MOE PORTRAITS

Here's a little portrait on panel. I started out thinking I wanted to do 'little dabs of color'. I seem to start out that way, then as I get into it, I revert back to my 'natural' way of painting.

I like the way this turned out.

Acrylic on panel 8" by 10"

Here's another:

This one is from a contour sketch I did in my sketchbook. I took a photocopy, blew it up and used the acrylic gel medium transfer method to get the sketch onto a panel.
This goofy painting captures more of the personality of Moe.

I guess I should explain the bottle cap. Moe loved chewing on metal objects (?!!). It started when she was just a pup. I think it eventually morfed into an obsession with Snapple bottle caps. She was perfectly content to hold a bottle cap in her mouth for hours. Every once in a while she'dcome over and say, "Go ahead, try to take it away from me....go ahead, try. Try. TRY."
If I ever had a need to get whatever it was out of her mouth, the only way was to turn her upside down over the sink. Ptooey, out it would pop.

Love you, Moe!

SPEAKING OF PORTRAITS

Here's my first attempt at acrylic gel medium transfer. I took a 'blind-contour' sketch from my sketchbook and blew it up on the copy machine. Next, layered it with 3-5 coats of acrylic glossy gel medium and then rubbed the paper off the back and glued it, with more acrylic gel medium to a canvas. Then I painted color on top of that. Afterwards, most of the original black line drawing was covered up, so I re-stated them with a Sharpie (will that hold up over time?)

Oh, this is my poor suffering husband, Darrell.

Here's another one on panel:

Darrell's grand-daughter, Victoria says upon seeing these for the first time, "Grandpa's eyes are not like that."

I love this and had great fun doing it.

MOE - Oct. 9, 1994 to Sept. 10, 2008

My constant companion and walking partner, my joy, my responsibility, my Moe passed quickly today. Having lived with diabetes for two years now, she was ready to move on.

I miss her terribly, my arms ache from wanting to hold her one last time.

This was after a hike up Mount Si (2000), while Darrell and I were changing out of our boots, Moe wandered into nearby bushes, only to come out so pleased with herself because she had found some sh*t to roll in...

This was taken last week, on our last dog-biking outing. We made a big loop around West Seattle, stopping to find geo-caches along the way. It was a gorgeous day.

I miss her so much.

VANILLA HOUSES #2

Here's the start of the second in the Vanilla Houses series. I put down a blue for the shadow areas and white for the light areas and blocked out the basic shapes. Lots of work still to do!

I prepped this panel of masonite with gesso and then a layer of acrylic gel medium mixed with pumice powder, the same as I would for a pastel board.

This answered the problem of no texture, but I don't know that I like it. It seems like it sucks up the paint! The glossy-ness is gone from the paints. I don't know how to explain it, but the paint goes down in a totally different manner then when painting on canvas.