Zoe

Most of you know that I 'retired' from painting pet portraits a few years ago but a friend asked me to paint a portrait of their dog, Zoe, and I couldn't refuse.

I've only met Zoe once quite a while ago so had to paint from photos.  My friend gave me quite a few of them but almost all of them 'blew out' the lighter colors so that they appeared white.  I didn't realize that Zoe has some tannish color until my friend pointed it out.  I still didn't see it even after tweaking the photos in my graphics software.  She sent me new photos, very close up and I think I was able to add those markings.

It's very difficult to work from photos so I'm waiting to hear back as to whether I got the markings right or not.  In the meantime, here is where I am with the portrait of Zoe.  This is probably the final with maybe a few tweaks.  It's gouache and watercolor on Arches Cold Pressed, 11 x 14 inches in size.

ZOE - watercolor and gouache on paper, 11x14"

Building a Pond

Ever since we moved to this country property, my DH has wanted a pond.  He saved for years and about 3 or 4 years ago contracted to have it done.  Unfortunately, after the trees were removed from the site, the contractor said he had equipment and personal problems and couldn't finish the job then.  Then we had rain and more rain and the site stayed too wet.  Finally the contractor said we needed to get someone else to do the job. 

To make a long story short, we did get someone else and finally made some progress until it started raining again this past week.  So, work has halted until the rain stops but at least we know that the pond will hold water!  Even though it's not yet dug out to depth, there's enough water there to attract a pair of Canada geese!

Canada geese on unfinished pond

Of course, those are visitors we really didn't want to attract to the pond but they're protected by law here.  Not sure what we can do to keep them away but will have to investigate as they're considered messy and pretty aggressive.

While we enjoy all sorts of wildlife, we want to be able to enjoy the pond in safety once it's finally finished!