WHO KNOWS?

We hardly ever eat out. I usually cook. : ) Sometimes we order Chinese food and bring it home, not very often. I saved my fortunes from the last few times we ordered because I thought what they said was interesting. I don't necessarily believe in fortune tellers, but I do believe that we get messages from God or 'the universe' in many different ways. I have learned to listen to these messages and they have proved to be extremely helpful, especially when I have heard the same message or voice more than once.

RILEY

One of our friends asked me to paint Riley. Riley was a beautiful Basset Hound that belonged to our friend's sister. I was given a few photos of Riley. He was known to hang out in Mom's begonias. So I tried to take the pictures of him and place him in the begonia bed above the retaining wall in their backyard.

Beautiful- ever changing

This is the beautiful view that we see from our kitchen window.

Fudgie

Our good friends moved to Northern California. On a visit to see their new home I asked how Fudgie was enjoying his new digs. My friend's eyes welled up and I realized that he had passed. It really touched my heart because we love animals and have had some pass. It is heart wrenching. I was trying to think of something to do and it hit me. I could attempt to paint Fudgie. So I asked if they had any photos and they had a couple. I borrowed them. When we returned I started to work. The photos: one was taken from the front from above and was hard to see all of Fudge, but it was a good shot of his head. The other was one of him laying down inside the house and difficult to get a good view. So I was able to incorporate both pictures and come up with the pose in this painting. The next challenge was to figure out where to place Fudgie. I tried painting a colorful rug under him, but it just didn't work out right. So I removed the background. ( This seems to happen to me a lot. It's a good thing I know how to remove the paint.) Anyway, I remembered seeing a picture of their old backyard. You see they both have backgrounds in landscape design and had a beautiful yard at their old home. So I placed Fudgie in the backyard. I know that he had many wonderful hours basking in the sun there. Being a little hesitant to actually start with the painting process I took some time to decide where to start. I really wanted this to be special. I think that I achieved what I wanted because when I presented it to our friends both of them had tears in their eyes. Gave me a lump, but I was glad I completed it. Let me know what you think.

Patsy

Wow! Here we go.

Meet Patsy. She is a member of our family and she is posing for a painting that I did of her, My First watercolor of an animal! Where do I start??

I was doing a series of paintings using three colors: yellow, red and blue. I was able to mix the rich colors of Patsy's coat that aren't really done justice in this photo, including black. She has what they call 'red' legs. You will see in the painting. There was a call to the artists of San Clemente Art Association to donate paintings for a silent auction that was raising money for the local Animal Shelters in San Clemente and Dana Point. Of course that 'touched' my heart. So I donated the painting for the auction. My family was upset that I gave away the original, but fortunately I had a Giclee made. (You really can't tell the difference. : > )
Patsy likes to lay on the corner of our bed. When I go upstairs she always follows me and jumps up.