Survived the Flood and Gone to the Dogs....

Sandbags a common sight in Cedar Rapids some have become inventive in their uses.

The Cedar River got to it's 2nd highest level ever and I was evacuated out of my home for about 3 days.  I ended up moving most of my belongings to the 2nd floor of my home.  Then, I moved most of my studio and a few larger items to a friend's garage.  It also affected my work which was almost directly across the river from my house.  I must say sometimes it's not a good idea to be within walking distance of your work.  In this case it was like having all my eggs in one basket.  But temporary barriers and a whole lot of sandbagging managed to save most of the city and I was lucky.

But with all of that moving and what not I got a little behind on some of my commissioned pieces.  But thankfully people were understanding.  Here's some dog commissions that I recently finished...

"Jack #1", an 8"x 10" Ink with Watercolor.

"Zephyr #1", 8" x 10" Ink with Watercolor

"Zephyr in Reflection", 11" x 14" Ink with Watercolor.

Sorry to say that these are memorial paintings, but I hope they will provide good memories for my friend Polly.  Thank you for stopping by and please feel free to leave a comment.

For Pete's Sake, It's George's Motorcycle....

A bit of delay in getting this up on here but here's the Harley Motorcycle commissioned I finished.  I call it "For Pete's Sake, It's George's Motorcycle."  The friend that I did this for, his real name is George but a lot of his friends call him Pete.  Talk about identity crisis! lol... he fortunately loved his painting and here it is...

" For Pete's Sake, It's Geogre's Motorcycle"; Watercolor and Ink on 14" x 14" Paper.
Commissioned Piece

A Doggie Break!

So I felt like I needed a bit of a break from bikes and cars.  I happened to spot his adorable shot on Face Book of a friend's dog.  It was just too adorable and I thought that might be a fun break to paint a dog.  So here's a painting that I call ," Scruffy Dog"....

Photo: "Scruffy Dog", Watercolor and Ink on 12" x 12" Paper.

I sent a picture of the painting to my friend.  She was VERY please with it and said it was the cleanliest that she had ever seen her dog.  LOL!  I guess he likes to play in the dirt.  I will say it was quite a FUN break to paint this Cutie.  Here's a copy of the photo that inspired me...

Thanks for stopping and by and I welcome any feedback or comments you may have!

Old Chevy Pickup

I had a friend that teasingly challenged me to paint an old Chevy Pickup Truck.  I found a picture among some of the car shows and cruises that I've gone to with Mr. Motorhead.  I found this old Chevy Pickup among them.  I believe this truck is from the late to mid-1940's by the styling of it.  It was a copper colored on the top of it and black on the bottom.  I call this painting the "Black Bottomed Truck". Enjoy, here it is...

"Black Bottomed Truck"; Watercolor and Ink on 9" x 12" Paper.

So, Sal... What do you think of my version of an old Chevy truck?  Let me know! :) Thanks for stopping by and I welcome any comments you may have!

Shawn's 1970 Camaro...

Shawn is a friend of Mr. Motorhead, my boyfriend, and I was rather excited when he asked if I would do a painting of his car.  Shawn has a 1970 Z28 Camaro that is a beauty.  It is a Sea-green color with black striping with a bit of pin striping.  It's in mint condition and I just jumped at the opportunity to paint it.  Here's the finished painting...

The challenge with this painting was narrowing down on a layout.  The front grill and the split bumper is very unique to this car.  I wanted to do it justice.  But at the same time, I wanted to do a view of the whole car.  Mr. Motorhead and Shawn were playing with a few ideas one night over dinner and the idea of a two shot of the car came into being.

I did three different lay out drawings for Shawn, but he had a hard time visualizing it.  So I took the one that he seemed to like the most and did an ink shading drawing of it.  That seemed to help him out with what it would look like.  Here's the ink shading drawing that I did...

This really was a fun project to do and it went relatively quick once the layout was figured out.

Thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear any comments or feedback you may have!

Dot Perfectly...

I thought I might let everyone know the progression of the horse painting.  My Wonderful friend gave "Dot, The Horse" painting to her friend.  The gal was very pleased with the painting.  She even said that she loved the painting!  It's always wonderful to hear that from someone who receives a commissioned painting for a gift.

Here's a picture of my wonderful friend (Jen in the pink), the painting, and the recipient of the painting(Traci).

