Little Max

8x6
acrylic on gessobord

This is a painting I did for a friend.  I really struggled with it at first, but finally found my footing once I took a step away from it.

Ty

8x6
acrylic on gessobord

This is Ty, one of our sweet dogs from our local shelter (that was just adopted!).  He is so loving and sweet!  This poor guy was born with bad hips, but he doesn't let it curb his enthusiasm for life and people.  I took out my phone to capture a couple of pics of him and you would have thought he was a professional model!  He truly was posing for me.  What a ham!

I invented a background for this painting, that he truly deserves.  I hope he is relaxing by the water as I type this.

Beachin' Bullies

8x6
acrylic on gessobord

I don't often see little bulldogs at the beach, so when I saw a photo (Pixabay) of a bunch of bullies playing in the surf, I knew I needed to paint it!  Once, while relaxing at the beach we saw a full size bulldog try to swim.  Not much swimming was taking place, just sinking.  Luckily his owner was right there to scoop him out of the water.  He was so adorable and unstoppable.  Gotta love those dogs!

Home On the Sea

8x6
acrylic on gessobord

I painted "Home On the Sea" for this week's DPW "from the sea" challenge.    This was our home for over 6 years.  Even though we don't officially live on Pearl (our boat's name) now, she still feels like home when we go out on her.  There is nothing quite like spending time on the water.  We love going out for an exploratory dinghy ride before sunset, when the water is calm and a wonderful kind of quite takes over.

Snow Dog

6x6
acrylic on gessobord

I painted "snow dog" using a reference photo I found on Pixabay.  I just loved how studly this lab looked.  I have a soft spot in my heart for black labs.  Our first dog, Tabor, was a black lab.  He's been gone for quite some time now, but I still miss him.

Swan Lake

6x6
acrylic on gessobord

Today has been so rainy.  I decided to paint something bright and cheery to help combat the gloom outside.  Once I found the photo of this beautiful swan on Pixabay, I knew it was just what I needed.  Here's to sunshine!  May we all see some soon!

Timing Waves

6x8
acrylic on gessobord

I'm so happy I was able to finish this one up this morning.  I'm off to volunteer for our daughter's sailing team fundraiser...in the rain...ugh!  I used a photo I found on Pixabay for this painting.  I was instantly drawn to the water patterns.  I hope you enjoy it!  Now it's time for me to put on my rain gear and make my way over to the yacht club.  Sure wish I had bought the hand warmers I saw at Costco the other week!

Dynamic Duo

6x6
acrylic on gessobord

On one of visits to Bellingham, we had the pleasure of running into these adorable dogs.  When we first saw them, the smaller guy was comfortably sitting on top the big fluffy one.  By the time I got my camera out, little one worked his way down to a comfy spot next to his brother.  The dappled sun shining on these two also caught my eye.  I struggled a bit with this one, and I think my head just wasn't in it.  I hate days like that!!!  Enjoy!

Late Afternoon Dip

6x6
acrylic on gessobord

This was a fun one to paint!  To me, this is what summer should be like;  Hanging with my best friend by the water.  Enjoy!

Make a Splash

8x6
acrylic on gessobord

One thing I have struggled with lately is painting shaded areas of animals and people.  When it's a fairly saturated color, no problem, but when it's a more muted tone...yikes!  I loved the photo I used for this painting because of the bright spots and water.  I however have been a bit apprehensive due to this sweet lab's shaded coat.  I've been studying many artist's works that seem to have a good handle on shaded tones and went for it on this one.  I really like how this turned out.  Now I just need to keep practicing so I can be one of those artists that makes it all look easy!