about it. Lesson learned, take an element of a photo, that really suits me better than using the whole!

Sweet Rose

8 x 11 Arches 140 Rough

I love pointillism, it feels like meditation to me when I work in this way. Love the way this came out, reminding me of a sugar frosted rose. I wouldn't change it at all, I even like the way the petals have different colour variations.

Challenges Faced

Painting all four thumbs and trying to be creative with them all. Hardest of all was to paint the “as is” thumbnail, when it was never a photo I'd have chosen for a reference.

Share Personal Goals and whether you felt you Met Them

My personal goals were to be creative in all four paintings and to learn something from each, which I have done in varying degrees.

How I created the Paintings.

Multiple glazes in Dark Rose on the rose. Some negative painting in the background.

All impasto using aquapasto as well as watercolour and a palette knife in Christmas Rose

Loose background wash for sky in Rosebud and merging wet in wet washes for the rose and shadows.

All pointillism in Sweet Rose. A dot at a time. It took the longest time of all.

Size of Painting, Medium, Palette and Brushes.

The paintings are on Arches 140 Rough and are 8” x 11”

The medium is pencil for the under drawing and watercolour for the painting. (addition of aquapasto for Christmas Rose only)

W&N artists quality paint.

Palette colours used : transparent yellow, cadmium red, french ultramarine, sap green, olive green, indigo.

Brushes: round 12, round 6, round 2. palette knife.

Hope you've enjoyed this peek into my thoughts and practices.

The Night Before Christmas

Did I ever tell you how fortunate I am to know some wonderful dogs and their owners?
Kendi is another jack russell who has beaten cancer, just like my Missy.
I have a very soft spot for her - even though her mom Michelle does dress her up!

Of course, if she hadn't, I could never have painted this picture :)
and between you and I, Kendi enjoys it! Soppy dog ...

The Night Before Christmas

Celebrating Kendi and Missy, the dogs who lived!
Merry Christmas, Michelle and Kendi
Love, Pat and Missy xx

Now we can relax!

 Here I am drawing in my sketchbook, with a very intent audience!

Was I drawing something so very fascinating to a dog? I don't think so.. just a negative drawing  ( where you put graphite all over the paper and draw your shapes with the eraser)

and a Christmas bauble

ah yes, Christmas bauble.. now I know why so intent..  because I mustn't forget a certain stocking...

and now its hanging in the fireplace a certain little dog can relax! :)

The Alphabet Paintings: Q

Did some of you wonder what I would paint for Q?
It was never going to be hard for me. Tell you why, I have another little hobby. One I haven't spoken of much here, but I love gemstones, minerals and fossils.
Not a huge collection, but ones with patterns that fascinate me.
So all I did was pick out a piece from my collection, stand it on my glass computer table and paint away.

Q is for Quartz...

Sweetheart Quartz

This painting can be viewed along with all my others, at my gallery site, click HERE

Pudding winner

Good morning friends.

I decided to get the winner picked this morning, because so many from different time zones joined in - and I wanted to make sure I had the address so that the pudding could be posted in the morning!

In the time honoured tradition in our house, Missy gets to pick the winner.
All the numbers put on a piece of paper, a treat placed on each one. Missy told to wait (hence why she looks away).

At the "go on" command, the first treat she eats  is the number  who wins.

The 10th comment on the pudding post was Dora, from New York, USA.
Congrats Dora, if you send me your address, I'll get the painting out to you, tomorrow. Fingers crossed you'll have it for Christmas.  xxx

Mankind is my business

Have you ever read a book which touched your life?

Touched it in such a way as to change it?
"A Christmas Carol" did that to me.
The part where Scrooge told Marley he was a good man of business, poor Marley wailed and cried "Mankind is my business". He lamented he had not taken care of that business in life.
Later, after all the spirits had visited Scrooge, he changed how he viewed life. The book closes with Scrooge being the man who kept the spirit of Christmas in his heart all year.

So, in keeping with the upcoming season, I should like to spread a little cheer.
To that effect, my dear readers, I am offering this painted sketch of a Christmas pudding to one of you. (6.5" square)
Just leave me a comment and I'll pick a random name on Saturday and get it in the mail the same day. Open to all, no matter your country :)  Fingers crossed you will receive it in time for Christmas.

Blessings to you all xx

Miss Molly

December is a busy month for us all.
There's preparations and present shopping for Christmas, extra work to be done before we're off for the holiday. For we artists too, I bet there are lots of paintings you can't show or hint at, because they are presents.

This painting is a present too. I have shown it to Nicola, in case there was anything she wanted changed because it wasn't sitting right, before I sent it to the other end of the country! Fortunately for me, she loved it.. so I can show it to you . For Nic its good too,  she'll be able to have it framed for Christmas :)

Miss Molly

The Alphabet Paintings: P

Time for  another Alphabet Painting and if you've been paying attention, you know I'm up to P.
Thoroughly enjoyed painting this one - its on a quarter sheet - 15" x 11" - and the paper is Arches 140lb Rough

Where Poppies Grow