I have been sick for the past week. Suddenly, haltingly, feverishly sick. I’ve done nothing more than sit perfectly motionless watching Downton Abbey, Upstairs Downstairs and Arrested Development on Netflix. And drinking gingerale. Lots and lots of gingerale.

I’m a bit better now, but not quite up to painting. I’ll be posting some portraits I completed before my involuntary hiatus, starting with these two.

And now, back to my gingerale.

Here are some more paintings that had their Big Reveal on Christmas morning.

Did you get art for Christmas? Some people did. Me? I got the usual bottle of fancy wine and a stocking full of goodies from Bath & Body Works. Oh, and a speedlight so people don’t look like red-eyed demons in my photos anymore.

Here are some paintings that were gifted this season.

So, contrary to what the lack of activity on my blog might indicate…I’ve actually been quite busy lately.

Quite.

Also there’s been the small matter of my 2012 Calendar to finish up. It’s printing right now! As we speak! You can pre-order here. They’re available in limited quantities, and they make excellent stocking stuffers if I do say so myself.

Look at these cute guys with their portraits!

Bud and Daisy

I love to see how people frame their paintings. This is a set of minis.

There’s a reason I stick to the same color palettes for my portrait backgrounds. While I could probably make it work with any requested color, there are some combinations that I keep going back to. For example, I like to paint black and white dogs (like these Boston Terriers) with a blue background, or yellow.

It just pops.

It’s a funny thing…one day painting Day of the Dead portraits and the next, cuddly pups.

The other day I launched a Kickstarter project to paint a series of Dia de los Muertos portraits. There’s a linky-thing over on the right side of this blog; you can become a patron of the arts for as little as a buck! (Which gets you a digital download of the entire collection AND a Jenny The Bloggess Day of the Dead cutout mask just in time for Halloween.)

To get in the mood, I’ve been planning and painting Dia de los Muertos portraits of friends, family and other people who inspire me. More on that, later…but what I’m getting at is that I’ve ALSO been working on all the paintings that folks have already ordered, so don’t worry, the production line is still humming right along!

Here are some mini-portraits painted over the weekend.

P.S. I’m taking a break from the mini portraits for awhile. I’m out of scraps.

P.P.S. Now’s the time to order paintings to get them in time for Christmas!

All the paintings are done.  They’re organized on a thumb drive. I’m deciding on a printer. Tomorrow I meet with the designer to start work on my calendar.

Hurray!

Estimated delivery of calendars is Nov/Dec before Christmas. (If you have a painting in the calendar, I’ll be sending it at the same time unless you’ve made other arrangements.)

You can still order calendars here. These are a limited run, so when they’re gone, they’re gone!

For February