Another quick shot so you can see how his fishy body is gonna look 🙂

Painting away…both eyes are done, just finished those big ol lips you guys love so much, too! Kisses anyone? They’re kinda girlie right now

Just turned the cam on, I’ll be working on his eyes, mouth, slimy whiskers and backside. Then I’m gonna go outside and play! I’m going to play outside first I think! It’s REALLY nice out! I’ll paint later today, k? (I’ll leave the cam on.)

Here, this ought to motivate you to watch me paint. Ieeewww fishy kisses!

Well here’s the final progress shot of the day, I’ll be turning the cam off shortly and getting dinner ready. I’m HUNNNNGRY. Chinese sound good to you? Ok. What would you like? I’ll call in the order. (This is how I cook, remember?)

He’s lookin’ pretty dang cool, that squished up man of mine. LOL (I made up the boots. No I’m not even sure yet what I’m going to put behind him. Hm. Sky & River? We are dealing with the Muddy Mississippi here. Hm.)

Here’s a nice progress shot of the underpainting on his face, he came in from outside and said “Honey it’s not supposed to LOOK like me!!” heheh.

Finally starting the sketch this morning, I’ll begin painting in just a little while (on cam, even!)

Here’s Mark, trapped inside of this 5 foot catfish. What a good model, huh?

I did make it over to the fishery this morning too, where they were so kind to give me my model for the big guy I’ll start painting tomorrow. Ever seen a live catfish up close? Well if not, now you have!

This week is flying by.

I’m up at the crack of dawn, drink about 5 huge mugs of coffee, have some quiet time before the girls get up, and then they’re up. Then it’s breakfast, getting ready for school, doing the mom thing, and getting Caitibug out the door.

Then I get ready to paint.

Yesterday I was up at 6, started painting at 9, and finished at 4. We had “pizza night”, “scrub the floors” night, “bathe the guinea pig” night, and “go to bed early ’cause what an exhausting day” night. Vacation? What’s that?! Hard to believe that within the next 24 hours I will complete my last painting before Mark’s return, and I will (try with every ounce of my being) not pick up my brushes for over a week. That just seems so wrong!!

The Catfish was delivered yesterday, you can see him here in my studio.

With that, I’m going to go enjoy the Cardinals who are gracing my backyard with their song, and get 4 additional cups of coffee, and paint all day today, much like yesterday!

Have a good one!

You may or may not remember that I had been tossing around a design idea last summer for a Catfish project that the City of Rock Island is pulling together this year. I spoke with my old boss about the possibility of sponsoring me for the project, but the project was kindof put on hold for a while, and although I discussed my design with the project coordinator, I never formalized it with a sketch.

Welp, I got a call this morning from the project coordinator, and I’ve got two sponsors (going by the design idea) for a Catfish. So over the next month & a half (they are set to go on display sometime in May), I will be adding another huge project to my schedule, I’ll be calling him “Fisherman Swallowed Whole”. That’s as much of the design idea that you’re going to get right now, and here’s the statue:

You can click on him to see his specs, he’s 5 feet tall and 2 feet wide.

They will go on display throughout the city in May, and be auctioned off to the highest bidder mid-August. It will all happen similarly to the Frogs-A-Hoppin’ project for the City of East Moline, so of course I am hoping that my Catfish also brings in the highest dollar amount for the event. My Mosaic was top frog bringing in $4100 which was disbursed to the non-for-proft of the highest bidders choice!

Fun!! I will of course share the work in progress as I paint this one, and update with more information, links & such as they become available.