First Lhasa

The first Lhasa painting I did several months ago was a puppy. It will be the only Lhasa puppy painting I'll be doing. Not that they aren't adorable beyond words, but I needed just one.

I'll be back in my studio tomorrow -- I've got so many directions I'm going I'm not sure which painting I'll work on. Last week (before the radishes intervened on the weekend) I started working on a western equine painting, that I'm just itching to get to.

Unfortunately I won't get any painting done on Friday, have to pick up work from one show, and take a bunch of dog paintings to Paddywack (Paddywack.net) where my canine work will be hanging on their art walls for July and August. So if anyone happens to be in Mill Creek, Washington stop by and see them in person. I'll be painting as an artist in action on July 12 at the Mill Creek Festival.

Radishes

"Radishes" oil on canvas 4" x 12" For sale $175.00 framed

A quick break from four legs.

I've had the good advice that if you work from photos a lot, it's good to still get in some live drawing every few paintings. It helps you maintain you looseness and spontaneity

So along that note, here is a small (4" x 12") still life I did with some radishes this weekend. As you can see it does help keep a fresh looseness (impressionism) with ones work. The lighting is beautiful, the colors luscious, and the edges are lost and found. I'm very, very pleased with the way it turned out, and can hardly wait for it to dry so I can put it into a nice wide gallery wood frame.

This piece is for sale, and will be framed as soon as it's dry enough. The price for the "Radishes" framed original oil on canvas is $175.00 -- first come, first served -- please send inquiries to me at klm at kmdogart.com (you all know how to make the email address work), or give me a call at 425-330-8879.

Lhasa Again

Here we go with another in the Lhasa Apso series that I'm doing. The coats on this breed are a great deal of fun to paint. And the color red, what can I say. It always gives me a visceral response. I knew it would play off well in the reflections of the gong. I had purchased the gong about a year ago at a garage sale -- knew I'd get around to painting it sometime. My husband tends to just roll his eyes when he sees the assorted things I bring home from garage sales to incorporate into my artwork.

If you've been following my other entries, yesterday I heard a great update from NOAH, both Bogey and Babs have found wonderful new homes.

11" x 14" oil on board NFS

Morning Workout

Recently my daughter's pony club made a field trip to the race track. We had a blast watching everything, including the morning workouts, and I took pictures like mad. As you folks have seen before I like to crop my images close. I really like the visual interest and tension it gives to a piece. Much less static than having horse and rider centered in the middle of the canvas, with a lot of space around.

This painting is all about the rider, not the horse. Earlier in this blog when I did "Andalusian Dressage" it was the opposite, about the horse not the rider. "Working Out" is entered in an art show next month, therefore it is not available for purchase right now. But I can always do something similar if you're interested, or contact me in the end of July, and I can tell you if this piece is available.

This painting really shows the size of the horse, versus the size of the jockey. Later I'll post another of the pieces headed for the show next month. It's that green ball and the young stallion again, he was just too much fun to paint.

Working Out 18" x 36" oil on canvas

Babs

Babs 9" x 12" oil on board For Sale

Babs is so sweet. She loves to just sit on laps and be pet. I enjoyed painting her, she's another of the NOAH rescue animals, the third of four. I've got one more cat to post, whom I'm just calling "Tall Cat" while my mother is scouring NOAH, to see if she's still a resident, and get her real name. If she's already off to a new forever home, the she'll just remain Tall Cat. Which is fine.

Like Bogey, Babs' painting is for sale. Custom framing, shipping, and a donation to NOAH is included for the price of $250.00. If you're interested drop me a line at klm at kmdogart.com

Lhasa, Lhasa, Lha-sa!

11" x 14" not for sale

Or Lhasa, Lhasa, Ap-so! I've been singing that to the conga dance tune, and breaking out in the dance occasionally as I've been in Lhasa mode in my studio. The reason being is that I accepted a commission to paint several small (small for me 8 x 10 to 11 x 14) Lhasa paintings to be the trophies for the next Lhasa Apso National specialty show. So I've been in Lhasa land.

While I admit that I'm a short haired dog, kind of a person, painting long hair is great fun! And they come in a wide variety of colors to boot. I've been trying to incorporate certain amounts of Tibetan/Oriental items in the paintings, which had been interesting to research.

This 11" x 14" Lhasa painting is not named, and will not be for sale. If I get interest I may have a limited number of prints made. So if you are interested in one please contact me at klm at kmdogart.com

More Lhasas and the NOAH cats will make their appearance over the next few blogs.

My name is Bogey

Bogey 8" x 10" For Sale

There's not much I enjoy more than painting white animals. I love all the reflected color. As with Blue in the entry before, I realized I hadn't signed the paintings yet, hence the digital signature -- next time in my studio I'll get that little detail taken care of.

This is another of the dogs at NOAH, a sweet fellow who may not have been adopted because he's twelve years old, just my guess as he's a nice fellow. I really hate to part with this painting also, but sheesh the point of doing the rescue dogs was to help benefit them, so I'll bite the bullet and have him for sale. The price is $250.00, that includes a custom frame, shipping, and a large portion of those funds going to NOAH.

Ol' Blue Eyes

I'm going to kick start my blog and get it going again. I've been painting, but just not getting snaps of the results and getting them posted. I need to get better habits in setting time aside to get my blogging done. So here is the first of several posts.

As a brief catch up, I've finished a commission, had several pieces accepted into juried art shows, sold "Andalusian Dressage" which was featured in an earlier blog entry. I've also been doing my artist in action thing, most recently at the posh opening to our annual members show.

When trying to decide what to work on at the opening, I decided to paint for a worthy cause. Which started me on a kick of four paintings of rescue animals. The group I was painting for is N.O.A.H http://www.thenoahcenter.org/Noah_Adoption.asp which stands for Northwest Organization for Animal Help. They are a no kill rescue center for dogs and cats. I've visited their facility with my mother who volunteers there, and they are wonderful folks. They have a great turnover rate, they take animals from regular kill shelters, and place them in new homes. They even have a vet clinic at their facility where they do the spay and neutering among other things. It is the cleanest nicest place you can imagine, not what you would expect.

But I'm digressing from my art. Although they have a high turnover in placing a lot of animals, they have a couple that have been there a bit longer than others, and are actually still there (at the time of my posting this).

I would like to share with you today a dog named Blue, a lovely older gent, with really light blue eyes, and sweet disposition.

Ol' Blue Eyes 9" x 12" NFS -- yet

I have to confess that I really like this painting. So much so that I'm not willing to part with it yet. I love the way the color and the light came out, so I'm just not willing for it to go to a new home, it needs to reside with me for awhile LOL. But I still wanted to share it with you.

I will post the other three paintings of the NOAH animals (two dogs and two cats). They will most likely be for sale, and when they do sell I will donate a large portion of the purchase price to NOAH to help them continue with the good work they do. The NOAH animals will be intermixed with other projects I'm working on, but I'll save that for another blog entry.