Painting...

This weekend I finally got to put brush to paper for a little postcard painting which will go to the Nature in Art charity auction next month.  Of course it had to be a bear!  This is from a snap I took on the Explore.org bear cams this year - I'm afraid I don't know which bear it is.

It's been a bit of a frustrating summer as far as painting pictures is concerned - there have been other things around the house that needed my attention.  I've painted part of the pergola after Mr.B replaced the uprights - a whole morning and I only managed to paint 2 uprights and 3 horizontals, as well as doing my ankle in from going up and down the stepladder so many times.  This is going to be a long project!  I've painted one wall in the bathroom - the colour I did it in a few months back has been bothering me big time, it just wasn't the right shade of blue.  Now I need to get the other 3 walls done - but they will also have to wait as I am in the middle of finishing off the patterns for thenext Nudinits book.

The garden has also been taking up a lot of my time - everything is growing fast with the warm weather and the rains.  The courgette plant is still getting bigger and bigger and producing endless courgettes - we've eaten them every way imaginable (I don't think I'll be making courgette cake any time soon though) and I have made several pounds of a delicious chutney.

Hopefully once the book patterns are complete I will have a little more spare time and will be able to get back to painting again - pictures and pergolas!

Otis...

 A few weeks ago I bought a black canvas - I thought it would be an interesting experiment to paint on rather than having to put on several layers of black paint in order to create the surface.  The subject was of course Otis - I have painted him on a black background on many trinket boxes, but this would be the first time on an actual canvas.

I had the same smallproblems with the canvas as I do on the trinket boxes - it takes several layers of lighter paint in order to get the colour to 'pop'.  However, shadows and darker colours were a lot easier.  All in all, I am pleased with the result and will invest in some more of these canvases.

The real Otis has not appeared on the Explore.org bear cams this year.  It is getting late in the season and my thoughts are turning to the possibility that last year was the last time we would have seen him. His final appearance on the cams last year was in a high speed chase after a couple of other bears - in all the years I have been watching the cams I have never seen him run so fast and for so long, so he was fit at the time!  There are other factors that should be taken into account - last year there were not so many salmon, so perhaps he has found a better fishing spot; there are a lot of testosterone filled big bears at the falls this year, a concern for an old bear; and the human visitors seem to be getting more and more each year.  I guess we have to keep our fingers crossed and hope that dear Otis makes an appearance in 20224.

I have someone interested in this painting, but if they choose not to purchase it, it will be in my Etsy shop soon.