BUTTON CAT, DOXIE and THERAPIST

I did three more paintings.

Each one is done with Inktense pencils on paper

then collaged onto an acrylic painted small canvas

measuring 4" by 4" by 1 1/2" deep.

They can be hung or placed to sit upright on a surface.

The cat has a floral scrap paper blouse with real little buttons.

I'm liking using different paper and maybe random items, like the buttons.

Then I did another Dachshund because I know a lot of Dachshund owners! LOL!

and lastly, I wanted to use the Therapist quote because it's true for me.

But next up I need to work on some small commissioned paintings.

I had been asked to do a painting of a friends five dogs, all on one tiny canvas

in a more realistic style.

I wasn't given a deadline and I really was dragging my feet.

I sketched out some things but never was happy.

Recently I met up with this friend and she asked about them and I told her that I just couldn't seem to get them all in the proper scale but....

that I'd do it, eventually.

She laughed and said why didn't I just do them individually and in whatever style and whatever color I like.

Suddenly I was full of ideas!

I'm pretty sure I know how I will be creating them.

The only problem now is....time.

Sigh.

I still have not been contacted by the Art/Antique place

and truly, I don't even care now.

It got me painting again and that's what I needed!

I'm still working on setting up a shop but I've opened a business Facebook page!

https://www.facebook.com/cynthiamyersart

Yep, slowly but surely.

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.

REMEMBER ME?

Uh yeah, So that blog break lasted much longer than I had planned.

Actually though it wasn't really planned at all.

I kinda lost the drive to write after that whole back stabbing lying ordeal

and then it was so busy at work and it still is!

Usually it slows down when the kids go back to school but people are still traveling.

I guess I shouldn't whine about it...it keeps me employed.

Then just when I started to feel like blogging again I started having computer problems.

I also had my oil light come on in my vehicle so I took it in for an oil change

and of course they found I needed shocks and struts and a serpentine belt.

So I charged that and then the next week I couldn't back out of the driveway.....

Long long boring story but MAJOR repairs to brakes and things that added up to BIG $$$

More credit card charging.

And then my laptop went black and never came back.

Sigh....

The good news is I found this great company that sells refurbished laptops at very reasonable prices 

(more"cha-ching") but I finally have a working laptop and so far it appears to be a step up from what I had!

So I'm back!

I have a lot to write about but not sure where to start.

I did try to read blogs on my phone but I have a horrible time trying to comment,

Finally,  I just didn't.

I lurked.

Facebook was easy to do, so I spent a lot of time over there and

I do LOVE Instagram, it kept me in touch with the world

and I now have quite the collection of boarding pets photos that we've posted on our vet clinic's FB page.

And if I say so myself, I'm kinda proud of them and the reason why is because

we had a professional photographer come in and take shots of our own pets and then she enlarged them onto canvases and hung them around the clinic.

Most of us were extremely unhappy. She cut the ears off of almost every pet and some she cut their noses off!

A few turned out nice but on the average I was really surprised that they weren't better since they are "professional".

I'm not one to usually blow my own horn but my phone photos at least got the pet's whole head and captured their personality.

So I will share some of those photos... but not today.

Instead I'll share a painting that I did.

One of the veterinarians asked me to paint her dog and you all know my bad experiences in the past

but she had found my blog and read about it and reassured me that it would not happen with her.

And really, she's one of my bosses LOL! so of course I did it.

So here's the photograph of her dog:

and here's the painting I did:

She was SUPER HAPPY, which made me SUPER HAPPY and she paid me.

That always makes me happy. 

She had told me no rush and of course that made me drag my feet but then I felt bad about doing that,

so I also did an illustration of her little dog too.

Something she could keep on her desk.

This is what I truly enjoy doing.

The illustrations.....which yeah, I'm still not done with my Kanga book.

Actually haven't worked on THAT at all while on the blog break.

Instead I was very busy with another activity...

But now I'm back!

I will try to get into the swing of REGULAR posting

between doing  the house and yard and work and life stuff

But truly, I've missed you all and I hope you are still out there reading!

Feeling Apprehensive.

source

So, kind of a strange thing happened this morning.

Well two things actually.

First, we slept in! yep, until 6:42!

but the really strange thing was as everyone jumped up and ran downstairs 

both Ping and Nora refused to go.

Ping, my little assertive watchdog of a toy poodle

and Nora, my Border Collie.

Actually Nora crawled under the bed!

That made me sort of afraid to go downstairs myself

but I knew the gang was waiting at the backdoor to go out.

So I let them all out and went back upstairs.

I had to pull out the bed and coax Nora out

and carry Ping!

Everyone is now acting normal but...

I'm still looking around, wondering.

The weather is nice with a light wind, although they've forecast storms

and now I'm wondering if they'v sensed that something is coming.

Yep, feeling apprehensive.