February 4 - Cooling Off on the Paint

Sunday without television in our house means that there is no Super Bowl excitement, so I trailered Raindance and met up with about 20 other riders for a great ride around a large open area called Bonelli Park. Water crossings and many western riders enjoying the 83 degree day, and photo opportunities galore. Over three hours in the saddle and a great ride!
 Thus results this small 5 x 7 acrylic on really textured handmade paper collage, of one of the riders in the stream we crossed. Fun to completely get away from the oils and "play" in the acrylics!
 I'm also thinking about my own soon-to-be-underway trip to the Arizona mountains near the Chiricahua National Monument where I'll be on a working cattle ranch for a week, with some friends from the East Coast! Lots of great subject matter there, I'll bet. And I'm taking my paint brushes, of course!

SOLD to Mary Cadenhead of Brownwood, Texas

December 13 - The Cat in the Snow, Acrylic, 8 x 10

Hmmm, texture again, and Bats the Studio Cat! Of course, Bats has never seen snow, but he will always model for me, and I can then have a wonderfully fun time making the snow and shadows behind him in this fanciful landscape, comvered in rime and icicles. Entitled, "Will You Feed Me?" Bats might play the role of a feral cat looking for a handout. I've entered this one in a national show on animals in art. Original acrylic, 8 x 10 inches $175 from the Daily Paintings web site for December 13.

December 12 - Deer in the Forest, Acrylic, 16 x 20

More snow! One of the bigger canvases! Egad... (I hear the rest of the big canvases shuffling in the racks like the owls asleep at Hogwarts--I wonder whether they are shuffling away from me, or making movement to be chosen next?) This is a 16 x 20 inch canvas, with handmade papers under the paint, completely sealed for archival quality. The acrylics make a ton of texture, and the details are always easy to pick out--a branch here, a pile of snow there, a deer... wait?!! Look what walked into an otherwise interesting textured woodland! Yes, the eye goes directly to whatever has a heartbeat. Note that the deer is in the "Golden Mean" and not poking around in a corner somewhere. Good design can be simple or complex, but it ought to follow the rules of good design! And the common blue/orange complementary color scheme is pleasant, too.
Now in the collection of Fay Bohlayer of Dawsonville, Georgia.