Wanna Play?

"Wanna Play?" 30" by 40" oil pastel on flat panel

It has been a while since I've put any animals in my art. It wasn't totally a conscious decision, although the premature death of our lab, Scout, did sort of temper my desire to get out the dog reference pictures. And, then, somehow, the sheep disappeared, as did the roosters and magpies. I still see them all around me but just haven't included them in my work. But Scout's been gone over 5 years! And I've got JuneBug now!

When a client of mine, the one who purchased the piece on this year's Christmas postcard, mentioned that she thought I should try putting an animal or two into a piece and see how it worked, the old light bulb went off! Yep. Duh? I'd put them in pieces before, why not now? After all, why was I keeping all those reference photos anyway--I do have my hoarding tendencies. But if I use them then it isn't hoarding, right? So, this piece is based on a new reference photo (Jacqui--let's call it a pic and not a photo, okay, due to my not having any photo skilz) that I took from the Dixon studio tour this last November. And, since my studio is still waiting for that winter clean out--when I get rid of abso-positively everything I don't need--the pic was easy to find. It hadn't even been filed yet!

PS It isn't even the piece I did yesterday--the image was too blurry to even post here. Maybe you guys will get 2 pics tomorrow, assuming I can improve my photo skilz enough for even my low standards.....