March 30 work in progress

The background and coop are not done, that's just a "base coat."


not yet titled
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on gray Stonehenge paper
6x6 inches
sold, commission

nineteen years ago today!

Nineteen years ago today my first chick hatched. I was practically glued to the little window on the top of that old incubator! He's a few days old in this pic but you can already see his little attitude! What a character he was.

March 29 work in progress

not yet titled (Aseel/Asil)
6x6 inches
colored pencil and graphite on gray Stonehenge paper
sold, commission

cat paintings

Some of what I've been up to over the last week:


"Tempura"
acrylic and ink on canvas
6x6 inches


"Hardy"
acrylic and ink on canvas
6x6 inches


"Patches"
acrylic and ink on canvas
6x6 inches


"Mocha"
acrylic and ink on canvas
6x6 inches

cuteness!

pictures today

It was sure nice this weekend! I set the first batch of eggs today. I did some painting... two cats that aren't varnished yet.

I took my camera around this evening and this is what I saw:

A horse that cute must be Shylah!

Mallards in the pasture (which is finally green and lush and so the horses aren't on it..btw Smithsonian's article about Barbaro and laminitis is really interesting.)

The Brassy breeding pen. Should produce 50% Brassy Back, 50% Blue Brassy Back. Time will tell!

Gwen! She looks good lately, I think she looks better than she did last year.

Fungus among us.

Oh sure, he may be pretty, but he's a mean rotten bird! Not to me but he was terrorizing his coop-mates (females included) so he's been banished from the coop until I haul his stripey butt to auction next weekend. I won't be using him in the Cuckoo breeding program. He's not Rosecomby type at all, plus I have a very low tolerance for aggressive birds. Gameness is not a virtue in this flock! I like them peaceful.

Pretty sunset tonight.

gonna be knee deep in dog art

Well! The meeting at the dog boutique went very well. I will give the name and location when I have work hanging, which will be soon. I went in and met the owner today and took at look at the space. It's a tiny store but there is a lot of wall space up high over the merchandise, so my plan is to do a BUNCH of 12x12 paintings (it's a good size) and a few larger pieces for some larger areas lower on the wall. I could easily put a dozen or more art pieces there. Probably I'll shoot for a dozen, I don't want to over-extend myself! It's in midtown Sacramento in an area with lots of restaurants and galleries, so they are open for the Second Saturday art walk, which would be way cool.

So, gonna be cranking out a bunch of dog paintings, I'd like to have the store full of art by the second Saturday in April. I think I may buy a roll of slide film and shoot these myself, I can't afford to get a dozen things photographed professionally. Arg!

So, as far as other boutiques go I'd still be game to immediately put art into maybe one more, and then give that some time to see what it leads to as far as in-store sales and referral commissions before I pursue anything else along these lines. Gotta leave time for chickens too! ;-)

Edit: I was thinking about the layout while I was supposed to be sleeping last night, and though it would look cool to have a ton of art high on the wall over the moulding, nobody would be able to reach it to buy it without bringing in a ladder. So I'm thinking I'll just utilize the open wall spaces and do some groupings of 12x12s, maybe one bigger central piece. That'll be easier, less to paint.

here goes

I just turned on the incubator. :-0 I plan to set eggs Sunday or Monday. I would love it if I could get a good enough hatch to only hatch birds for 4-6 weeks. We'll see....

new paintings

Okey dokey, so I have been in touch with a pet boutique in midtown Sacto, and I have a meeting on Friday to discuss hanging/selling art there. They cater to mostly the small doggy breeds, so I am going to paint some small dogs, and cats too. These won't be done by Friday of course [laughs hysterically!] but they won't take tooo awfully long. I'll have to balance it out with chicken drawing.

So, top row left to right: "Bob" (Chihuahua mix), "Max" (Boston Terrier), "Beemer" (Yorkie) 12x12 inches
Bottom row left to right: "Mocha", "Patches", "Hardy", "Tempura" (cats and kittens) 6x6 inches
These will be paintings. Right now they are just sketched in pencil on the canvases.


I gotta order more canvas!

I have another email inquiry out to a boutique out of town, and if I don't get a reply I'll send a letter, and I don't get a reply I'll take that as a no. I am shooting for the most upscale places I can find in the best areas of town, within some sort of reasonable driving distance. I'd like to put work into just one or two at first and see how it goes and maybe try to expand it out a bit. We'll see. I am also meeting with an art director in early April to discuss options for me, licensing, ways to sell art, etc.

"Proud Heritage" (Asil) is currently getting digitized, so I should have an estimate on printing costs in the next week or so.

wild wacky polka dot Polish!

This is the painting I was talking about, the one I redid.



title..hmm, "Polka Dot Polish"?
8x10 inches
acrylic and ink on canvas
sold, commission