I spent this morning lost in a study of Andrew Wyeth. I can get lost in the works of Edward Hopper, and Andrew Wyeth is another artist who's work I could study forever. Of all the "famous" artists, those are the two who's work I love. They both have these similarities, upon first glance, their work seems almost to simple and clean to be considered as serious art. That's exactly what I like about their work. To me, they're pure feelings and emotion. They seem to shine from the canvas, drawing you in with a mysterious "something". I also like their subject matter, they chose to see the design and the wonder in simple uncomplicated subjects.

So, I didn't do much artwork this morning, but I was learning. That will help me to make better art when I do paint again.
donna

There, I posted my sketches for today. I like to draw using the Betty Edwards, drawing on the left side of the brain method. She's written some books about it. If you've ever wanted to learn how to draw, get her books and follow her instructions. You'll be drawing in no time. I need much more practise....that's what these sketches are about, practise...donna

I did a charcoal drawing of Robert today while he was watching television. I don't usually do people. They look pretty funny when I try. The line across the picture is a scan line, from me putting two images together. I do have to say, this drawing is better than most of the people I do! Maybe if I keep at it, I'll learn how. There's a strange angle involved in this drawing, I was sitting in a chair that's lower than the one Robert sits in.

I was drawing pictures of my cat Scarlet also. I might post those as I scan them. I like doing quick sketches in vine charcoal. For some reason I like the freedom of charcoal even more than a graphite pencil.
donna

I like painting dogs almost as much as I like painting horses. This is a portrait of a black lab named "Sadie". She's such a lively, well behaved dog. I hope some of that comes through in this painting I'm doing of her. I got started on it last night about 10 pm. My favorite part of painting is creating what I call, a map, of the image. I slosh paint on the canvas and pick out the image. After you get to this point, the real work begins. I try to find each and every detail that makes this dog look different from every other black lab in the world. I want Sadie's owner to be able to say, "That's Sadie!" when I finish this painting.

The thing I hate worst about portrait painting, is when people see the painting of their pet and burst into tears. That's usually because they had me do the painting after their pet had died. When this happens, I'm extremely glad I captured the image they were hoping for, but I've lost so many pets myself, I share their pain.

Perhaps that is what this business of being an artist is about, sharing our feelings and our "humaness". Donna

There are times when I like being silly. Actually, there are a lot of times like that! I was feeling silly when I did this painting and named it, "Don't call me, ED!" You see Mr. Ed, the talking horse, was not a black paint horse but he "talked" like this one does. So this guy wants his own name. I have a weird sense of humor, I admit it.

Luckily for me, I found someone else who saw the same thing in this painting. The person who bought "Don't Call Me Ed!" said this about it-"What a fun little painting! I'll definitely look for more work from this artist."

So that leads me to another topic. I found so much joy in this ladies comment and this was the reason why, I create my art, hoping it will reach out to someone and make them happy. I want to share the feeling my art gives me.

When I recieve a comment like this lady wrote, I feel rewarded in doing the work that I do. I've created something that gave another person a feeling of joy and happiness.

On another topic, it's 14 below zero here and we have a foot or two of snow. I guess winter has certainly arrived. We took our wood stove and put it into an empty fuel tank. This sounds crazy but we're glad we did it. Robert cut out the front of the tank, we set the stove inside it and hooked it up. We get twice the heat out of the stove as we did last winter. The walls of the tank barely heat up as we have a system of fans that contantly blow the heat out of the tank. The wall behind the stove never gets to where it feels "warm" to your hand.

We're about to cut a hole in the top side of the tank and run a heat duct into the house through a wall, the stove is out in the back porch right now and the heat is coming into the house through the open back door. We'd like to be able to shut that door, keeping any cold air that comes into the porch there, and just run the warm air into the house. We have an unused cupboard under the two kitchen ovens that's right in line with the place the duct needs to go. It should work perfectly.

When that's all finished, we might hook up a water jacket to the system, so we have hot water in the hot water lines all the time. We're working at getting a more efficient system!

Today, I posted my edition of 5 ACEO art cards that are Christmas tree ornaments. The theme for this year, is Carousel horses. The auction will end on December 7th. If you happen by chance, upon this blog, and you want to bid on the auction, do a seller search for jackmorgan or search ACEO horse DAW and you'll find my auctions.

I love painting carousel horses. Before I owned a horse, I pretended these ponies were real. donna