VIEW FROM THE UMBRELLA STAND

This may be the last painting of the year for me. This is the view from an umbrella stand near Grand Central Station in New York City. I know this because I snapped the reference photo while my mother purchased an umbrella. They were actually very reasonably priced. This oil painting is on 40"h x 30"w x 1 1/2"canvas. It is painted raw umber around the edges, so you have the option to leave it unframed.

CHRISTMAS COMMISSIONS

I think the coast is clear. It is safe for me to post the recent commissions I did for Christmas. The three paintings of dogs below were painted during the months of November and December.

HIGGINS

This is a painting of Higgins the dog. It is oil on 16"h x 12"w canvas.

CUMBY

This is a painting of Cumby the dog. It is oil on 18"h x 24"w x1 1/2" canvas.

TULA

This is a painting of Tula the dog. The oil painting was on 24" x 30" x 1 1/2" canvas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

It feels like I just posted this exact same message, but no, that was a full year ago. This is the newest addition to our collection of ornaments... he's purrrrrfect! Have a great Christmas everyone!!!

PENGUIN COOKIE

THIS IS WHY I AVOID THE BAKERY SECTION OF GROCERY STORES! Because there are always cute desserts. I usually can just keep walking, but today the scent emanating from the bakery was more difficult for me to resist than siren's song would be for sailors. Almost as disastrous as crashing into seaside cliffs, I purchased a cookie with a mountain of icing in the shape of a penguin on top. I had to paint this quickly because the smell of butter-cream was too much to endure. What you can't see from this painting is that there is a huge bite taken out of the back of the cookie :) I'll save the rest for my husband who has a faster metabolism than I have.

Not only is this painting Christmas/winter related, but also sports-related; the Pittsburgh Penguins are going to be in the Winter Classic on New Year's Day. No longer available.

GETTING CLOSE

One painting almost done, one halfway done. I fell ill last week, so I did not deliver on my promise for new work last week. By the end of this week, there will be at least one new painting on this blog!

DON'T GIVE UP!

Seriously, I promise new artwork is on the way. I've been working on Christmas commissions lately (and I can't post them because it will ruin some surprises) but I have started a new series of paintings, and will be adding some of them to this blog later this week. Also, please check www.artquiver.com on December 21st, as my new work will be available for purchase then. AQ is planning to start accepting commissions soon, so feel free to inquire about those. The picture above is a preview of some of my new work, which consists of cityscapes and dinner table scenes. And no, this is not a picture of me (but is is of a girl who looks as mad as everyone always says I look.)

This was the last picture my camera took before it was killed in Paris. I was stupid enough to set it on a slick granite seat next to a fountain at the Louvre to take an automatic picture (rather than asking someone to do it.) I didn't think it was possible that someone may try to sit on it. After the picture snapped, I saw a girl walking toward the camera and I sprinted toward it, because I can't speak French and she didn't respond when I yelled for her to watch out. I knocked the camera into the fountain myself when I tried to grab it. Fortunately we were able to fish it out and save the memory stick, and I had two back-up cameras. But my poor camera died. It served me well. And yes, I learned something that day.

This is what I learned:

1. Don't set your camera on a slippery surface next to a body of water, especially when there are unpredictable people who don't speak your language milling about.
2. Sometimes when you have an abundance of something, you are less careful with it. This goes for everything (except maybe if you have a lot of kids; you probably wouldn't sit one of them unattended next to a fountain.) I had three cameras with me on that trip (one was a loaner from my mom, I'm just glad it wasn't hers that I took chances with) so maybe something in my mind felt safe, like, "well if this camera falls into the water, it's okay, I still have two more." Maybe that's why God only gave us two eyes, two ears, and so forth... we don't have three of anything important. We have ten total fingers and toes, but in each category, there are really five totally different varieties that have different jobs, and we only have two of each variety (two index fingers, two thumbs, etc.)
   
3. Sometimes when you try too hard to save something (or someone) that is in danger, you end up doing more harm than if you play it cool. If I would have just let the girl sit on the camera, maybe she wouldn't have done any damage. Also, I wouldn't have had to worry all week if the memory stick was damaged (we couldn't find a place to print pictures from a memory stick and I didn't want to place a wet memory stick into one of my working cameras and risk damaging them with water. I think of it as the Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader effect in the last movie when he essentially killed that princess girl (my husband will be so impressed that I included this analogy.)
   
4. Always be aware of your surroundings. Why didn't the girl look where she was sitting? What if there would have been bird poop on the bench where the girl was about to sit instead of my camera? I was aware of my surroundings because I sprung into action as soon as I saw her going in the direction of my camera. Unfortunately I overcompensated for her lack of attention by moving more quickly than I could think. So if you pay attention to your surroundings at least a little, you can give the conscientious people a break.