Exploring

Farm life is settling down.  No one's kidding and no one is dying.  That gives me some down time.  I'm finding mostly what I want to do when I have that down time is paint.  I may not consider myself and artist yet but I feel like I'm making progress, and that keeps me motivated to keep painting.

I'm a Pinterest addict and am always looking at real artists' works, plus I have some awesome friends who paint with me and inspire me more than you can imagine.  It's been fun exploring different styles
and finding what works for me and what I find a real challenge. Animals have been my go-to.  I like painting them most, especially dogs and farm animals.  I need to stretch myself to get better, I know that.

I told James last night, "you know what I'm looking forward to?  I can't wait till I show you something I've painted and you say, that's really good".  That hasn't happened yet.  He's said, "I like the way you did this, or that", but I still feel challenged to impress him.  That's a good thing, I guess.

Here are my latest farm paintings.  Ok, some are dogs that live on farms.  Hopefully you'll see differences in style between one painting and another.  That's why I labeled this blog, Exploring.
First is our beloved Baxter.

This next one of an old barn in the snow came from a book my friend, Kathy, loaned me.

This next one of Rex, our guardian, and Petal could use more attention but I've grown tired of working on it so it may just remain as is.

Keeping with the dog theme, this hound dog belongs to my friend Barb, who lives up river about 9 miles on a very large farm.  Her dog, Corrie, follows canoeists down the river to our place a few times each summer.  She's a real sweetie and also a beauty.  I loved painting this face.  Barb is one of the friends I paint with.

One more farm animal.  Porter, the new steer who has come to live here, who's a gentle giant and almost cartoon-like in my eyes, therefore, I painted him somewhat cartoonish.

Lastly, not farm-like at all.  I decided to paint something that had nothing to do with animals or farm or anything I usually paint.  I didn't sketch this or plan it.  I just used bold colors and bigger brushes and saw where it went.  Not beautiful or perfect, but fun, nonetheless.

Stay tuned for more amateur art.  I can't help myself.  Maybe one day you'll say, wow, I love this and so will James and I will be very proud.