In fact, Traci went on to say.... " Words can't begin to explain what this means to me. I love the painting & how it reflects Dot perfectly...absolutely amazing. I remember this day in working with some figure eight training, cantering, & then letting her go running across Monte's field. Before heading back, I let her graze as I watched the sunset. I remember looking down at her while she grazed, laughing with the amount of grass she had & had to take a picture of her...there are many days I wish I could get her back."

What wonderful feedback and such an amazing gift that Jen thought of!  It sounds like it'll be a wonderful memory that has been preserved for Traci.  Enjoy it Traci and next I think I'll work something easier like a bicycle painting.  LOL!  I'm also planning on having a booth of my painting at the Fairfax USA Days at the end of June.  So if any of you happen to be in the area, come say "Hi" to me!  Thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear any comments you may have!

Dot, The Horse...

This was a commission painting that I was asked to do by a friend for a friend who had to give up a horse.  The friend ended up moving into town and had to give up her horse because there wasn’t the room in town.  I imagine that was very hard.  My wonderful friend thought that it would be nice to have a painting to remember the beloved horse. 

I must admit that I had never painted a horse before and was a bit uncomfortable with painting a horse that actually looked like a horse.  I know that may sound silly but these things can sometimes be a challenge.  Also, the other part of the challenge was that I only had one photo to go off of.  The photo of the horse was mostly in shadow and rather dark.

The Photo of Dot that I worked from.

I started out doing a great deal of searching on line for photos and paintings of horses to figure out how to best approach the subject matter.  I then did a fair amount of sketching and drawing as a prelim to get a better feel for how to approach the actual painting.  I will tell you that some of the drawings looked like oversized ant eaters!  LOL! 

After doing a fair amount of drawing and sketching, I did some prelim sketches of various sizes.  My friend wasn’t sure which size painting would be best.  So, in an attempt to give her a feel of the different sizes, I sketched 5 different sized drawing.  She decided that she liked the 12” x 12” size best.

Another struggle for me was which way to go on the browns of the horse.  I played around for a week on scratch sheets of watercolor paper blending different browns—from golden shades to rusty shades to gray versions.  Ok, I’ll admit I may have been over analyzing but I wanted to get it to where I felt right about the right colors.  I ended up using quite a few of the browns that I had “experimented” with.

Then, my wonderful friend waited patiently while I slowly painted the actual painting.  Another 3 weeks later and I was FINALLY done with it. My friend came over and I had her take a look at it.  She smiled and said she liked it but as I looked at it with her I saw some fixes I needed to do.  They always say an artist is their own worst critic and I find that it’s very true for me. 

Another week later, and I made those changes and then I signed it.  I’ve made this rule with myself that once I’ve signed it I step away from the painting.  It’s done and I really do hope that my friend’s friend enjoys the thoughtful gift.  Here’s the finished piece that I call “Dot, The Horse”….

"Dot, The Horse"; Watercolor on 13.5" x 13.5" Paper.

Thanks for stopping by and I welcome any comments you may have!

A Commissioned Piece: "Football 39 Hero"

Just before Christmas, I was approached by a friend who wanted to have a special painting done for his son as a present.  His son had been working towards his Eagle Scout for sometime and an award ceremony would be coming up to celebrate this wonderful accomplishment in February.  His son also happens to play football and plays well too.  Just an amazing kid that is respectful, hard working, and accomplished.  I think it says a lot about his parents and they should be deservedly proud.

At the time, when I talked with my friend I was working on Christmas paintings of the "Dogs Resting" (for friend's) and the "Meen Green Machine" (for my boyfriend, Mr. Motorhead).  I told him we could talk about it at the beginning of the New Year.  I must admit that I still have not gotten use to the idea of doing commissioned paintings.  I rather find it stressful in that what I may picture in my head will be something completely different than a client.  But ever since I met this friend, we've always been on the same kind of "wave length" when it came to communicating so I felt a bit easier doing this commissioned artwork.

My friend emailed me with a couple of photos and we talked about some ideas over the phone.  I sketched a few options of layouts.  He decided on the one layout that I would have chosen and was my first choice.  We also talked about colors, and etc... and this is what came of it.  I call the watercolor painting "Football 39 Hero"....

