Newest Pet Portrait: Sachmo

A friend of my last portrait client saw the finished result and gave me a call. So this is Sachmo, who has now gone over the rainbow bridge but lives on in the hearts of his family.

Sachmo, work in progress, acrylic on canvas, 18x24 inches

Sachmo, work in progress, acrylic on canvas,18x24 inches

a couple of layers of paint on most of the canvas so far.

I see some areas that need tweaking. But today is catch up the house work day. I might work on him some more later on in the evening.

Online Resources for Artists

Are you an artist? Or is that your someday dream? Well, I've put some of my favorite spots on the web together in one place. Places to learn to draw and paint, places to buy supplies, online communities get support from. They are all  together in my article, My Favorite Artist Resources Online.

I hope you enjoy it and discover some of the cool new things going on out there on the web.

Refurbish Your Garden Art

Well I have been busy writing and photographing and working on things over at Squidoo (a free publishing platform). But I managed to connect it all together with a painting project!

Garden Fairy before refurbishing

I bought this little garden fairy a few years ago at a discount store. She's beginning to look a little sad and faded so I refurbished her.

Garden Fairy after refurbishing

If you'd like to see a blow by blow I wrote it all up in my article, Refurbish Your Garden Art.

In other news this week I have some new designs over at Zazzle, just click the Zazzle panel on the right to go there. I've become a Dick Blick affiliate so if you need good deals on art supplies you can click that link. In the meantime remember the pet portrait of the two yellow labs? Well apparently the owner has been showing it off to all and sundry and I've now been commissioned to paint another yellow lab from his neighbor! Woot! Things are rolling my way! I do have to make a run to the valley tho, because I don't have the size canvas he wants and I don't have time to wait for an order to ship UPS. So probably tomorrow evening I'll run down and pick up just one, then make an order for more. Getting low on a few other things anyway.

And Happy Paint Party Friday! I might not get around to everyone this week, I think there were more than 60 last week, but I do try to go look at everyone's.

A New Venture

I have just discovered Squidoo, yes that is a really funny name and no, I don't know the story behind it yet. Squidoo is a free publishing platform, where you can write an article (only they call it a lens) about something, add some text, some links, ect. Squidoo makes money through Google ads on the pages and it just happens to share some of that money with their authors. I joined up because I've had good advice from Zazzle ProSellers that writing about things at Squidoo and then linking to related items at Zazzle is a good promotional tool. I'm also hoping that my website will get a boost too.

So, you can click on the link above and read what I wrote about Artists that Paint on Stone. There are lots of links to some of the ones that have taught me about Rock Art and links to some I just discovered.

And here is a picture of a leopard I did a couple of years ago; he has sold, but I'm looking for some more largish rocks the right size to do another. Or maybe I will do a black panther!

Leopard, acrylic on stone, 13.5x7.5x7 inches

Leopard back

Between a rock and a hard place. from Zazzle.com

Zazzle now has Doodle portable speakers! Great for laptops, IPhones, MP3 players, ect. Works with ANY standard 3.5 mm. headphone jack audio product! go check them out!



Between a rock and a hard place. from Zazzle.com

Tabby Cat Keychains from Zazzle.com

whew! I've spent most of the day designing new products for my Zazzle store! There are about 50 new items with 22 different photos in 3 categories (The Barnyard, Dogs, Cats). These all feature photographs of my stone animals


Tabby Cat Keychains from Zazzle.com


Pug from Zazzle.com

Rooster from Zazzle.com

New & Old

Today I have something new and something old to show you. First, I'm nearly done with the Black Panther/

Black Panther 16x20 acrylic on canvas, work in progress

This one is from way back, 1999, a water color of my chili harvest.

Chili Harvest  image area 13x9 inches, watercolor on paper

Chili Harvest is not for sale, it's one of the few things I've kept for myself over the years. However, prints will be available in my Zazzle store in a day or two. One of the things I like about this one, besides the fact I grew the peppers myself is that colander belonged to my granny. While chipped and worn I still use it often in my kitchen.