Princess Charlotte

After Franz Winterhalter
14 x 18" (35.6 x 45.7 cm)
Oil on Canvas

What's Scary About the Museum?

Apparently, this guy on the second floor:



Yes, I can see why.

Daya wants to go back this weekend though, and I think that's a good idea. We'll just stay away from the second floor. She likes the animals and the dinosauurs, and of course the Discovery Room where kids can do fun things like dig up dinosaur bones and play with cool stuff. I am hoping Matt and Dru can come with us.

The Fork Lift Story

We built a small tv studio at work and all the deliveries get addressed to me. Which is genereally uneventful, except for today. We ordered some large signs for the backdrop, and this morning I got a call from the delivery man saying they arrived. He said he was a few blocks away and would bring the signs by. Oh, and they required a fork lift because they were in a 10 foot long wooden box that weighed 600 lbs.

On his way over he got hit by a taxi. He was ok, just delayed for a bit.

Finally, he arrived with the truck containing a massive wooden crate. As it turns out, our building does not have a fork lift. So today, I got to walk around the street asking people if I might borrow one. Not something one gets to ask every day. The most incredible thing about it, though, was success! The theater next door to us was kind enough to take our crate into the building with their lovely bright pink fork lift.

So, if you ever need to borrow a fork lift for a monstrous box with your name on it at work I suggest you get a theater for your next door neighbor staffed with friendly stage hands.

Cactus Monday: Museum Edition

I took Daya to the museum of natural history today. After begging all week to go, she decided halfway through the day that she was terrified- and I do mean terrified- of the entire museum.

We have had better days.

Here is a cactus we found with the zebras. Happy Cactus Monday!



Actually I am glad I encountered the cactus, because I really wanted to post something for today but artwork wasn't happening. Why not? Well, I joined in the Masters In Oil project over in the oil painting forum at Wet Canvas. As a result, I've been spending a lot of quality time with Princess Charlotte. All I want to do is paint, and I love feeling like that. This is not yet finished but I hope to have it done this week. 12 x 16 oil on canvas after Franz Winterhalter.



I wish I wasn't so tired tonight, otherwise I'd continue painting. Maybe tomorrow.

Cactus Monday: Train Edition

This past weekend was Ratfest. I thought of you, Cactuteers, on the train home. So I made this Cactus-tree on the train with my awesome travel watercolor set.

Watercolor 4 x 6



HCM!

............
Speaking of Ratfest, it was very fun again this year. Portraits were very much in demand, and i was able to recover the costs of the trip and then some. I also did the cake again, of course.

Some portraits and the cake:



Water-soluable graphite, 9 x 12



These are all done in oil pastel 9 x 12:

July Updates

I cant believe I haven't posted since May! Ok, I can believe it; I get like that sometimes.

Thanks to all of you who emailed me. Everything is fine. I have been really busy at work. And instead of being online I've been reading and painting! I have 2 paintings going on right now. One I'm not too happy with and need to change a few things. I'll post it when I'm happy with it. The other is large (30 x 30 in, 76 x 76 cm) and I expect the grisaille underpainting may take me a few months to complete. But it will be so worth it. The smell of linseed oil is marvellous and painting makes me very happy. Oil paint makes me especially happy. I don't know how anyone can live without it. :)

The new cat is going back to Connecticut this weekend. Having 2 cats is just not working. She's as sweet as can be, and she's come out of her shell but Sigynn is not. happy. at. all.

She's so unhappy that she pees right outside the litter box about every other day or so. Also, they fight. In the middle of the night. Because Daya doesn't want the cat in her room while she falls asleep. So I either have Daya waking me up to move Dizzy out of her room, or I have cats fighting in the middle of the night, or I wake up to the fragrant smell of cat pee.

All of these things are interfering with my sleep. So kitty must go. I will never ever try and put another cat with Sigynn. Which I knew before; I should really just listen to myself when I know I'm right.

I do hope you are well. I'll resume Cactus Monday at some point, and I'll catch up on all of your lovely blogs as well.

Oh, also, Pigeon Risk is coming up and the August crap is already starting. Again with the transit. Did you know that the subway fare went up to $2.25? Well, it did. And I didn't change my pre-tax commuter benefit for the month of August, so once again, I'll be paying double transit in August. It will even out in October when I skip a paycheck deduction but...really...something like this seems to happen every August. Good thing I have Pigeon Risk in place. I'll also be travelling next month to see family, so I might need double Pigeon Risk vibes.

You are all welcome to join me for Pigeon Risk Time (PRT).