She Would Be Queen, A Catitude

Lately it seems my life has been comparable to a turbulent ride in a plane smack dab in the middle of a storm over a large ocean filled with sharks. Ok, maybe not that bad. Ok, maybe not bad at all, I just wanted to write that.

Today I put on ebay a painting titled 'She would be Queen'. It is the first in a series of 'Catitudes'. I find that cats seem to command that they be treated as royalty, at least those that I have become acquainted with. You almost have to admire a cat that has catitude. They exist so that we may serve them. This ebay auction will end next Tuesday evening, Sept. 7th.

Procrastination (sung to the tune of Anticipation)

Remember the Carly Simon song Anticipation? Well I substituted the word procrastination for anticipation. That's my song for the day, all day long. Here I'll sing it for you;

"Procrastination, Procrastination is making me late, is keeping me waiting".

Today I had a painting deadline for the Utah Watercolor Society Fall show. First I pulled up the call for entry and read that I could email my image, but the entry fee and form was also due today and it had to go to Park City. Heck, I hadn't even painted my painting yet, I didn't have time to run to Park City! So it was without too much resignation to my fate of missing the deadline that I posted my entry form dilemma on Facebook.

It wasn't long before my UWS/Facebook friends contacted me with the glad tidings that the entry form only had to be postmarked today. Woohoo, I was off the hook and could enter the show after all. Or was I ON the hook? I still didn't have a painting to submit. I have to confess I did have a half-way-done painting that I started last winter. I had started it with the intent to submit it for UWS Spring show which was last May. Of course I didn't get it done. Now seemed the perfect opportunity to finish it.

The Fall show also has a theme which is your painting should illustrate a poem. The poem I chose is by E. E. Cummings titled Seeker of Truth...

seeker of truth

follow no path

all paths lead where

truth is here

I finished the painting, took a picture of it and emailed it off, took the entry form directly to the post office, watched it get stamped with today's date. Whew!

So there you have it- a full confession of my procrastination. There is a consequence though. Procrastinating means that you don't always do your best work, at least I don't. The painting is ok, and at least I had something to enter. So I am content in my procrastination today and can honestly say "if it weren't for the last minute, I wouldn't get anything done".

Experimental Angel

I have a show in mid-October at Local Colors of Utah gallery. Of course I haven't started painting for it yet. Can you say procrastination? Good! I probably should legally change my middle name to that.

I have in mind to do a series of saints, kind of a whimiscal perspective of what kind of saints people might like to have, for instance; a saint of chocolate. Anyone who really loves chocolate would adore a chocolate saint, right? And I am not talking about the hollow chocolate Santas that you get at Christmas. Anyway, I have all kinds of ideas for Saints, like all the dog lovers really ought to have a saint of dogs, or one for cats... the list can go on and on.

So today I did a study, not for my show, but some experimentation of painting on a textured canvas. I wanted to try some things out before I actually started painting for my show. This painting is a 20"x 16" and is titled 'Petit Ange' or Little Angel. I enjoyed painting on the texture which included some random collaged papers and then I applied a layer of modeling paste and went over it with a little roller. I liked the effect I got with the texture and will try it again tomorrow.

This painting is currently up for auction on ebay and will end next Monday on Sept. 30th. Click on the ebay link at the top of this page to see all my auctions.

A Wedding Present

On Thursday night my son Brock flew in from Florida to be the best man at his best friend's (Jake) wedding. They've been friends since high school. Brock wanted to give a painting for the wedding present. He doesn't paint, so guess who got to paint it?

He'd been talking about it for several weeks but we never nailed down the subject matter for the painting. So on Wednesday we decided to do something that might be meaningful to Jake. He had proposed to his girlfriend while on a trip to Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives. So I thought maybe I could paint an olive tree and find a scripture to go along with it. However, I didn't get around to painting it and I talked Brock into giving Jake something already painted. Brock seemed a little disappointed, so this morning I decided I would give the olive tree a go. I am not a landscape painter by any means, so it is always a stretch for me to do this type of subject matter.

It took me most of the day and then I framed it, put a big bow on it and it was ready for the reception this evening. The scripture I found for it was in Psalms 52:8.
'But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.'

I often like to use symbolism in my paintings so I looked up the meaning of olive tree. It stands for peace, strength and prosperity. Good things to wish for a newly married couple. I hope it will also remind them of the day they were engaged.

So... busy day.

Cats Have Never Forgotten

One of my favorite quotes about cats goes like this:
"Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this".

I happen to know this to be true. All the cats I have ever met expect homage - just short of a curtsey. No doubt they'd expect a curtsey too if it were in their vocabulary.

This painting is available for sale - just contact me for information. It is 16" x 20" x 3/4" on gallery wrapped canvas. It is done in acrylic with some collage. The sides are painted black and it is wired on the back and ready to hang! Just $200 for buy it now! Free shipping.

August is Zipping Along

Today I painted ACEOs - Art Cards Editions and Originals. Since it's August and kids will be heading back to school soon I did a theme. Back to School! Only instead of kids I painted animals.

I have four of them today, the bunny one is called 'Learning to Write Your Own Name', the dog one is called 'Bulldog Genius', the cat one is 'First Day of School' and the pig one is 'Pig Latin'.

They will all be on auction on ebay starting today and tomorrow.