Pope's Oak

I don't know where Pope's Oak is, but I think I'd like to go there!  I finished this yesterday afternoon, just squeaking within the deadline - it's been tough finding time for painting with the dire New Year we have had so far.

This is painted in acrylic and the composition was very tricky.  I was told what was wanted, but given a selection of about twenty photos to work from as I had to paint the woodland walk, put in three children walking/running, none of which were in a photo together.  I also had to age them by a few years as the photos I had were from a while back. Then I had to add three black labradors...no photos there, and the French Bulldog.  Oh yes, and I had to make up their clothing as well. Thank heavens for Google Images - hours spent looking for photos of teenages walking away fromcamera and suitably posed labradors!

I am relieved to say the lady who commissioned this was over the moon with it and picked it up within an hur of it's completion.  I now have absolutley no work on, but that's OK - I haven't had a break since about last September so am going to take a few daysto re-group and paint a fewthings of my own.

Plus today is the day my darling Clovis goes in for an echocardiogram - I'm praying the news won't be too dire, but I'm not very hopeful - so I think I will need a bit of space for a while.

On the needles: a dog coat for Daisy.  This has given me a couple of ideas.....

Playing Catch Up...

As far as work is concerned, the New Year started well with an order for a Clanger - Tiny this time, the little girl one with a bow in her hair. I also decided to give her a set of pan pipes, in line with her character on the tv show.

I remember the first Clanger I made seemed to take forever for some reason - now I can get the main body done in a couple of evenings. 

This one is staying in the UK for a change!

I've been trying to put some hours into this painting - I have a tight deadline now and am pretty cross that all the spare time I had over the past couple of weeks has been taken up with either cooking, cleaning or sorting out our run of breakdowns.  As of yesterday the heating is fixed, the ceiling is fixed, nothing else has broken, the dog is awaiting an echocardiogram next week & ticking along on his meds quite well and my streaming cold seems to be dissipating, so hopefully I can knuckle down to it over the next few days.  I'm enjoying painting this although it has taken a great deal of thought as I am composing it from about ten different photographs.

Walks In The Woods...

We've just had a lovely three day break in the forest cabin again.  The weather wasn't great, but we didn't get too wet over all and it was so mild I even got the chance to sit outside on the balcony and paint the view. This is just a little 30 minute watercolour sketch, but it gets down the colours at least.

My daughter thought the cabins looked like the houses in Twilight and also asked if there were bears in the woods!  All we saw were birds however.

The leaves were still partially on the trees, still with the glorious autumnal hues.

This was sunrise yesterday morning, bathing the woods with a beautiful pink light for a few minutes.

However, any benefits from being away from the world for a few days (and this particular weekend we were very glad to be away from the terrible events going on) were wiped out when we returned home to discover the water tank in our roof had leaked the whole weekend and the ceiling was streaming water through the smoke alarm, soaking the carpet below.  Desperate phone calls to the housing association ensued and they were brilliant in sending round an electrician and a plumber within an hour or so.  Nobody to sort out the saturated ceiling however, and we had to call out the electrician again as the residue water started to once again pour into our brand new smoke alarm.  Now we wait to see if the insurance company will spring for a new carpet!

If You Go Down To The Woods Today....

...we won't be there any more.  Sadly, after an all too short break, life has to go back to normal today.

We had a lovely long weekend in a cabin in a forest, doing very little other than walking in the woods or just sitting looking at the woods.

For the first time in his life, Clovis came with us on holiday.  He didn't know what to make of it and spent a considerable amount of time onthe first day doing this.  He was doing this throughout the first night as well, and I ended up having to sleep next to him in my daughter's room in order for any of us to get some sleep.

However, the next day he relaxed, although never left my side.  We spent a warm afternoon on the decking while I painted.

Little watercolour sketches in my Moleskin.

We all walked a lot, and barely saw another soul.

We saw fungi though, and some interesting ancient trees:

The weather was warm and sunny for most of the time, although there was torrential rain for one morning, so we had to stay inside and read - lovely to get the opportunity.  Then it cleared up and Stacie and I went and picked a pound or so of blackberries - a delicious crumble was made upon our return!

All too soon it was time to go home - Clovis slept like a log once he was back in his own territory.  Considering he's an old dog and quite nervous, he did very well over the weekend and I am sure we could do it again a bit further afield.

Back to work today - lots to do!