I got this oil painting of Mt Hood finished and listed in my Etsy shop. I sure wish I could go camping up at Mt Hood and see a beautiful sunrise coming up over the mountain. It's still far to cold and rainy for any kind of camping trip, unless a cabin is involved. 

Hello! It's me. I've been away. I feel like I had to take a break from the internet for awhile. Plus, I've just been really busy with painting and custom work. But, here I am. Alive and doing somewhat ok.

I got a new "tooth." It's more like a retainer with a tooth where my missing tooth is. I very much dislike it. I was hoping that it would be awesome and I wouldn't want to get the tooth implant, but it's not awesome, at all. I have to pop it out and clean it quite a bit because it gets food stuck in it. It also gives me a slight speech impediment when I talk. It also feels really weird when I eat. It's not ideal, but I don't feel as self conscious out in public, so there's that.

I think I'm almost done with this portrait series. I may end up doing some etchings because I thought of kind of cool idea and I'd like to try it. But, as far as the paintings go, I think I'm officially done. I'm really happy with how they turned out. I'm in contact with the person who runs the Upper Playground Gallery in downtown Portland, so I'm hoping to get a show there next year.

As much as painting some of those backgrounds made me want to stab my eyes out, I kinda miss painting them. I might return to that again in the future. It could be very relaxing once I got a rhythm going. I also discovered the world of podcasts and really enjoyed binge listening to several series. Mostly true crime podcasts. Some of my favorites are:

Up and Vanished

Case File

Someone Knows Something

True Crime Garage

and

In the Dark

In other news, Chloe had to be hospitalized last month. She started to regurgitate and she couldn't stop. It was very worrisome and stressful. Her vets think that she might have Inflammatory Bowel Disease or she might have Lymphoma. She goes in for some blood work on Thursday and another x-ray type test. We'll find more answers then. As of right now, she's doing great. Let's hope she stays that way.

Needless to say, with that and what's going on in the world, I've been pretty depressed and anxious. The non stop rain and grey weather we've been having hasn't been much help. I do love this weather, but I think I've got some seasonal affect disorder going on. 

I think a little sunshine and working out in the yard would be a huge help to me. Mowing the grass, digging in the dirt and feeling the sun on my face sounds so good right now. We're not due for sunshine for quite some time according to my weather app, so I'm just going to have to hold out for a little while longer. 

Hopefully the sun will come out and Chloe will be okay, sooner than later. In the meantime I'm going to try to take a few naps, go to bed early, make some art and go to the gym. 

Hi! I'm back! So much has happened since I last blogged!

I ran a marathon and killed it! As you can see from the photo it rained that day. It actually poured the entire time I ran, but that didn't stop me! I beat my last marathon time by 45 minutes, technically. They didn't have people at the right corner telling my group where to turn, so we added an additional .30 miles to the marathon route. I finished at 4:42 minutes, but if we hadn't taken the wrong turn, I would have finished in 4:32 minutes according to my watch. I ended up breaking my PR for time AND distance that day!

I also finished this painting! The woman who commissioned it loved it. She wrote me an e-mail telling me her two sons felt like rock stars when she gave it to them. That totally made my day! She lives in Florida and I somehow managed to time my shipping of the painting with Hurricane Matthew. Luckily it did make it to her, but it was delayed for a few days. Those few delayed days were a little stressful! Thankfully she and her family were fine and the painting arrived undamaged.

We also had a huge election since I last blogged. Unfortunately, for me and for a lot of people I know, the candidate I voted for lost. I'm still not over the loss. I'm not sure I ever really will be. The president elect scares and angers me. His ideas on women's health, immigration, health insurance and basic civil rights are the complete opposite of what I feel is good for the country. Knowing that so many people voted for him, and from what I've been reading, why they voted for him, is beyond all my comprehension. 

Honestly,  I've been kind of in a dark place since the election. I've just had an overwhelming feeling of fear and sadness. I've been trying to make art and trying to stay away from social media. I don't want to ignore what's going on in the world, but being exposed to it all day wears on me mentally. By the end of the day I feel emotionally exhausted. I also know that I can't get away from it completely. I rely on social media to promote my work and this website. I think right now, limiting exposure to it is the only thing that will help.

