Happy New Year!

As the sun goes down on 2017......

And the moon rises on 2018......

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I went outside, and saw this, the last sunset of the year. As I turned around to go back inside, I saw the beautiful moonrise.. Thought it would be a rather fitting post.

Here is the whole picture of the moon with my beloved little bug:

Meet the Bassets

Meet Mom and Dad Basset, their puppies and wise old Grandpa. They are hand carved wood, furred, 1:12 scale. I love Basset Hounds. I guess they are my favorite dog breed. I admit I got a bit carried away carving them, just couldn't stop and the family grew :)

The mama on the left and daddy on the right...

...and their 3 puppies.

Mama having a moment with her children.

When I finished carving this one, I decided he looked like a wise old dog, hence the graying face. What fun!

And this little guy is asking Grandpa for some advice!

Kitties kitties everywhere kitties!

Yes, the daddy is the same cat from the last post, but now he is pictured with mama and kitten :)

1:12 scale.

A cute little family I think.

Mama and her little one are having a playful moment.

And with the obligatory pencil for size :)

New brown tabby

I know I have posted "this" cat before but he is a new order. 

And since everything is one of a kind, as no two will be alike, he is new.

The pose is the same as that was the request, and even though it is also a brown tabby, it is different.

I really like him, wish I could keep him!

Thanks for looking---

Nature is so beautiful

Some pictures of butterflies in my zinnias. The flowers they chose are not in their prime, but still beautiful.

Too wonderful not to share!

Again, not miniature, but this is a beautiful story! I took a picture of this bumble bee in a zinnia. No big deal...but I got to thinking he didn't look too well. I remembered something I'd seen on Facebook that if you see a bee like this, you should immediately get him some sugar water to revive him. So I got a capful out of the hummingbird feeder and put it in front of him. He immediately started drinking, it was SO interesting to watch this. I'm trying to hold still for him, and he finally had his fill. Now for the beautiful part. This sweet little bumble bee walked up onto my hand and every time I tried to put him back in a flower, he would not let me! I'd get him into a flower and before I could move away, he was back on my hand! The sweet little guy was thanking me! I know he was....

Eventually he flew off and I was very happy for him. We need our bees. Every one is important. Plus it is so cool to help another creature :)

Lemon tree update

I realized it had been over a year since I posted an update on the little lemon tree. So even though I am not posting about miniatures right now, I felt an update was in order. He is doing really well, loving the beautiful summer. He got a nice new larger pot this spring. Transplanting him scared me. But he did just fine :)

What is it? Sometimes it's just a little brown puppy!

While my main focus at this year's Chicago International will be my oil paintings, I will have animals, furniture and accessories too.

This little guy is hand carved wood then furred.

He has carved paw pads and toe nails. He went through some changes while I was making him, kinda risky after I've begun. 

But I just had an idea in my head, no picture. It's just a little brown puppy!

The most difficult painting yet

While this painting was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the insane amount of detail, it was to date, the most difficult one. As I showed in a previous post, I like to lay it out by drawing the placement of elements within the scene. These shapes and sections are usually easy to follow, but this one reminded me of doing a puzzle. Every time I would have to mix some paint or get more on the brush, I'd lose my place and by the time I found where I was going with it, I'd have to get more :)

frames

The reason for the title of this post is because I really enjoy making my own frames for my oil paintings. But this time I used a frame by John Hodgson. It is metal and I left the finish as is. This painting will also be going to Chicago International in April. This year, paintings will be my main focal point. It is WAY more fun than furring animals! I do love to carve animals though.

Fireplace screen

Here is my latest creation. It is a 1:12 scale fireplace screen. I found a wonderful photo of this fire screen and just new I had to make it in miniature. It is oil paint on wood. I had an order for something that required me to set up and learn how to use my lathe duplicator. I had been putting that off way too long:) Now I was able to use it for this project! 

How I create a miniature oil painting

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Since previously I have been posting pictures of finished paintings, I thought it might be fun to show the steps to creating a one. The first step is finding an interesting painting I would enjoy doing. I chose this dog:

I cut a piece of good hot press Crescent illustration board. Then I lay out the subject and indicate the background lightly in pencil.

Below is my work station. Oil paint, wax paper palette, good brushes and turpentine.

Here is a home made brush holder, so you can suspend the brushes in the turpentine without them touching the bottom, ruining their shape. It was a plastic soup container, coat-hanger, spring, and the black "liners" courtesy of mac 'n cheese. (PS I don't eat this junk food any more!!)  Lots of them so if the turpentine eventually messes up the liner, just pop in another one.

Sorry for the terrible blurry photo, I hate this new phone. This is how I like to hold the board, with the photo taped to the right side, as I am left handed. It is impossible to hold the painting like I do in my right hand and shoot a pic with my left.....I want my little flip phone back 😒... Too lazy to go upstairs and get the good camera, sorry, I should have. Anyhow here it is about a third of the way done (my thumb will show size):

And finally we have the finished painting.

More Chicago-bound paintings

This first painting was a lot of fun to paint despite the the fact that the subject matter was less than desirable to an animal/ bird lover! It measures 3-1/8" x 2-1/2".

This painting of a little girl peeling an apple was intriguing. It measures 2-3/4 x 2-1/16".

All of my paintings will be available at the Chicago International.