Ashes....ashes....

The other day as I was getting Ellie in the tub and ready for bed, she started saying "ashes, ashes" and then she plopped down in the water.  I knew she was doing ring-around-the-rosies, but I hand't taught her, and Russ said he hadn't either, so we decided she must have learned it at nursery.  This little kid is such a sponge, and she makes me smile!  Here is a clip of her doing her thing.

More puppy pics

Puppies

They aren't really art, but they are cute.

New Oil Painting

Scratchboard was my medium of choice during school, so I never really dedicated myself to do any finished work in oil. I did head studies in oil, but that's about the extent of it. Here I am, over ten years later, wishing I had that many years of painting experience behind me. The itch to get into painting has been growing, and I finally gave in. I dug out the set of oils my dad used to use when he was taking art classes. They have to be at least 40 years old, but the colors are still good.

Painting from a photograph would have been better, but my color printer needs refilling. Rather than wait, I decided to wing it, and just make something up. I sketched in a rocky mountain top and here is the result on a 5x7 canvas board. It's nothing to shout about, but I was pleased with the result overall. More than anything it was fun getting out the paints. On to the next one.

Viggo Mortensen

This is a pencil sketch that I drew from a picture on my computer screen.

Lloyd & Verna Young

These are portraits of my grandparents. It's done on a toned matt board with about 4 different shades of prismacolor. The board is the midtone color.

Oscar Lynn McMullin

Here is a picture I did of my grandfather in his WWI uniform. The medium is scratchboard.