A Home Wanted

As I haven't done anything for DARG for a while now, and as they have so many new dogs and cats up for adoption, I thought I must really do another painting.

This is Sledge.  He is a cross Husky something and was apparently abandoned by his owner.

It always amazes me how human beings can be so callous about their fellow creatures.  We domesticate them to such a degree that they become totally reliant on us for all their needs, and then idiots like this owner decide they don't want them anymore!

I believe we share this beautiful planet with our fellow creatures and our intellect does not give us dominion and lording rights over them.

I hope Sledge finds someone who will care for him.

My Prize

Yesterday I picked up my wonderful prize for coming second in James Parker's  Windows to the Words challenge blog!

All the way from the USA, arriving safely in Cape Town (we never know whether anything will get to its destination or not!), here are the two marvellous paintings - the hummingbird is a tiny little painting which will sit next to me in my art room.

Thank you James!

 

Quinces and Walnuts

My computer was non functional for 3 days this week.  Our single, state run telecommunications service took its own sweet time about restoring lines in our area, and my service provider was not amused when I asked her if I needed to take up writing letters and using the post office again!  Absolutely no sense of humour.

And with Summer finally here, life seems to get very active, so not much painting gets done.

I did, however, manage to paint from a rather nice pic taken from Dana Marie's Inspiration all Around us blog, of quinces and nuts - I called them walnuts - I think that's what they are.

Now she has another amazing pic posted, so hopefully I will get to that one in the next week! 

Koi

Another challenge I was late for, and I submitted the pic for painting!

I just can't seem to make deadlines.  After spending all that time in the advertising industry where deadlines are sacrosanct, I have fallen off the wagon.

This one was for the blog, Inspiration all Around Us - one of the newer challenge blogs, but one where Dana Marie posts some really magnificent pictures.  Check it out.

These koi were part of the a household where my sister was housesitting.  The other 'residents' were three dogs, a cat and a parrot.  I don't think the fish presented any problems!

I have just bought a new camera - very nice indeed.  But oh, technology is defeating me!  It has a nice new SDHC 4gb card which I discovered my computer can't read (or find, or whatever it does).  So the last couple of paintings I've done are sitting inside the camera, unable to see light of day.  This also means I will be late for any other challenges out there!  Sigh ...

Contemplation

This is my favourite painting at the moment.  I loved the intense white of her dress against the dark background. 

But oh my, was it difficult to photograph!  The shine on the background was a nightmare and no matter which way I turned it or where I placed it, there was this horrible bluey sheen!  We have had cloudy weather here and even in the early morning with this cloud cover, nothing worked. 

So it was off to the local art shop for a tin of re-touch varnish and that seemed to do the trick.  The shine of the varnish seemed to counteract the shine of the paint, and this is the best result I could get.

Watercolour, flower, and portrait

I have decided that I'm not a watercolourist. I love the medium and will probably persevere simply because I'm stubborn (and have a lot of watercolour paint!) but my attempts will surely remain just that - attempts.

I look at artists like Fabio Cembranelli who paints flowers in watercolour like an absolute angel and then I dare to post my couple of flowers in a pot! Cheek of it, but I thought, it's one of very few watercolours that I will be putting up. I need to practice!



Whilst on the watercolour theme, I tried a portrait as well! (Pushing my luck here). Not too bad, but still on the overworked side.

Eudith is a lovely lady with a beautiful smile who works as a housekeeper/cleaner for a number of people. She works like a demon and when I asked to take her picture, she didn't want to smile. She did eventually, but I did the one she liked first.