ALOT of Snow Now

Well it has been snowing and it is still snowing. Not really shocking compared to what people in the central plains, west and north experience routinely. Not even as much as the east coast has had this year so far. But it is alot more than we have had for a few years. We may have had this much at the end of winter last year, come to think of it, but it was gone in a few days. This will be around for awhile with the below freezing temperatures hanging on indefinitely. Poor horses, too hard to tunnel out to the pasture right now. Do let them exercise some in an indoor area that has been tunneled to, though, each evening. It is all doable for now, as long as the power stays on -- losing that really makes it miserable.

I have had one of the worst colds I can remember having in awhile. Missed work on Saturday -- feeling bad about that as a newbie to my job. Will be going tomorrow. Medicine would not touch my symptoms until the last day or two. Can barely do a barn chore here and there. Have caught up on my sleep and have made my applications to a few art fairs. House needs cleaned more than ever, but that will have to wait.

Got news on the poster contest, the winner. Dick Close, is the design director of Ionic Communications Group, a brand design firm in Cincinnati, Ohio. So though this compeition did not have very many entrants relative to alot of contests, it did have some pretty tough competitors. The press release for the competition says that 26 artists scattered from Granville to Los Angeles entered 36 pieces of art into the competition. Several design groups entered.

My Baby

Here is a December photo of my baby, Daisy, a toy fox terrier. (That sawdust from the barn really builds up -- that's why I do art or clean the house - or not as you see here.) She came to me in October of 2007 as a cast off, having passed through at least four hands, the last two rather rapidly. I could not learn about her earlier history. She was a year and half old then.

7x5 Colored pencil on panel

I have enjoyed her. She likes to sleep under covers or whatever garment she can get under, next to me as often as possible. She is a lap dog when I am at the computer. In addition to being catlike affectionate, she has alot of spunk and likes to play as the top photo shows. I like her smallness for ease of transport. Since I spend alot of time with my mother in another city she was great to take along the first year I had her. My mom lives in an assisted living facility now, and many of the residents loved to have her visit. Unfortunately, Daisy is the jealous type and she became very protective of my mother, which did not work well after a while with facillity workers coming into the rooom. So Daisy's visits were terminated. She is protective when anyone approaches me now, too. A key perhaps to why she did not last in some of her earlier homes. I have consulted with a trainer, and of course, I am doing something to encourage her behavior. I will have some one-on-one sessions with her and a trainer when I can find the spare time and money to do this and maybe she can become a traveling dog again.

Winter Blahs

Hi everyone. Had some warmer weather this weekend and at the beginning of the week. Makes the now one digit temperatures hard to take. We, here in central Ohio, are not terribly snowed in at this point, though.

When not working on my job I have been working lately on orgainzing my business records, website and renewing art related memberships, as far as New Year's goals go. I have learned alot about business taxes, which since small business are most likely to be audited, is in itself worth the time and money I have invested in learning about taxes this past year. I did see this new blog, ArtIsBroken.com, from reading Making a Mark. They offer a free reveiw of your current website and marketing efforts resulting in some marketing advice. I enlisted in the offer yesterday. Looking forward to the response.

Getting some angst about not doing any art this past week, will get on a good schedule with that soon, I know it.

Keep warm and cozy as much as you can! Thanks for stopping by and stop back soon!

Blue Eyes

Here is one of the commissions I did for Christmas. The large dog is a German Shepherd-Huskie mix. Aren't those blue eyes intriguing! I used three different photos to make this composition of two dogs. It is 12x9 inches, colored pencil on Ampersand pastel board. I heard from the client that the gift was very well received. When asked how I could improve my services, the client replied only that I should keep doing my art because he considered me so talented. A very nice comment. Very rewarding experience all around -- the doing and the happiness of the customer! This customer (a couple who gave the commission as a present to their son and daughter-in-law) saw me a the art festival in Zanesville that I did this summer.

I have been going to work at my job this week -- in between has been taken up by trying to catch up on neglected house work and seeing my mom. So thus far I have not done great in the New Year on some of my goals. But I will follow Mona Majorowicz's example of having faith that putting my intentions out into the universe will help lead me in the right direction.

Hope you are all having a great New Year. Thanks for stopping by, Angela

Poster Finished and Delivered

Here is a final version of the poster. You can see better if you enlarge it. I have several more shots I took and one of them might be better as this is effected by being tilted back a little. I will have to look at those later. Just picked one quickly to post. I delivered it this afternoon. Ran several errands and am posting before I go to the barn.

We are supposed to hear something by February 1. I am glad I did it. I do have some difficulties with painting in acrylic and the horse is not everything I envisioned, but I had to stop working on it in order to get it in on time. I had envisioned a old timie circus kind of thing, but chickened out on puting the lettering on the picture with the time I had. I think if I could have done that, it would look more like I envisioned. I think the finished picture has some of the qualities I was going after,though. I retouched the horse's eye in photo editing to match what I did on second thought with color pencil just before I ran out the door. It is noticiable and does not blend in as well as it done in the original in the enlarged version here.

Thanks for looking and thanks for you support, Mona!

Poster WIP, Loss of an Artist

Here is my picture portion of my poster competition entry, thus far. It has lettering on the sides and bottom, but that is currently taped up and so I cropped that out for this WIP. I have a little ways to go yet, but did not get to work on it yesterday like I planned. Will not now have a chunk of time, now, until Thursday -- cutting it close, but doable for Friday hand delivery, I think. I tried to darken the sky a little and made a streaky too dark mess -- will be fixing. I have to work on the horse the most yet, saved it for last. Also, been having problems since I moved him when redoing my drawing to make the table stand out more -- made some mistakes that I did not discover until I started painting. So he has had some redos to try to fix him. Still need to adjust his color and add tack. I need to work on the green areas more, too.

Some of you may have all ready read about the death of Stephen Huneck, but in case you haven't, you may want to look at his art and read about his life. He did hand carved wooden sculptures and wood cut prints of dogs and was known as a dog folk art artist. He wrote some books which were on the New York times best seller list. He built a dog chapel that people from all over the world visted and left memorials to dogs in their lives who had passed on. I have enjoyed looking at his art and reading about his life as an artist. It is tragic and very sad that he is gone and could not rise above a time of dispair. My heart aches for his devoted wife.

Catching Up

Pony at Winter Pasture, 9x12, oil pastel on grey Mi Tentes

Posting an old one of one of my POA ponies (Pony of the Americas) that fits the season. She looks alot like Buddy, my old man Appaloosa, but she has smaller spots and is a lot smaller, 12.1 hands, with a beaautifully refined head and large eye.

I have been working like mad on my poster, deadline this Friday. Interrupted with training for a job as a tax preparer and getting dressed up like an astronaut to go out about four times a day to do the barn chores. Has been in the teens or lower for several weeks, really tiring.

I will try to post a WIP of the poster on Monday -- my next day with a chunk of time at home. I do hope to get it finshed or 98% on that day as I will be getting a work schedule on Monday that will probably include some working next week, too.

Hope you are all well and warm. Thanks for stopping by!