I've been trying to help out organizations that I feel strongly about, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, BARK, and even a little Boston Terrier Rescue in Southern California (which probably won't have any impact from our president elect, but I'm for helping BTs). I'm hoping to get out and do some volunteer work when Crafty Wonderland is over, and I have some more time to dedicate to that. I'm looking into volunteering at 350PDX, a local environmental organization.

I know it's important to be involved and I want to try to get out there and help if I can. It's also hard to do when you're an introvert like me. It's hard for me to get out of my comfort zone. In my mind I know that I will feel better to get out and be proactive, but there's also part of my mind that just wants to donate money instead of my time... Which is fine, but I feel that being actively involved would help too.

Anyway, maybe you feel the same way. Maybe you don't and that's okay too. It feels good to be working on this blog again. Hopefully it will provide a nice space for me to voice my opinions and share my work with you!

I've been working on holiday cards today. It's always kind of weird to be thinking Christmas when it's 88 degrees outside, but it has to be done. Buyers are already thinking of placing their holiday orders and I really want to be on top of it this year.

This one reminds me of last November when Nate and couple of our friends went downtown to watch the tree lighting ceremony. 

I have never been to the tree lighting ceremony before. Almost 20 years of living here, and I have never been. I've always really wanted to go but I usually had to work, or the weather was terrible. 

We went last year because we didn't have to work and the weather was chilly, but really nice. It was a great experience. Being there with friends, surrounded by thousands of people all crowded around a huge tree in out pretty city.

I'm hoping to go again this year, if the weather is nice and Nate doesn't have to work. 

I started this painting in November.

Sometimes I work on a painting for a long time only to realize that I am not happy with it. I spent a really long time on this painting and in the end I completely over worked it. I didn't like the color palette that I chose and I really wasn't happy with the background image.

I sanded it down and painted over it last week.

This is the newer version.

I am much happier with it. The colors look great and I didn't work on the face for hours on end. I feel like when it comes to painting, it should never feel laborious. If I find myself repainting something over and over again, it probably just isn't going to work. 

This second painting came really easily. I painted the face within just an hour or so and the colors feel better to me too. Some people in my inner circle were giving me so grief about painting over the first painting, but sometimes it's just necessary. 

This second one isn't close to being done, but I feel like it's getting there!

Well, it's been a bit of a tough week. Chloe is having some health issues and it always makes life a little stressful and filled with anxiety.

She has an ulcer on her eye and it's become infected. I've been giving her some very expensive eye drops and I think they're working. It's kind of hard to tell, but I'm trying to be optimistic about it.

About a month ago I found a lump on her back. I thought maybe it was a bug bite, so I kept my eye on it, and it went away. It came back last week and my heart sank. Disappearing and reappearing is a common characteristic of a mast cell tumor. I know because she's already had two of them.

So I brought her in on Thursday to have it tested and sure enough, it's a mast cell tumor. Le sigh. I'm trying my best to not freak out. I'm trying my best to see the positives of this situation. The fact that I caught it fairly early, that it's in a place in which it's east to remove, that the vet who is going to remove it has done the last two with excellent results. That she's otherwise healthy and happy and still relatively young. That she'll also be getting her teeth cleaned, something I've been kind of putting off in the off chance that she'd have to go under for this same exact thing.

These are all positives. 

But naturally there is a lot of worry and a lot of stress on the bank account. So, because I have quite a bit of 8x10" print inventory, I thought I'd have a sale! I've marked all the 8x10" prints in my Etsy shop at $15. I'll keep that price up through tomorrow. 

Thanks for reading and if you'd like to send Chloe some good vibes, I'm sure she'd appreciate it! Happy weekend :)

I love reading about other artists studio practice. What makes them work everyday? What do their studios look like? What is a typical day for them? 

It's not often you get to read about the everyday practice of an artist. I came across an interview with Chuck Close a few weeks ago and I am still thinking about it. In it he answered a lot of questions that I think about when I think about highly successful artists. 

