Have I told you recently how clematis and I have had a tough relationship for several years? I get one beautiful bloom last year, and bam – a squirrel climbs down my fence, plucks it right off, and eats it. No, I’m not kidding. I could have – no, wait, I did. I screamed. I […]

I know she doesn’t look like much now, but she’s going to be just lovely when she grows up! We once had an unknown monstrosity growing in our yard. It had to have at least three different varieties of bushes within it, and was mangy and – well – unknown. We trimmed it a couple […]

Today begins Week #18 of my 2009 weekly graphite portrait giveaway! Each week, one winner will be selected to receive one 5×7 graphite (pencil) drawing from their photograph. Last week’s winner was Stephanie’s adorable Budgie parakeet, Pippin. Pippin passed away a little over a month ago, but while she was here, she made a huge […]

Rock’s portrait is complete (pending client approval). What a day, what a week! I’ve been painting my fingers off, whiskers and fur flying from my paintbrushes faster than they have in a long time. I did take a lot of photos as I painted today to kindof share a little tutorial about how I layer […]

I am so excited to share Cuddles’ completed portrait, I think this one is my new personal favorite! The feathering and dimension in her portrait combined with that beautiful background gradient, definitely makes me proud to sign my name to it. I’ve worked quite extensively on this piece the last couple of days, sang a […]

I’ve completed the under painting on Rock’s portrait. I’m using two reference photos – the left is obviously the pose for the portrait, the right photo for coat and eye color accuracy. I’ve used a palette of burnt umber, burnt sienna, indigo, cadmium orange for the darkest hues in his coat. (You can see my […]