...because I do paint more than you would think by reading this blog. Wrapped up a busy 2010 with 2 months of non-stop Busy, so only just now am I updating things. In October I went to Waco TX for a combined trip of dog show and art show at the Australian Shepherd Club of America National Specialty show. Had some nice times attending my booth and selling originals and prints of my dog art, did some dog photography, and had a nice time showing my young Aussie Thumper. You can read all about the dog aspect on my dog blog,
http://inkwellaussies.blogspot.com
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Thumper's Nationals Class Placement. Good puppy!
As soon as I got home the day before Halloween I was off and running in the studio working toward this years Studio Open House held at my home on December 11. I even got several small scratchboards done, a nice change after having not worked in the medium for several months.
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| Sand Road (6x6) |
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| Wren (12x6) |
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| Late October Field (9x12) |
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| Fresh Grass (6x8) |
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| Tortoise Dutch (6x6) |
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| Winter Finch (4x6) |
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| November Field (6x12) |
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| First Snow (6x8) |
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| Zebra (6x6) |
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| Nuthatch (8x8) |
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| Sassy Wren (4x7) |
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| 2 Weeks (7x5) |
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| Tai Shan (7x5) |
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| Mockingbird (4x4) |
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| Studio Open House with Karryl, Terry and me represented. |
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| Work from each of us in the 'wrong red' dining room. This color's days were numbered at this point! |
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| Art panels in the room filled with bookshelves helped make room for art and reduce | visual clutter (a bit!). |
Fellow artists Terry Miller and Karryl helped fill my walls with lovely smaller works for the holiday shopping season and we had some faithful collector friends and some new faces. We all called the Open House a success as we dismantled at the end of that day.
The following day was time to dive into the first of 2 important commissions with a Christmas deadline.
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| Commission of Meg, a lovely black bi (no copper) Aussie. 12x9 |
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| Nikki, the subject of my other deadline commission. 8x10. |
With the help of the clients in the form of email consultations and progress critiques the paintings were completed and shipped (wet but protected) the week of Christmas. Whew!!!
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| This year's tree! |
Then cleanup as I had 2 sets of house guests simultaneously (with their 2 dogs each!!) for the week of Christmas. Dinner was at my house but rib roast and Yorkshire pudding is easy no no sweat there!.
The day after Christmas my guests helped me gut the dining room to paint it as promised, from the wrong red I'd used several years ago to a nice neutral grayish color, very sophisticated and calming.
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| Walls back to hanging my collection, with the new wall color in the dining room. A world of difference. |
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| Dining Room with most of my Terry Miller collection on the wall. |
Rehung art and then got ready for the New Years Day brunch I annually do. That went well though a very small turnout compared with other years, but after everyone left yesterday I de-Christmas'd the living room. Tonight the tree comes down and then, done til next year. Oh in the midst of all this my oven broke (just before Thanksgiving) and this week the washer broke and the dryer started malfunctioning. All these appliances, along with the dishwasher (still working, knock on wood), were ancient and heavily used when I bought the house 10 years ago but they all worked until this past few weeks. Fortunately gallery biz has picked up a bit and I am in the position to replace things. So tomorrow the washer and dryer arrive. None too soon either, I have a LOT of laundry piling up after this week of cooking, cleaning, and dog guests!!! (I'll spare you photos of the laundry).
Happy New Year!!!
