Ain't It Funny How Time Just Slips Away

I was jolted out of complacency when my friend, Sue, from the Pencilpix blog emailed to ask if I'd been painting.  Well, I've done nothing but for the past few months but just haven't shown any on my blog!  Sue recommended that I remedy that so here are just a few of the paintings I've done recently:

The first one is a quick painting of my Dad who said he didn't want a birthday gift but would really like one of my wildlife cards.  Well, I figured there wasn't anything wilder than him even at the age of 95!  He was very pleased even if line and wash & especially portraits aren't my usual 'thing'.

The second two paintings are for challenges at a painting forum I belong to.  I was especially pleased with the ice cream cone as I usually have a hard time drawing hands/fingers but this came out better than usual.

 This bear is a painting I've worked on for nearly a year!  The medium is casein and even though I've really tried to like it, it's impossible for me to work with.  This painting was such a struggle that when I finished it, I bundled up the casein paints and donated them to our local high school art department!

 This crow is an acrylic underpainting that I did with the intention of glazing with oil over the top.  However, I had a bunch of people tell me to leave it alone.  There were two exceptions to this chorus though, including my husband and an oil painter whose opinion I value so I haven't totally decided what to do with it yet.

If you're a painter yourself, you know the inner argument where part of you wants to be done with it and another part of you wants to go with the original plan but worry about messing up what might be a good thing!

This last one of the eagle is a horrible photo as it was taken with my cell phone in really gloomy light as we've had rain during most of the month of July!!!  Suffice it to say it looks better in person.  It's gouache on board.

These are not all of the paintings I've done and I'm still working on several at the moment.  One, a fox, another crow and a couple of seascapes.  One of the seascapes is nearly finished but since this post is image intensive, I'll save some for another day!