"Football 39 Hero"; Watercolor on 11" x 15" paper.

And here's one of the original photos that I was given to work with....

And here's some of the process from the sketch that was approved to the final....

The Approved Sketch...

First, I started with the sky....

Then, I worked a little further on the detail of the front football player...

Then, I worked out from there....

Then, I was almost there....

Then, I finished and emailed a picture to my friend to get his okay that I was in fact really done....which is the final of this painting.

The finished painting!

Dogs Resting...

I did this painting as a Christmas present for friend's, a married couple, that have become some wonderful new friend's to me since I have moved back to the Eastern Iowa area.  This painting is based on a photo that they shared on Face Book and it just caught my eye as a potential painting right away; some photos do that.  I felt safe to share it, now that they have received their painting.  I'll be sharing another car painting soon that I did as a Christmas present for Mr. Motorhead, my boyfriend.  But in the meanwhile, enjoy this one...

"Dogs Resting"; Watercolor on 11" x 14" Paper

Here's the original photo that I used for the painting....

Are they just not adorable?!?

I will say that Mr. Motorhead helped me.  He was wonderful and offered to get it framed.  I was rather glad because otherwise I would've been in the store trying to narrow down frames forever and ever!  It always helps to have another perspective when trying to chose a frame and matting.  I think that Mr. Motorhead has a real eye for color.  Here's a picture of it framed....

My friends have been sharing a new picture of the painting on Face Book and have been very happy with the gift.  That's always wonderful to hear.  Now, I just hope that Mr. Motorhead likes his painting!  Thanks for stopping by and please feel free to leave a comment.  Merry Christmas!

Painting Ideas While Cycling...

The idea for this painting came to me last week as I was riding (struggling) on my bike up Emigration Canyon.  Another cyclists went whizzing by like I was standing still (always makes one feel confidant- NOT!) and on the back of his jersey was this big eye ball.  I thought it looked cool as it disappeared around a bend in the distance. As I continued to struggle up to the top of the canyon on my bike and this idea started to take hold and evolve.  The idea of a crank inside the eye just sounded like a fun challenge and a possibly wonderful poured watercoloring adventure.  Here's the result of all that thinking as I struggled to climb the canyon on my bike...

"Dilated Chainring"; A Poured Watercolor on 10" x 14" Cold Pressed Paper.

And a BIG Thanks to my friend Jay for helping me to name this artwork; another challenge for me in some cases.  When he mentioned this possible title I thought- PERFECT!  Please feel free to give me any feedback on this interesting bike art work, and thanks for stopping by!

Coffee & Cycling...

Outside of painting and my love of cycling, a close third is coffee.  I find it rather fascinating that I've never done any paintings with a cup of joe in them.  So this last week, I opted to do a painting of a cup of coffee.  You'll see why I call it "A Cup of Lovin' "...

"A Cup of Lovin' "; Poured Watercolor on 9" x 12" Paper

Then I, of course, did another couple of cycling themed paintings.  Here they are...

"Purple Cycling Gal"; Poured Watercolor on 9" x 12" Paper

I was a bit disappointed with this one after I took off all the masking.  I wasn't as careful with the details of her face and it appears she has a pointy nose and her mouth looks like a huge snarl when in fact it was a big smile.  Well, I might try this one again and see if I can do better.  But I'm very please with how the rest of the painting turned.

"Cycling Buds"; Watercolor on 9" x 12" Paper

This painting was based on a photo of Diane and myself  while on a bike ride last summer.  Diane had taken the photo while we stood together during a break.  It was one of those beautiful days where the two of took the day and decided to take the challenge of a good climb.  A wonderful memory and I gave the painting to Diane as a present.  Though, it really seems to emphasize my pug nose.

Win/Win-- Art, Wine, & More...

Oil paintings displayed in the living room. Some of these were from the Tale of Two Mains show I did in March.

Last week I had my little private art show that I referred to as Art, Wine & More. Overall it was a Win/Win situation, and a BIG thanks to all of those who showed. A box was filled with non-perishable foods and I ended up selling 6 paintings which 10% of the proceeds is going to the Utah Food Bank.

Watercolor paintings and a couple of new oils were displayed in another room.


I held the event on both Thursday and Friday. Thursday night I had a couple of people in attendance, and I was kind of getting concerned but I know that I had a few people that had mentioned they were coming on Friday night.