He talks about the importance of making art. That working everyday can open doors to new possibilities for your work. He also talks about that it shouldn't matter what your studio space is like. You should just get as much work done in the space that you have and make the very best of it. He knows many artists who search for the perfect space, remodel it until it's perfect and then turn around and sell it without ever working in it. This made me feel a lot better about the dark garage I work in that's either freezing in the winter, or hotter than hell in the summer. It's not the greatest space but I can paint there!

He also talked about his daily routine which made me a bit jealous. He paints 8 hours every day with an hour for lunch. At first I felt a little guilty for not painting that much but then I realized he probably has at least 3 assistants who help him do things like laundry, grocery shopping, walking the dog and cleaning the house...

Anyway, I liked the interview and if you like peeking into a day in the life of a successful artist you might like it too. You can read the interview here:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/12/27/chuck-close-on-creativity/

Happy Wednesday! 

Mother's Day is in just a few short weeks! May 8th to be exact. Never fear, my Etsy shop is loaded with some really terrific Mother's Day cards for you.

Hoping to get back into my garage/studio today to work on some of my works in progress paintings. I started this one of my friend Amy last week. The blue alone took me about 5 hours... 

I worked on this bridge painting a bit too. I really like how it looks in this picture, so I'm going to try to go back to it somehow. Right now it looks like this:

So I'm going to try to go backwards. We'll see how it goes. That's just how it is sometimes. You think you need to keep going, but really you should have stopped when you were ahead. Such is painting.

It's early morning and I'm sipping on a nice cup of coffee. Early start this morning because there's a lot to do today! First thing on my to-do list was listing these two new mini watercolor paintings.

I'm trying really hard to get my shop stocked full of original art for the holidays. I can't believe that Thanksgiving is 23 days away! Then Christmas will be here! It's all so overwhelming so I'm just focusing on making new items and getting them listed. 

I'm learning that not all these little freehand watercolor paintings are going to be successful. I was really luck when these four little ones turned out well. I've worked on several more that just didn't turn out so well...

Maybe I'll post them tomorrow to show. I feel like even if they're not that great, there are certain elements that will work in a different painting. 

Have a great Wednesday everyone! 

New things are happening in my Etsy shop today!

Hooray! 

I'm really liking these two new pieces. I'll be posting a couple more different pieces tomorrow.

In other news, it's been a little over a month since I've had any ankle pain! I've been running a couple of days a week, 3 slow miles. I'm hoping my Achilles are 100% better, and that I'm out of the woods. However, I know this injury is tricky and if I'm not careful, it can come back. So I'm just going really slow right now and trying not to over do it.

If there's one thing that this injury has taught me is that patience pays off. I stopped doing any physical activity for over a month. I just stretched and did my ankle strengthening exercises. Even though I felt like I was going to loose my mind, it paid off in the end.

The other thing that I'm taking away from this experience is that cross training and stretching are so important when you're a runner. Strengthening and stretching all your major muscle groups will make you a stronger runner and you'll be less prone to injury. Lesson learned!

Fingers crossed that my ankles continue to be awesome and pain free! 

Hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend! It poured buckets here in Portland. Many areas were actually flooded and we didn't get many trick or treaters. That's okay, more candy for us!

I wasn't really sure where to start today. I had a lot of ideas but just didn't seem to go through with any of them. So, instead I just found some little pieces of paper and decided to paint free hand. No sketching, no references, just going for it.

I like how they turned out! I'm thinking this is a new way for me to work. Sometimes I rely too much on sketching and reference pictures. I think it's good to get away from that and just go with my gut and memory.

I'll be posting some of these in my Etsy shop tomorrow!

You made it! It's Friday! Whoohoo! Here are the things I've been working on this week.

First my friend Tony's portrait. 

This is the photo I'm working from. So far, I really like how it's turning out!

I also completed this raccoon watercolor painting a couple of days ago.

I'm trying to work on both my personal work as well as cute animal stuff for the big Crafty Wonderland Holiday show that's coming up in December. Lots of stuff going on. I'm excited and really enjoying the work I've been doing this week.

Hope it's a good weekend for everyone!