Shadow – 5″ x 7″ Watercolor

“Don’t let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.”
–Richard L. Evans



Shadow – 5″ x 7″ Watercolor

This was painted from a photo by JustJean at WetCanvas.  Jean’s Shadow has gone on to doggie heaven and it just felt right to do this painting for Jean.

If my computer survives the next hour without me putting a bullet through it, my day will have improved a lot.  I think it may be time to walk away for a moment and do something fun.  

Richard L. Evans is best known for his inspirational messages given in the long-running weekly radio program “Music and the Spoken Word” with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. As a General Authority of the Mormon Church, he was one of their most senior leaders.

Evans was the last child born to John A. Evans and Florence Neslen, for when he was only 10 weeks old his father died leaving a widow with nine children to rear. However, with determination and a scholarship, he sought higher education first at L.D.S. University and then at the University of Utah. Taking time away from university study, he served as a Mormon missionary in Great Britain from 1926 to 1929, where he acted as associate editor of the Mormon newspaper the “Millennial Star” under James E. Talmadge and Dr. John A. Widtsoe. In addition to gaining journalistic skills, he also polished his speaking talents through the experience of speaking in street meetings and even at the speaker’s corner in Hyde Park, London. Returning to the University of Utah after his mission, he received his BA degree in 1931 and MA degree in 1932.  Source:  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1457644/bio

Cat Portrait

“Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.”
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



Cat Portrait – 4″ x 4″ Watercolor

The photo of Panny was taken when she was walking across (WetCanvas artist)  Stacey’s studio table, while she was trying to do art.   Can you see the body language?  “Mom… I’m right here and I don’t want to be ignored any longer.  I will keep coming back until you put down that paint brush and pet me.”  I love to paint critters, although they never look just like the pet.  That’s okay with me.  No rules, right? 

About Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a beloved American poet of the 19th century, is best known for “The Song of Hiawatha” and “Evangeline.” He was born in Maine in 1807. He knew Latin by the age of six, and when he taught at Bowdoin College, he wrote the textbooks himself. He courted his second wife while teaching at Harvard and frequently walked the several miles from Cambridge to Boston across the West Boston Bridge. The bridge that replaced it was named the Longfellow Bridge in his honor. He died in 1882.

I Don’t Wanna Wear This Doggy Sweater!

“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone.  The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.
–Lin Yutang

Boy, isn’t that the truth!



I Don’t Wanna Wear This Doggy Sweater! – 4″ x 4″ Watercolor

This painting is a little portrait of Stacey’s dog Alex (WetCanvas).  I have created such a look on her face!  She looked worried in the photo, but I seem to have created something different, though I was really trying to capture the worry.    I seem to have something like… “I swear!  If you make me go outside in this sweater, I will never be able to show my face in this neighborhood again!  Pleeeeease take it off!!  I don’t want to be the laughing stock of the whole town!  Come on,  Mom!” 

Tune in tomorrow for Stacey’s cat, Panny.  Totally different approach and way fun!

Lin Yutang (October 10, 1895 – March 26, 1976) was a Chinese writer and inventor. His informal but polished style in both Chinese and English made him one of the most influential writers of his generation, and his compilations and translations of classic Chinese texts into English were bestsellers in the West.  more…

Border Collie Pup

“Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.”
– Ovid



Border Collie Pup – 6″ x 10″ Watercolor on Masa



And cropped to the 5″ x 7″ version.  A painting within a painting, while I played with color on the masa paper.  I had so much fun with this pup.  I kept adding blues and hot pink and purple to Cleo, while playing with warm colors on the background.

Thanks to JustJean at WetCanvas, for the photo.

About Ovid

“Publius Ovidius Naso, the Roman poet known as Ovid, best known for the epic Metamorphoses, is considered one of the greatest poets of Latin literature. He was born in 43 B.C. in what is now Italy. He rose quickly in Roman government and was on track to become a senator when he chose to devote himself to poetry instead. His tale of Pyramus and Thisbe is the source for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Emperor Augustus exiled Ovid from Rome for unknown reasons in 8 A.D.; he died in exile in 17 A.D. “

Dave the Blue Cat

“It is not enough to have great qualities;  We should also have the management of them.”
– La Rochefoucauld



Dave the Blue Cat
4″ x 4″ Acrylic on Ampersand Artist Panel

I enjoyed doing this very much.  It was all done by loading my brush and squiggling the paint onto the black panel.

Hey, I am impressed that spell-check didn’t bust me on squiggling! hahaha 

La Rochefoucauld

(born Sept. 15, 1613, Paris, France — died March 16/17, 1680, Paris) French writer. Of a noble family, he joined the army at an early age and was wounded several times. He later played a leading part in the Fronde but gradually won his way back into royal favour. He turned his energies to intellectual pursuits and became the leading exponent of the maxime, a French form of epigram that concisely expresses a harsh or paradoxical truth. Maximes (five eds., 1665 – 78), his principal achievement, consists of 500 reflections on human behaviour. His Mémoires (1664) recount the plots and campaigns of mutinous nobles during the Fronde.

Innocent Cat

“Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.”
– Samuel Johnson

 

Innocent Cat
4″ x 4″ Acrylic on Ampersand Clayboard

I promise, it started off innocent enough.



Really…. it did.

Do you ever wonder what makes an artist take the turns they take in a painting?  Well, I think you know better than to try to figure out where my head is, but I think this is a perfect example of an innocent beginning gone crazy.

Did I have fun?  You bet!

About Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson, the sharp-witted British essayist, wrote the first English language dictionary; his definitions still form the backbone of current dictionaries. He was born in Staffordshire in 1709. Johnson married a widow 20 years his senior and lived in poverty before achieving success with his essays when he was in his forties. Later in life, he befriended the young James Boswell, whose Life of Johnson became the quintessential English biography. Johnson died in 1784.