ONE DOWN and a FEW to go....

Well, I finished ONE commissioned painting during my time off.

I did it in my illustrated collage style.

I used acrylics, papers and Inktense pencils.

My friend wanted it to be of her longhair Dachshund who is constantly digging holes. 

I wrapped the cut paper around the sides so that there is no need for a frame.

Then I sealed it in a matte finish.

I hope she likes it! She will be getting it Thursday.

I've got a few other works in progress and I made a huge dent in my gardening chores so that gave me some satisfaction.

In other news, I'm back at work.

On the Plus side,  I'm doing all the flower containers for the clinic.
(Wahoo! Anything to be outside!)

On the Minus side is that 3 of the rescued abused dogs are now here at the clinic
and it hurts my heart to look at them. 

But on the Plus, they are getting better and the fourth dog is already at a rescue!

So... Enough about that.

Sigh.

FIVE MORE PAINTINGS...I'm on a roll!

Winter and 3 Mixed Media Paintings

So, the weather has been bad.
Not as bad as the East Coast, so I'm trying not to complain.
This is a photo of my driveway after I shoveled on Sunday.
Yep, AFTER. 
A few hours had gone by and the driveway had disappeared again.
My driveway runs along side of the candy canes that my neighbor still has in his yard.
You can barely see the street and the kid across the street foolishly left his car out front.

The girl that works for me and covers Sunday nights, text me to say that she was worried about me getting in on Monday,
especially since I live in Illinois.
She drives a big huge truck and lives in Iowa, where the clinic is.
She said that she had trouble getting through all the snow.
She said nothing was plowed yet.
She offered to trade shifts with me on Monday so that I could leave later in the morning after the roads had been cleared and salted.

So I spent most of Monday morning shoveling out my van.
A lot of the neighborhood was out there working on their driveways and sidewalks.
When I came inside the house I found that Blue had pushed aside the curtain in the living room and had been watching me and the neighbors.
He just kept watching, even after I was inside until I was almost ready to leave for work.

When I finally got to work,although it was very cold, it was very pretty outside.
I stood out in the yard with some of the boarding dogs and looked up at sky.
It was so blue and the trees were so heavy with snow that they were making a crackling noise.
That's when I noticed that we were being watched.
The hawk was back.

Later that night I worked a bit on some paintings that I had started on the weekend
and finished up a few yesterday.
I'm doing them in a mixed media style.

The illustrations are done in Inktense pencils on card paper and I've cut them out and layered them and sometimes other scrap papers onto canvases that I've painted in acrylics.

I'm finding that I want to do things on a smaller scale.
I want to work towards more of a collage style, I think.

I haven't received a call yet but that's a good thing because I have a lot of things I want to create for my space. 
I've been thinking about this and how this is an opportunity to develop my style.
So I'm not going to stress myself out,
I'm instead going to enjoy my journey.