Horton {a new drawing}

{Horton - 19" x 12" - Mixed Media}

Here is a portrait of my friend's basset hound. It was drawn using the Robert Liberace method that employs terracotta and black verithin pencils with a white pastel pencil used for the highlights and areas lighter in tone than the prepared paper.

Catching Up

Hello Friends ~

How have you been this week? The weather has been fine in DC, warming up and sunnier than it was for most of April. Yippee, summer is nearing! My favorite season J

The reason for the minimal blog posting lately is because I have been busy working on new paintings for the Artomatic Show opening at the end of the month. I am working on a new still life series I will share with you in a few weeks.

A few weeks ago, I was given a second easel, so both of my easels have now been put to use. I paint in my old studio space (the breakfast area) when the natural light is not good enough to paint in my new studio space (the dining room). All of my day has been dedicated to completing these paintings and with my back feeling better, it is fun to be able to put in the pain free hours and paint to my heart’s content. I have been making sure I take breaks, rest, go out for walks, and all the other things my physical therapists recommends. I do not want a repeat of April, where I was out of commission for almost 13 days because of pain. During the breaks I will sometimes sketch my kitty, Slim, here are some 5 minute sketches of her.

Slim, our Abyssinian

Sketch of Slim – 6" x 8" Oil on Canvas Panel

Slim is our Abysinnian cat, she is a wonderful and precocious companion. When the weather is good, she begs for walks and likes to be outside. Because she is a very small kitty, 6.5 lbs full grown (7 years old) we do not like to let her outside unattended. So she gets to go outside with a leash, which she handles very well, almost like a dog.

This painting was a memory exercise. She kept her pose for the few moments I could sketch it out, she then moved to another area on our patio. So with the initial sketch I completed this painting, and checking her out every so often to verify I got the right colors and values of her. It was a fun little experiement. This weekend is going to have good weather for a while, so I think I will try it out again… have a great weekend!


Here is a photo of Slim on a walk behind our apartment building

A Pet Portrait

My Abyssinian Kitty – 6" x 8" Oil on Canvas Panel

Yesterday I spoke about the still life I am working on, unfortunately it was too wet to complete the next step I had anticipated for today. Hopefully I will find time to work on it later this week to post it then when it is finished.

Instead today on Sunday I worked on other still lifes and this alla prima painting of my kitty, Slim. She is not crazy about getting photos taken of her, but she loves walks. And this image was taken of her just as she was trying to entice me to take her on a walk outside. It is my first true attempt at painting her, I really enjoyed it, and so I expect to paint other images of her in the future...

Thanks, Liz