Look at all of these Food Donations!

Friday night arrived and I had a co-worker that came over shortly after work. The co-worker purchased a painting. Then, a friend arrived early and shortly after that my water color teacher, Colleen, showed up. It rather kept up steady with people arriving and leaving until about the last hour. It was during this last hour that a group of friends and myself just hung out in the living room and chatted. While we chatted we enjoyed sipping beverages and sampling food. It was a very fun and relaxed atmosphere.

I ended up having about 13 people overall visit on Friday night. At the end of Friday night, 4 water color paintings and 2 oil paintings had sold. AND the Food Donation Box was practically filled. Wow~! Thus, I'm calling it a Win/Win situation. I even managed to talk a couple of friends into taking some fudge home. Can you say," I don't need that fudge on my hips!"

***- Oh and Mom- the first picture-- that's the chair I was talking about. The one that you re-upholstered which I just LOVE!

Hanging Artwork

While I'm struggling through trying to paint my next painting ( a version of "Painter's Block"), I thought that I would share some photos of my art hanging in a friend's house. I will admit that I really find it fun and rather an amazing feeling to walk into a house and see my art.



This is becoming more and more common. It's as I paint more and more of my paintings (and they get sold)that they get out there; that I will see them more. It warms my heart, and makes me happy to have my artwork so that it can add color to other's lives and some enjoyment.

Diane, my friend, says that quite often she will be enjoying her morning cup of coffee and look up to enjoy my artwork. These are located in her front room.



Thanks for sharing Diane! If any of you out there have photos of my artwork hanging in your home, I would love to share those here.

St. Joe's Auction...Somewhat a Disappointment

I will admit that I was a little disappointed. I had hoped to have my painting sell for more than what it did but with the economy the way it is... I guess it didn't do too bad.

I was somewhat shocked when I arrived at the auction to find my painting leaning on the floor up against a wall. My friend, Jay,( who came along with me as support) quickly talked with someone in charge and had it moved to tabletop near by. There was no easel in sight and if I had known I would have brought one from home. Also, a couple more minor disappointments were that they did not have any of my blog cards (20 of them) or my artist's profile. Ann, who was on the ball printed up the artist profile, and I grabbed a few blog cards that I had with me. That issue was fixed but it made me feel rather uneasy about the whole auction.

Shortly after that I had a photo taken with the framed painting. The frame was very simple and I thought it fit in rather nicely with the painting. Dean, who was also from the St. Joe's congregation, did a wonderful job of taking former wood from inside the church and making a frame for the painting.

(Photos: Jay and myself enjoying beverages. The wonderfully decorated Parish Hall. )

There was a great deal of activity all around, and the parish hall was very nicely decorated. Jay and I visited the silent auction part with a wide variety of baskets to bid on. There were about 90 baskets in all. Jay made a bid on a couple of them while I kept on looking for a basket with some live theater tickets like I won on bid last year. Jay ended up winning a bid on a large basket of popcorn varieties. But I never did see any live theater tickets in any of the baskets. All the while I was walking around and looking at baskets, I had quite a few people say Hi and comment about how they very much liked the painting.

After the silent auction closed, then came the live auction action. There was a couple of different items that were up for auction before the painting. Both of those items went for well below what they were valued. It seemed that there was not any large bidders out there. Then my painting came up. My friend, and mechanic, Jim won the final bid. He's planning on donating back to the painting back to the church with wishes that it will be hung up in the foyer area of he new church. That idea made me very happy.

(Photo: Jim, who took the final bid on the painting with me.)

Arsenic & Old Lace...

This last Friday night I very much enjoyed a theater production at the Sugar Factory Playhouse... Arsenic and Old Lace. One of my favorites, and at SFP they did a fabulous job! I invite anyone that may be out in West Jordan, and loves to laugh to check it out. AND you can't beat the $6 for a live theater production. My friend Giselle is performing the role of Martha and she just amazed me with her talent. There seems to be quite a bit of talent in that theater--from costumes, to lighting, sound, and set design. I snapped a few shots with my camera as they were all taking their bows at the end of the show....

Little Red Riding Hood!!!

Oh what a FUN time!

Check out more fun pictures on my other blog--

the Allgood life ( http://theallgoodlife.blogspot.com/ )