Well, it was 12 degrees here in Kentucky today.  This is the 8th day in a row with temperatures below freezing. We have about 3 inches of snow on the ground that won't be going anywhere until some time next week.  It's very pretty, actually.  I took a few pictures before the light faded completely.  These are from the screen porch off the side of the house.

These are from the window in my 'studio' looking out the back, and over toward our neighbors with horses.

Blue-eyed Blonde 5x7

I painted this lovely lady for the portrait challenge on Karin Jurick's Different Strokes From Different Folks.  I had fun with this -  wondering about her, and feeling like we had a connection since she was painting my portrait at the same time.  This is only the second portrait I've ever painted.  I got that panicky feeling before I started like I used to get every summer when I was little, thinking I'd forgotten how to swim. I'd cling to the side of the neighbor's pool, skinning my fingers and toes on the concrete sides, trying to get up the nerve to let go and just swim.  I stared at this lady for days, wondering what would happen if I started to paint this, and realized I had no skill at all - and what in the world was I doing playing around with oil paints and brushes?! So, again, as the deadline quickly approached, I let go, and just started painting.  I still have a lot to learn, but I think if I get started on another painting right away, I won't get that panicky feeling, and I'll be able to paint without the skinned up fingers and toes! (so to speak).  I hope she likes it!

Audrey Feeds the Birds 14x18

     It's amazing what a deadline will do for you.  It marks a particular spot in your life, and says, "This must be done by today, or else .......... (fill in the blank)."  That is usually not a good thing.  The 'else' is either something you lose, something you forfeit, or something BAD you GET instead!  If you don't pay your taxes by the deadline, you get more taxes, and another deadline, and more taxes again. If you don't enter something in a contest on time, or have an application in by the deadline, you'll never know what you might have had won, or been offered. You gave up a chance of something potentially good. But deadlines are not necessarily a bad thing.  Sometimes they force you to do something you really wanted to do, anyway.  When I was painting once a week at Schrodt Art Studio, the rule was that you had to have your next project picked out before you finished your current one.  No big deal, right? Well, since I rushed to finish the orange poppy in time for the show -HA! I met that deadline!,- and then...OH NO! - another deadline! I needed my next painting.  Now.  I had no idea what to paint next.  Especially since I wanted to paint something 'original'.  On my way out the door that Thursday morning, I looked around frantically, thumbed through a couple of photo albums, scanned the mantle for an idea...(what happened to all those ideas I had last year?).. Then I spotted it.  A little picture of my little girl, Audrey, taken when she was about 4 years old. We were on vacation near Destin, Florida, at a little place called The Magnolia House.  This birdfeeder was in the front yard of Nancy Veldman's shop, and she had given Audrey some birdseed to put out for the birds. 'Oh, maybe I can do something with this', I thought.  I grabbed the picture and headed out the door.
      I must say, I really didn't know what I was going to do with it.  They all agreed it definitely had it's possibilities. So I went to office Depot, had it enlarged, twice, had them brighten up the color a bit.  Then I had to decide what size canvas, where to place her on the canvas, what to add, what to crop out, etc.  (This is all new to me, really.)  I decided the enlargement was a perfect size to transfer onto the canvas with graphite paper.  That gave me a rough drawing to start.  I had to finish one side of the birdhouse, add some space on the right side for 'whatever'...As the painting progressed,  I ignored that right side, painted in the grassy area behind the bushes, added the distant trees, and tried to create a park-like setting.  At one point, I painted a path leading out and away from her, but it didn't look 'safe'. (haha)  So I closed it in, added more greenery, more grass, and more trees in the distance until it looked believable.  My palette of colors was so minimal, I had to ask for a blue to match the color of her dress!  (Cerulean Blue, I think, was what I borrowed.)

     This is the finished result. Out of moment of desperation to meet a deadline, I was forced to decide, from a myriad of possibilities, what to create over the next few weeks.  A true moment in time, captured almost casually on a vacation to the Gulf Coast, has now become a painting that I truly can't believe I did.  Honestly.  I'm almost afraid to tackle something like this again.  What if I can't paint another thing this well again?  Then I think, 'Well, perhaps I will,.... if I must..., in order to meet a deadline!' 

Cityscape 5"x7"

This is the October challenge on Karin Jurick's Different Strokes From Different Folks blog.  I wasn't thrilled with how this ended up for me.  I struggled with straight lines, shadows, and color.  It may look better framed.  But I did it, and I'm sure I learned from it - you always do, when you do something quite out of your comfort zone.

Self Portrait - 4" x 6" - October 2009

I've been wanting to do a self portrait for a while, so I decided to start small.  I drew this about 2 weeks ago, and got a mixed review from my family.  It didn't really look like me,..unless you squinted..and then, well, it did, just younger.  I figured I probably wouldn't paint it.  I took a picture of the drawing just in case it got lost, and then I could always refer back to it and know I tried a self-portrait once upon a time.  But there's something funny about drawing a face.  You keep looking at it, and it starts looking back. Then, after you've critiqued it to death in your mind, you figure it can't get much worse with paint on it, so you dive in.  It took me about 2 hours, after I mixed a bunch of paint.  Actually, I kind of like it, now!  It looks like me with an extreme makeover!  My husband asked me if that was the challenge:  paint yourself 20 years younger?  Ha, ha.  Yes. I think I may have stumbled onto something.  This could be the angle I've been looking for.  "Portraits done on commission: Looks just like you, only better!" or maybe "Perfect portraits of the perfect you!"  or better still "I'll paint you to look like you've always wished you looked!".  So when your spouse says 'Wow!  Now that's the girl I wish I could date!' you can tell him 'That's me, baby.... just keep squinting.'

Lukas and Tabitha 1995

September makes me sad.  If I had to explain it, I would have to say it was the angle of the sun. Things are always changing, I know, but in September, the sun moves away..quicker, it seems...a little farther every day.  It comes up later, and goes down sooner.  It's lower in the sky, and it's hard to tell when the middle of the day is. There's early morning, and then, suddenly, it's late afternoon. Time moves quicker.  You can almost see it running away. Very strange. Like life, itself. You think you have your whole life ahead of you, and then, all of a sudden, you're looking back at most of it.  Where did all the time go?  How did I get here so quickly? My son is in California, serving in the Air Force.  My oldest daughter will be driving solo in two months, and my youngest just started middle school.  I have two drawings I did when my son was 6, and my first daughter was just a baby.  On a whim, at the grocery store, I bought a drawing pad, just to see if I could still draw faces.  Lukas asked me, "What are you going to do with that?" I told him I was going to draw his picture.  He was very skepical, but very patient to sit for me, and when I finished, he was amazed. It really did look like him. I knew it wasn't perfect, but he was so proud of it, and I got a small taste of what I might be able to accomplish one day...(when I had the time, of course.)  I tried to draw Tabitha, but at a year and a half, she wasn't interested in standing still for long.  I happened to have my paper and pencils with me one day when I stopped at a friend's house.  Tab was asleep in her car seat, and I thought I would capture the moment. I have both of these framed and hanging on the wall going up the steps.  Most days, we walk by them without much notice, but come September, when the sun is slanting low, and the air is bit different, and I'm not quite sure what to do with myself, I stop, and cherish these two sweet faces, and wonder where the time went.

Cupcake and Shadow 4"x5" Oil on Canvas

I took the challenge!  This is the latest creative challenge for Karin Jurick's 'Different Strokes From Different Folks.'