Still Painting

Yes, I have been painting! Here's a photo taken by Marcus Gale of me just starting a painting of an old boat in Durham, NH. The boat filled with water as the tide came in. A local guy told us that someone planned to restore it. I've almost finished the painting; I'll post it soon.

Although I haven't painted at Prescott Farm in Laconia yet, I scouted it out recently for the New Hampshire Plein Air group, which has been invited to paint there. 

There's a lot of paintable material there, from flowers....

to multiple-angled rooftops. It was blazing hot that day, but lots of big trees provided cooling shade.

 We had a week of 90-plus degree weather recently, so I decided to work in the studio instead of going out to get heat stroke. Tarbin Gardens, where I paint often, has a bunch of cats (six? seven?) roaming around. I've taken lots of photos of them recently and used a few to make these cat portraits.

This is Creamsicle, who, I have to say, seems quite lazy. Though I've caught him in motion a few times, he's mostly flopped on the ground, in the shade, with his eyes half-closed. 

I'm not sure of the real name of this beauty, but I named her Penny Ante (money cat, get it? ::groan::). The rest of her markings are even more amazing; I hope to capture that in a painting sometime.

This little tabby is the shyest of all, barely coming out of the shadows for a photo. 

All the cat paintings are 8" x 8", oil on gessobord. 

Steady Drift

This is my latest woodcut print, done for another exchange. The theme this time was "Journey." My reference was a photo I took of my husband Steve on his first kayaking trip. He's wearing an enormous life jacket because he sinks like a stone when he tries to swim. This was a point where he had stopped paddling for a moment and was just enjoying the solitude and beauty of Hoit Road Marsh. However, he was still moving, as the ripples signify. I like the idea of a journey continuing, even if we stop our frantic paddling now and then. I started this image as a reduction print, but due to life getting in the way, ran out of time, so did it in one color instead, using a new block. At some point, I'll continue the reduction print and see what happens.