I paint on Yupo paper, exclusively. The most convenient way for me to buy it – and store it – is in pads of 11×14″ sheets. So, for each sheet I can get (1) 8×10″, (1) 5×7″ and a little scrap of 4×5″ paper. Up until now, all those 4×5″ scraps have gone into a heap in one of my drawers.

A few weeks ago, I was on a cleaning spree and decided to put my Yupo scraps to good use. Hence, the mini-portrait was born. In limited quantities.

Here are the first few.

One of my favorite parts of a painting is at the point when the the image first starts to take shape. It might be early on when I’m masking off the white areas with masque pen; (my daughter calls it mas-KWAH pen, and now, so do I.) It might be when I’m dredging color through the background wash and see a particularly cool bloom.

It’s the point of every new painting that holds such possibility I feel I might explode.

I had a teacher tell me once that it’s not the destination, it’s the journey. In my painting, that is certainly the case.

I capture most of my progress photos with my phone, which in turn show up on instagram. But if you’re not an IG’er, you can now find them on Flickr as well where I’ve started a new set called Works In Progress.

Sooner or later, the blogs I read every day are going to receive fan art from me. It’s just how I roll.

Here’s who’s on my must-read list these days.

• The Pioneer Woman
• The Bloggess
• Sundry Mourning
• Girls Gone Child
• Kevin and Amanda
• Nie Nie Dialogues

Yes, there are others, but these are the ones that cause me to hit the browser refresh key several times a day so I can keep up on the lives of people I don’t know.

The internet is weird.

Anyway, here is the painting I just finished for Amanda of Kevin and Amanda. If you visit her site you can still download a font made from my chicken scratch handwriting. Enjoy!

Miley and Howie

Some time ago, a client came to me with an idea for an anniversary present for her parents. She wanted to incorporate the images of all 21 dogs they’ve had or fostered since she and her siblings were little. In one painting.

She sent me hard copies of photos from albums, old Christmas newsletters and digital images, plus a clear catalog of all 21 pooches, their name and description. I took all the photos and played around with them in Photoshop for awhile to come up with a pleasing composition. Rather than try to portray each dog in exact size proportions, I decided to feature her parents in the center with all the dogs sort of floating around them like a collage.

It was destined to be a large painting from the start.

I special-ordered 26×40″ paper and handcrafted this hoopty workstation you see below. It was great fun to paint and I love how it turned out.

My improvised work surface

Reference photos on the wall

I told you it was a big painting.

Fin!

The client picked the painting up from my studio and took it all the way to Alaska on a family cruise so it could be presented on the ship. I hear they loved it. I’m inspired to paint larger paintings now and found out I can order rolls of Yupo paper up to 60″ wide and 133′ long.

Anyone need big art?!

Ruby

Completed: June 4, 2011

Soundtrack: Amanda Richards

Beverage: Starbucks Iced Mocha

If you read The Pioneer Woman, you’ll probably recognize these next portraits.

Like millions of other people, I read Ree’s blog every day. There’s always something that interests me on a personal level…but that’s why we choose to read the blogs we do, right? Her post last week about her kids saddling and unsaddling the horses prompted me to go back to my photo albums. I looked through pictures of myself as a kid with my horses (in order of appearance) Sonny, Babe, Theo and Rowdy, and re-live my own saddling and unsaddling days. When I got my first pony at 9 years old, I remember thinking how heavy the saddle was with its wooden stirrups and clanking buckles. You’re supposed to throw the cinch(es) over the saddle when you put it on, but invariably those buckles would slide down and hit me in the face. Consequently, I did a lot of bareback riding to avoid the whole situation.

My family lives in the city and I sometimes regret that my kids won’t grow up doing farm chores and playing in the woods like I did. They aren’t spoiled, but there is a different level of responsibility that country kids learn, I think.  Seeing Ree’s kids working on the ranch plucks at my heartstrings just a little.

In the past year or two, I’ve painted Ree’s dog Charlie and even her cow. I can’t wait to see how these portraits of her children look all framed up at the ranch.

Despite a headache that’s lasted for a million years, I awoke on Monday with a radically heightened sense of possibility.

And sure enough, good things started happening.

First,  it was announced that my painting, Naughty had been included in the Top 10 finalists for the Mutt Lynch wine label contest. We find out today if I win the case of wine, bragging rights and a trip to Healdsburg, California. Fingers crossed.

Second, author Neil Gaiman posted some photos of my paintings living in his house. In his entry hall, specifically. I am over the moon about this.

Look, Cabal's in the photo, too!

 Third, I finished an enormous painting of 21 dogs and two people and got an order for two more giant paintings. The first enormous painting required a trip to Home Depot and construction of a hoopty workbench.

I’m outgrowing my workspace and LOVING IT.

Remember last year when I went to the MTV Movie Awards celebrity gift lounge? Right. Well, it was sort of a last-minute thing, meaning, I didn’t have a a budget to you know, get there and back and feed myself and transport art and stay at a fancy L.A. hotel and everything. But I really wanted to go. So I tweeted a little and posted a little and before you know it, people were ordering art right and left to fund my trip. My sister’s mother-in-law even traded in some of her airline miles to buy my ticket which was over the top nice. In return, and because she’s family, I told her I’d paint her grandchildren. It’s taken me nearly a year to paint four of her six grandkids (two of which are my niece and nephew) but she’s been patient, which I appreciate just as much as those plane tickets.

Four down, two to go.

Once again, I have entered a painting in the Annual Mutt Lynch wine label contest. Last year, my painting of Chickenbone Jones made it to the Top 10, but this year I’m in in to win it.

I just feel it’s my destiny to combine my love of art and wine in this way.

You can help make this dream a reality by VOTING for my painting, “Naughty,”  between now and May 21, telling your friends to vote, sharing on Twitter, Facebook and anywhere else you communicate with art-lovin’ or dog-lovin’ people. There are 101 entries this year. The Top 10 finalists are chosen by popular vote, so it’s very important!

Naughty

IF my painting makes it to the Top 10, the winner will be chosen by the winemaker, a designer and the founder of Dog Art Today.

IF my painting wins, it will be used on the label of the next vintage of Mutt Lynch Winery Muttitage.

IF it is used on the wine label, it will be unveiled at a special dog-friendly event on August 6 in Healdsburg, California. I might even go.

Go forth, and VOTE for #62!

Just finished the painting for the winner of the Girls Gone Child giveaway. My baby had smooshy cheeks like that, but now he’s nine. NINE.

Completed: May 14, 2011

Soundtrack: Schoolhouse Rock downloaded for the kids (Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?)

Beverage: Starbucks Iced Mocha