There’s a thunderstorm overhead so I’ll not tempt the fates by taking the time to add commentary…will just list, in chronoligical order, these recent photos of the ever-so-painstakingly-slow-progress of the painting. I can’t seem to pick up the speed or to compromise on the detail or to find enough hours in the day…but here’s some of the paint I have laid down this week…
Tag: Finnegan
Studio Gallery Sale
Announcing our first annual spring sale in the Studio Gallery
All prints and original oil paintings will be 20 % off for the entire month of May !
You can visit virtually by clicking the link below…
OR…please feel free to stop by in person.
I’m breaking in my brand new apprentice and she’s eager to show visitors around the place…so come check out the artwork and meet little Finnegan…
Yours in lilacs…
Heather
Progress Report
My new alarm clock is programmed for a 6am feeding…no matter what. And with that change in my morning routine I am finding myself way ahead of the game…breakfast eaten, walk taken, gardening done in the coolest part of the day and most of all…puppy played out and ready for a nap …and all by 8am.
So here’s a few pics of the last week’s worth of progress. Lots of time spent tightening up areas that I thought were finished. I reworked the dock area…there are more layers of detail in this section alone than I have hairs on my head…(I know, I know…that’s why I always wear a hat but you get my meaning)
Then I moved over to rework the upper left hand corner and added the suggestion of a boat behind the tackle shack, some clouds along the horizon, a few colorful kayak paddles, and a soaring gull to bring some life to the field of blue…
Then down to the bottom and the decisions about what to do with the foreground. As the tide changes this area migrates from lacily raked seaweed to a carpet of small pebbles to a foamy lipped saltwater bay…I wanted to bring the seaweed in to give a gesture of some motion and to keep the eye moving around the composition but I wasn’t sure I could do justice to the complexity of the colors and fibers.Then I found a liner brush that I’d never used before which was perfect for dragging out long sinewy lines…
And, in between training the “OFF” command and teaching my apprentice the proper use of a gardening glove …
I have completed the pile of drifted wood and ropes and chains…
and moved back over to some more work on the dock…
Which brings us up to today… the 29th of April… and in spite of the many, many more interruptions than I anticipated this painting can now, hopefully, kick into high gear…or make that a kick in the painter’s gear box… and I can have it finished and drying by the end of next week.
Off I go…
HN
Old friends make new friends
A breakfast party !
With two of our favorite girlfriends… Amy and Sue. We go waaaaaaay back and finally found a slot in all of our busy schedules to reconnect….they brought the bagels and we brought the puppy kisses.
These women have the most powerfully positive and peaceful energy and Finnegan was instantly in tune and in love…
Amy even gave Finn her first lesson in the Art of Wi …
But all this excitement was tiring out the wee one…
and it was time for a flip flop nap for Finnegan…
Angels walking among us ….
thanks gals…
love ya, H
Meeting the Pack
Yesterday was the best.
Finnegan got to meet some of her pack members for the first time and she had a blast. Saren brought Margie, the lab who survived her breeding years to be rescued by the most conscientious dog owner I know and now she is living the life of Riley getting to see the best of the rest of the world…and Susan brought her loyal pal Tag who is, as we all are, missing his big sister Emma but he is now carrying the cloak of her gentle confident manner and was the perfect gentlemen.
Both were wondeful with the squirrelly little puppy and Finnegan was eager to greet everyone and kept right up with the big dogs.
All that excitement…AND her first puppy class…made for a very tired pup at the end of the day.
Today it’s all business and, with our morning rituals finished…like waiting to play with Jed at the fence…
and filling the bird feeders…
and taking up her post as sentry at the studio door…
My apprentice is giving me the freckly eyeball…so it’s time for some serious painting…
Next post will show some progress from the easel… I promise !
HN
Two way mirror
Three things I have learned…
an orange Croc looks and tastes exactly like an orange dog toy…
when the twigs of a rosemary plant become a chew toy the chewer smells as good as an herb garden…
and the dulcet tones of Suede’s newest album can settle even the ornariest among us…
My apprentice was upset that she could not keep a closer eye on me with the big painting in the way…so I danced through the raindrops to get Drew’s mirror out of the garage…and voila…we’re both much happier…
Look who’s sleeping on the job !
The New Apprentice Arrives !!!
Time for a quick post between puppy naps and twins at play…
to document the arrival of Finnegan Loretta Neill…
She is a trooper and greeted every visitor and neighbor with confidence and a happily wagging tail.
The sounds of gentle puppy snoring have returned to the studio at last. Gully my love, you can rest easy now…ya done great.
More to come soon … but most of the painting done in the studio this week has been with sidewalk chalk !
Finnegan
29 march 09
It doesn’t get any better than this…
After weeks of lonely studio days and anxious worry about who we might find when at last we got a chance to choose our new pup… today the wait was over and every single one of my worries vanished in a heartbeat…when Belinda brought out two of the most beautiful Berners puppies I’ve ever seen.
They are from that litter of 14 puppies which were born February 17 and are now five weeks old. What I never expected was how hard it would be to choose if both of them were perfect…but this little girl was so much like Gully but with a reputation for confidence and being ornary and a strapper for her fair share of what her brand new life has to offer… we knew we had found Finn.
Now that our search has come to an end we have lots of work to do in the next three weeks before we bring her home. But, at least for tonight, Jon and Pat and I will settle in to a much happier sunday eve and I’ll settle for these photos to remind me what it was like to feel her sweet kisses…
She’s supposed to meet 100 new people in the first three months…so get ready for your studio visit !