Next on the easel ....

I have done quite a bit on these two so far.
This golden girl caused me a bit of headache - I inadvertently shortened her torso - the leg is too high! I need to make sure it looks plausible and then I can finish her head. She is standing in water - her favorite place - that will be the last challenge on this portrait.



Angel has different challenges for me; all that curly hair!! Not only that but she is a gray blue dog ....... hmmmmm. After I took a look at this photo on my screen, I realized that I've shortened her nose - sigh ......
I'm trying to decide how much more info I'm going to add - the collar will be there, then I will have to decide on background. I've sent an SOS to My buddies Lauren & Patty to ask for suggestions.



Fortunately, I'm ahead of schedule so I can relax, although I had a call from another potential client this afternoon.

Two down, 3 to go

Bandit is finished - chose the yellow again because his eyes are yellow. Mom of Bandit is very pleased!




Fergus also has a happy mom who will be picking this up tomorrow afternoon!
I don't know how visible the last few corrections are, but I posted her again - feels more finished once I've done this.

progress steps

Here is the sketch of Angel - I've enhanced the pencil so you can see it - I will have to soften her eye so she looks shy not grumpy.
She will be 10 x 14 finished and I will take care of the matting & framing for the client. It has a home on a wall with 2 other paintings so we are matching frame size & style.




The first wash of colour is on Bandit. I'm using Payne's gray at this point to keep the changes of value even in hue. Once I have established a bit more of the form, I intend to wash a brownish gray over her - probably a mix of burnt sienna & ultramarine. I'll decide what to do about those extra drips later - maybe I'll add some rather than remove these.




I washed in a yellow background to pop Fergus - although I don't think she needs much popping! The miskit has been removed and I'm decideing my next steps. I will soften some of the edges of the white bits and maybe remove some pigment in places to create a wider range of tones in her wiskers.

thank goodness - NOT black

Yippee, the new commission is a gray Portuguese water dog named Angel.
Here is her photo - I'll post progress when I get to her.

getting into miskit!

Today was the day to get started on the first 2 commissions I had - I sat the show in the Gallery in the Grove
from 11am to 2pm and since it was very quiet (2 guests) I had time to paint. I got a fair bit done on Fergus and I think I will set her aside to work a bit on Bandit next - her eyes are not the same size right now! Tomorrow I am taking photos of another black dog - yet another xmas present.

Fergus" or Fergie 8 x 10


Bandit - 8 x 11


Since both animals have a lot of black and Fergus has all those white whiskers, I decided to mask out a lot of them using miskit - I don't usually like working this way because when the miskit is removed, the white is quite harsh so I will need to be very patient at the finish.

nothing done!

I got up at 8:30 (that's early for me these days) intending to do all kinds of stuff - have 3 commissions to do and I thought I'd check out a few things first ..... I updated this site - a little cosmetic repair - then I wandered over to Lauren's blog; from there to her facebook page and found this: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/11/dogs-dont-understand-basic-concepts.html which then led to http://www.stumbleupon.com/home/ which somehow led to several hours of further stumbling!
Anyway - now I'm into mid afternoon, so I guess I better start - I have one sketched and 2 to go.

Bandit - sketch done


Fergus - next



Mastiff - waiting for a better photo from client

more small ones

I created several more 5 x 7 and matted them to fit an 11 x 14 standard frame. They make great gift items at a reasonable price.The mat is white with a black edge along the cut and the whole thing is in a poly bag. I priced these at $45 to make them and if you are interested, contact me at suegalos@yahoo.com.


"Dance #1"


"Circle Dance"


"The beginning of so many things"


"Dance #2"


"Sails Away" (shown in mat and poly bag)

small jems

On the advice of my buddy Lauren, I worked up a collection of small pieces (5 x 7) to has some different price points for my next show. These also work well as warm ups - although I end up putting in a fair bit of time into them. This first batch was done in the style I learned from Bob Burrifge: heavy viscosity paints and negative painting.

Girl's week out!

Patty Henderson and I drove up to Honor Mi to visit our buddy, Lauren Everett-Finn at the end of September. We spent a week painting, eating & drinking .....and, needless to say - a good time was had by all.
We visited many local sites to do plein aire paintings & sketches. Below are the ones I did.

These are all done in my moleskin watercolour sketch pad.

Girl's week out!

I've been a bad girl!

I have lots of paintings to post - I have been too lazy to get on the site and update. Sometimes trying to orchestrate my thoughts is more trouble then I care to deal with. LOL It's been a very busy 2 months; studio tours; vacation up @ Port Severn - me painting, guys fishing; vacation at Honor Mi with Patty & Lauren (we did a stack of plein aire pieces) and a 60th bday!!!

First in line are the 3 paintings I finished in September - just in time for the Studio Tours. I don't think I needed to rush to get work done; it was a fairly sparse attendance at my studio. I will return tomorrow to post the next group - pleine aire in Honor.

These are all 18 x 24, acrylic on canvas. The 2 bouquets have been adjusted after Lauren, Patty and I had a 3 way skype critique yesterday - I might not have quite succeeded in correcting the flaws. Bouquet 1 needed some warm tones through the central area to tie everything together - I think that it works now. Bouquet 2 needed something to tie the 3 circles together - a rectangular window was suggested and I ended up deciding on the round one in the background - not sure if this one is successful.

something for the fisherman

bouquet 2

bouquet 1