A great day of art.

Garden House
8 x 10
oil on board
$125

 This was my first week back at work. It has been a great week. Today I went to a workshop on pastel portraits taught by Vilas Tanape. My good friends John Davis and Beverly Fletcher were also in the class. John is a sculptor and painter also and Beverly is a painter as well. It was a wonderful gift to learn, and have reinforced, some important skills while drawing a portrait from life. Vilas is an amazing artist and a really great teacher as well. I'm not posting my drawings though because you might not believe me when I say what a great teacher he is. You will just have to trust that I learned a lot as I think everyone did in the class.

Two of my finches on the patio

 After the workshop I came home and worked a bit more on a painting that I had started in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. As usual I worked on my patio. It was terribly hot again, but I guess we are getting acclimatized to days over 100. The house in the painting is actually some kind of a children's playhouse.


Part of my herb and flower garden.

I have managed to keep my yard and gardens green despite the soon to be record number of days over 100 degrees and our severe drought. However my water bills have been very high.

My chocolate lab, Scout, with her duck toy.

 After I finished with art for the day. I played with my dog Scout and let her practice retrieving her ducks. This is her favorite thing to do. She is a really sweet dog and a great hunter. Sometime I'm going to have to do a painting of her. I have quite a long list of things I need to paint.

Scout retrieving her duck.