What's her Problem?

"What's her problem" oil on 11 x14 panel

Black and white dogs.

I have had this photo for a long time and just thought it was about time I should try painting in black and white. I like the composition and feel a lot of expression are coming from the puppies.

Just caught in a moment it looks as though Lola is having a good laugh and her mate looking on quizzically as if to say 'what are you laughing at'?

The painting went reasonably well but, I missed the colour hoping
the background isn't too fussy spoiling the picture.

Babs

Calf

"Calf" oil on 8x8 board

Baby Calf.
I just like the look of this young calf, living near to farm land is a good way to get pictures of the Spring and all the happenings for farmers. We take things for granted sometimes passing fields of cattle, horses and of course Holland Landing where a lot of produce is grown from Roses to carrots and onions.

This calf is one of many around here,so painting her made me think how fortunate we are, having the pleasure of seeing the country and all the hard work that goes on around us, we tend to take Farmers and their families for granted.

Painting was interesting with the light and shadow that caught her fur. I could see deep purple, dark and light brown, white and grey a lot of squinting going on! oil on board.

Babs

Rachell our Tinkerbell

"Rachell our Tinkerbell" oil on 11x14 board

A Portrait of Rachell our Tinkerbell

After all the Easter festivities we are coming back to normal and back to painting, John at the moment is painting a large board with Iris (irises) for our newly decorated bedroom. I am looking forward to it being complete and off our kitchen table, the board is to big for the easel!

My challenge was from a photo on Facebook that I thought I would paint, not having indulged in the human face before I found it was very different from animals!

It has given me a great deal of anguish all the nuances of subtle colour, her eyes being so dark brown with mascara gave me plenty to work on. Being 17 years old,  vivacious, and almost a woman, I am batting a Thousand against her liking my rendition of her!

I think her personality though has crept in with my effort, as ever I have a nerve putting this one on the blog before she has seen it!

Babs

Which came First....?

"Which came first..." oil on 8x10 board

At last we are getting close to warmer weather, even so we still have patches of snow,but, noticed activity in our garden and birds feeding more. that's if the greedy squirrels would give them half a chance!

I can't believe Easter is this weekend it's early this year, let's hope the temperature will be warmer to celebrate Spring and lighter days maybe start thinking about gardening and a tidy up, needed urgently.

To get into the Spring mood I decided to try my hand at painting a baby chick and an egg. It took a while to get the egg looking like an egg and the baby chick was a little tricky getting him to look fluffy !

One thing about it when you paint something you haven't done before it is a bit of a challenge, but, I enjoyed it using a comb brush and flicking it loaded with plenty of paint, which seemed to do the trick for fluffiness .
The baby chick does look a bit confused that's why I called it "which came first" !!

One of Mum's sayings when we were very young:

"Spring has sprung, the bee's have riz I wonder where the Birdies is?" 

Babs

Millie the Orchard Keeper.

"Millie" oil on 6x6 board

Pine farm Orchard and Millie the grounds keeper.

She was 14 years old Millie was a feature of the local apple orchard, she would make her way down the hill where she lived and be looking forward to seeing us Apple pickers drive in for the weekly treat picking or popping in for tea and buying a bag of apples already for us to take home.

As we got out of the car she would toddle towards us for a pat and leave to greet the next car coming in to do the same, she loved to lie in the sun close by to watch people and enjoy her day.

She passed away last week leaving a saddened family and many patrons like us who will miss her greeting and funny little walk.

She did her job so well!

Pine Farm Orchard in Spring By John Bradbury oil on 16x20 canvas

I painted a picture of Millie around Thanksgiving, amongst the pumpkins she fit in well with the colour at the time. So this little canvas will be going to the owners of a well loved pet for happy memories of her time with Pine Farm Orchard.

Thanks Millie for your company!
Babs

Pine Farm Orchard

Pit Bull Commission

"Pit bull" oil on 8x10 board

This lass was a rescue who had a bit of a bad time, until her happy day of finding a special person who loved her very much.

The dog became a very kind,gentle pet. Unfortunately she died about three months ago and is very sadly missed. It's good to know she had some time loved and cared for before the end.

Pit bulls are sadly maligned and thought of as savage through no fault of their own. All pets no matter what breed need love and attention and give back 100% back to their owner. Some get lucky and dogs lovers are grateful having rescued a pet turning out to be a faithful companion.

O K Pit bulls aren't exactly pretty it's what's inside that counts!

Thanks to all the Rescue agencies who give their time to and energy to help abandoned creatures a donation will be sent to help to one of them.

This painting was a bit of a challenge, a white dog with wide spaced eyes that must have had the photo taken in a darkened room although I could see unusual colours coming from her coat probably from the flash of the photo.

Babs

Magnolias and Me

"Magnolia" oil on 8x10 board

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I love the scent the lovely shiny leaves and the thick petals of a Magnolia, I have  often had them given to me as a gift. A few years ago I asked John to take a photo of a flower that did particularly well before it faded, unfortunate I am not a good keeper of indoor plants they tend not to last to long in my care. I have a tendency to not water or water too much to catch up, any plant I give it a feed of  Epsom salts or even a little sugar to help with my clumsy gardening ideas.
I think I could destroy an Aspidistra quite easily, not by choice but perhaps over attention.

So I decided to paint one, just to show I really do love flowers of any sort but they will stay with an owner who knows what they are doing and take a picture to enjoy it that way.
The painting was harder than I thought, white picks up light and shadow so I squinted a lot with this painting and found a pinkish hue and deep lavender colours in the petals, as always I could have gone darker but decided to leave it alone before I messed it up completely  being a close up >the background is more like an abstract I think it works though.

Symbolism of a Magnolia. Divine beauty, life force, and perfection

Babs