Another birthday has come and gone. I am glad. It is good to have birthdays - the alternative is not so good. I always look forward to my birthdays, maybe because I am a little spoiled, maybe because it is a time to get together with friends and family. I love the calls and texts and Facebook messages. I can no longer control what my kids do for their birthdays, so I have to plan parties for myself :) I had about ten ladies over for lunch and visiting. With this corona virus, people are happy to get out and come to a party. Four of the ten ladies all have birthdays within a day or so of mine. This is not the first time we have celebrated together. It was the first time to do so at my house. That meant lots of cleaning for me. I am not a very good housekeeper. Truly I needed a reason (I am the great procrastinator) to do some deeper cleaning - by that I mean dusting, mopping, going through piles of stuff - more than clean, but less than mother-in-law clean. I had the ladies all bring food - sort of a potluck. All in all, it was fun, but it wore me out.
I could tell you about all the little gifts I got, and they were nice, but it was the bigger things that I will tell you about. First, I bought my self some new pastels. They were on sale and came with some pastel paper. Go ahead and ooh and ahh. Then I asked Toby for a new chair. The chairs around my art table are old wooden antique chairs from NM - interesting, but hard to sit on for long. Toby bought me a new office type chair - rolls around, soft and cushy, padded, no arms. More oohs and ahhs. And then (drum roll) I got a new puppy.
He is a rat terrier from the Decker line, which means he is a rat, but will be a bigger rat than we have had before. He is a puppy and needs lots of puppy time and training. I was hoping my other older dogs would help with this, but they have turned their doggy noses up at the new pup.
We tried several names. The GGs called him Batdog - like Batman, because his ears are big. Bo called him Bruce for Bruce Wayne. Everyone liked the name Bruce. Since his ears are rather pronounced, I thought Radar was a good name. I also thought Handsome Rob (from the Italian Job). Each day, I have called him different names to see how they felt and if they fit. I think his name will be Rocket. He does Rocket around here, and he launches himself off the furniture - although I guess Batdog would work too. I am not sure anyone else will ooh and ahh over my puppy, but he is pretty special.
I have not done any pottery since Valentine's Day. Actually, I had done quite a lot of cups before VD and then did another 30 or so for VD. I doubt Viridian needs more cups yet, but I am missing my zen. Then I took on a commission for a friend who asked me to paint the view from her home on Hilton Head Island. It's a beautiful view and not difficult to paint and so I said yes. Still, commission work keeps me from painting my own creations, but the money is always nice. I'm glad it is done and I can do some pottery. Here is the finished piece. It is actually a little brighter than this shows. Oil on 24x48 canvas:
3 comments:
Awwww, the puppy is so cute. Gene would love to have a feisty little dog. Me, not so much. :-) I bet it won’t be long until he fits right in.
The painting is gorgeous. Very large for a pastel and then I saw it was oil. I love it.
Take care and have some pottery time, too. Hugs.
BTW, I forgot to say, we celebrate Gene’s birthday in August, then mine in September usually when we are traveling. Then we celebrate when we get home with the kids so our birthday celebration lasts a month at least! So you are welcome to celebrate yours for a few days! I hope the celebrations continue. I also love your gifts. New pastels is like getting a box of chocolates. Beautiful!
Jo,
This is a feisty little dog for sure, but he is also a snuggler. On the painting, I chose oils because of the size of the painting and the amount of blending I would need to do on the sky and water. After I painted in those two things, I came back a few days later and thought, "Wow, that sure is dark." I know that oils and acrylics dry darker than you think, but it took several days for it to darken up. I had to lighten it several times. On birthdays, I like the idea of celebrating for at least a week, but a whole birthday month is even better.
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