I’m trying to get back on track here. It takes awhile! Christmas usually commands my attention for a few weeks of the month – at least. We had a nice Christmas day – snow on the ground, family home and dinner with friends. The next day we all went to the pond to go skating – girls, boyfriends, dogs…how great to be able to do that!

This week I’m working on a few pieces for the Settlers West Miniature Show in Tucson in February. In a day or two I’ll show you the first piece. Painting always amazes me.  The first of these pieces went really well and easily, and is almost done. The second has not gone so smoothly. You’d think that once you learned to do something it would always stick with you, like riding a bike, but that doesn’t necessarily apply in the world of painting! Tomorrow is another day though, so we’ll see.

I thought I would do a blog entry – anything to put off going outside to feed. It has been nasty and COLD this week. I’ve spent a lot of time outdoors feeding, shoveling and fixing. That is so much easier here in the summer, as long as you’re watching for rattlesnakes!

My first image is testimony to why I’m still sitting at the computer…our bunkhouse in the cold this week. The next are pieces from the Gallery Russia in Scottsdale. I always try to get to the Main Street galleries when I’m there, as I was a few weeks ago. The nude is a painting by a Russian artist,  Laimodot Murnick from the 50′s. I am amazed by the color! The next piece is called “The Pickers” and is by Maija Eliase, also from the 50′s. The landscape is called “Snow in the Country”, by Valery Shmatko, 2002. These pieces impress me so, as do many of the classical Russian impressionist works. There is so much texture, vibrance and gutsy brushwork. These are, in my opinion, some great painters!

It is with some emotion that I post this painting. It is one that I finished just before Thanksgiving. This is the second time I have painted this piece, something I never do. But, the first one I did for Tara Bowman at Montana Trails Gallery, and it went there not long before the explosion. It was one of so many things lost that day. Afterward, it kept coming to mind again, and I felt I needed to do it once more. For the longest time, it wouldn’t paint, and then suddenly, this woman appeared. Her face is more serene than the first one. I think Tara may have had a hand in it. I would like to think so.

Under a Painted Sky ll is 30 x 30 and is dedicated to Tara Bowman.