The calm will soon return, as will my blogging, but in the meantime, I just wanted to pop by to post a picture of my newest dog painting - Mowgli the pug. Mowgli (the dog and the painting) live happily in Concord, CA. This is a 14" x 14" acrylic on canvas.
On the home front - we have now moved and I now have something resembling a working space, so from next week I will be back at it, so the posts should certainly go up in number! There have been many adventures in the past month, including bee swarms, apple trees, trailers and a new animal family member, so I will tell more next time.
But here is Mowgli the pug.
Meet Nangi, who is the dog of a good friend of mine. I've been promising to paint her for some time now, but finally got around to it last week. Nangi is a norfolk terrier cross, and is around fourteen now I think.
Acrylic and modeling acrylic on canvas. 14" x 18".
Things are hotting up on the moving front - we close escrow next week, but I was still determined to squeeze in a couple more paintings before I pack up my studio for the move. So not much blogging going on - but at least there is some paint!
Changes are afoot in these parts. It's been a whole three weeks since my last post, and sometimes it's surprising how many things can change in a short period of time.
The window on the bench from the last post is finished, but I am yet to take a picture of it, and it hasn't yet been installed.
Mr C, baby and I took a short trip to San Diego for a little vacation. It was a 'not too far' place to take a three year old, with plenty to do, and we all enjoyed the hotel pool and the San Diego zoo.
We made an offer on a house and will be moving next month!
That's the big news. We made a mental list of all the things we wanted in a house, and ended up with something completely different. But I think thats ok. We've been looking at houses for around five months, and were struggling with how apathetic we felt about everything we saw. In spite of it supposedly being a 'great time to buy', houses are still exceptionally expensive in this part of the world, and many of them are tired and flimsy, and in most cases, haven't been updated since the 80's.
Then, out of the blue, we spotted a little place in a town around six miles from where we currently live. A tiny cottage, built in the 1940's, a mere 884 square foot, two bed, one bath home. I checked out the pictures on Redfin, and showed Mr C, telling him jokingly, "Now there's my dream home!"
He looked at the photos silently for a few seconds and said "lets do it", picked up the phone and called our realtor on the spot.
The next day we visited and were both blown away to the emotional response we had to this little place. The garden is large, at nearly an acre, and contains lavender, raised beds and numerous fruit trees. It took me a while to get my head around the idea of moving to a home that is nearly half the size of our current home, and yet, as discussions continued, we realized that this is what we've been waiting for, but just didn't know it.
Mr C and I both turn forty in the next six months. Well, I turn forty in the next three weeks, actually, but neither of us were thrilled with the idea of starting a thirty year mortgage at forty. This house is smaller, and therefore less expensive, and we can have a fifteen year mortgage on it, which makes us both feel we have a real chance at possibly owning our house one day. Like so many, we lost everything on our last house, so starting again at forty, with a young family, was not something we had planned either.
But somehow - this all feels so - right. I have been a keen follower of the tiny house movement for several years now, and love the Tiny House Blog. I'm not quite sure why I hadn't applied the idea to us before. This has somehow all been rather a revelation.
So - no pictures today. Rare for me! But just news, and hopefully soon, I can add pictures and adventures from our new 'way of life' as well as the usual artistic endeavors. As I have to believe this decision we have made is just that. A new way of life.
Thought I'd post a quick photo of work currently on the bench. It's a 'sundial' window for a spectacular treehouse in Portland, Or. The window also contains a compass and the sun and moon, and I'll post a bit more about it when it's finished!
In this picture you can just about see half the window is leaded and the other half is still just the glass bits.
'The Tiger who came to tea' is a great kids book about a little girl called Sophie who gets a visit from a tiger. It's by Judith Kerr and was first published in 1968. It's a favorite in our house, so I decided to create a painting based on the idea.
In the book - the tiger never comes back again, but in my painting 'The tiger came back to tea', Tiger surprises the little girl in the painting by popping round for tea again. The table is covered with all sorts of yummy things, and Tiger promises to share nicely, as last time, he ate everything!
This is a collage and acrylic on canvas board 16" x 20", and the original has made it's way to the UK as a present for my three year old niece Fritha (who also loves the story)
I am selling giclee prints of the painting though, over at my new Etsy store - The Magic Bag.
Brief post today - still busy busy behind the scenes, but today my painting 'The owl and the pussy cat' was included in an Etsy treasury. Kind of a 'little' big deal for me as it's my first one!
Dumpling spent weeks looking for just the right store front. I was busy running round, having paintings scanned and making banners etc. I thought for just a moment what to call it, but it was obvious: The Magic Bag, of course. Finally, we swept the front step and unlocked the door! My new Etsy shop is now open for business!
Currently listed are some original paintings and prints, hopefully soon will come some limited edition dolls and more artwork. Now the store is up and running I need to make time to create some more art to go in it!
Do stop by to ring the bell and say hello if you are ever in the neighborhood.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheMagicBag
