Adele

Adele's new album 21 was released today! My favorite songs at the moment are Someone Like You & Turning Tables (but I've only listened to the whole thing twice so far). I foresee lots of listening to the entire album on repeat in my immediate future. So good!!

Family Trees

These two paintings were done from small (4x4) prints I found at Michael's.  When my brother and sister-in-law first moved to Calgary, we had lots of fun decorating, talking about paintings, what color to paint the walls.  They had to do lots of finishing work on the house - tile the fireplace and create a mantle, landscape, build a deck, a fence, etc.  It ended up looking fantastic.  I painted these for them to go on either side of the mantle.  They had to be done twice, due to a fiasco with varnish and cracking.

Note to self: ALWAYS USE SPRAY VARNISH!!!

They moved to the US a year and a half ago and I still miss being able to pop up to their house for a visit.  I can't wait until they move back to Canada!  I'm going to paint them something new, just to have the delivery as an excuse to visit more.

Family Trees (16x20)

Family Trees (16x20)

Mumford and Sons

I already loved Mumford and Sons but watching them perform on The Grammy's last night gave me chills. The amazing kind of chills you only get when you hear something full of emotion and heart and beautiful harmonies.

LynnieC you have my endless gratitude for introducing me to them.
Next step: visit you in London and see them live.

Chinook Days

I had all these wonderful plans to paint this weekend. Shows what I know.

The picture of The Dog (it's a surprise and on the <1% chance she'll check out the blog, no names until it's done) didn't have enough definition for me to make him (her?) look like he's supposed to look.

Plan B was to keep working on Fall Leaves. I had blocked in the background greens right after Baby Clothes was done so I figured I could keep getting those colors blended. Except they're not blending the right way and it's leaving weird brush strokes. I decided to be a grown-up and just set it aside instead of throwing my brushes somewhere. Throwing something would have been MUCH more satisfying.

Since it's an absolutely beautiful day outside, I went for a muddy, slushy walk and felt much better. When I got back, I opened my patio door and some windows and this is what happened. Not my best, but I did the whole thing in less than an hour. I feel better now.

Happy Chinook everyone!

Mountain Peace (8x10)

Baby Clothes: Part Deux

I absolutely love this painting. It's a baby (or first birthday) gift for my cousin, her (almost) husband, and (obviously) their baby. More parentheses anyone?

I mostly love it because these are the baby's actual onesies and blankets hanging on their line. Since I've had the pleasure of visiting them, it's almost as if I'm sitting on the deck enjoying a sunny morning in Broome. I say morning because I'm pretty sure I'd die in the afternoon heat during the wet. During the dry too. I'm a wimp.

To my dear Carla:
It's taken a while for you to find your happy place and I'm so glad you've discovered it in a beautiful country with a wonderful guy and an adorable kid. Oodles of love and hugs to all three of you!

Let's place bets on how long it takes to ship to Oz!



Baby Clothes (9x12)

 

I recently heard the new album from Plain White T's and remembered how much I loved them. So, as a way to reinforce my obsessive tendencies, I made a playlist of all Plain White T's songs from their last three albums. Kind of fitting, don't you think, for them to sing me through a painting of clothes?

Albums
1. Every Second Counts (2007)
2. Big Bad World (2008)
3. Wonders of the Younger (2010)

I happily sang along to each and every song while painting. I'm so easily entertained.