Jack and Lela playing Tug O War this weekend… (please excuse my muppet voice!)…
… and afterwards, I catch Jack thieving my Chex Mix lol. What an opportunist!
Here’s my newest Oil Pastel- so new, I haven’t signed it yet, LOL.
Haven’t figured out a title yet, either. Hmmm.
Some in progress pictures…
Please excuse the Desk of Disaster!!! Sometimes when I get in the thick of things, it gets SUPER MESSY.
Jack is awfully cute, but his dark brindle face is really hard to paint! I wrestled with it for three evenings before I got it “right”.
Then came the Big Question that I always mull over when doing a roaching Greyhound. Do I… draw in the… um… you know. Do I draw “it”??? Do I leave it out??? Not to come off as a total prude, but … well… hmm. I finally decided what I always decide in this situation… Paint “it” in, but keep it as nebulous and camouflaged as possible! 
I’m pretty happy with how it came out. Of course, I’ll be even happier when I have a super snappy title for it, lol!
Jen
“Coon Dawg”
8 x 10″
Oil Pastel on Canson Art Board
I am super stoked. For the first time in probably 3 years, I’ve finished a piece of art that I’m HAPPY with.
As I mentioned a few posts ago, I’ve just been feeling so stinky about my printmaking lately that I decided to take a break and go back to my Oil Pastels for awhile. Maybe a long while. Well, not TOO too long (already planning some linocuts in my head lol…) but I’m beyond that “‘Real’ artists don’t dabble and stick to one medium only” mentality now.
It felt good to pick up my Oil Pastels again. In fact, I treated myself and bought a box of Senneliers, the Cadillac of Oilies. I’ve always used Cray-Pas since that’s what is sold locally–they are considered middle-of-the-road. Trying to get my creative juices flowing, a few months ago ordered some Caran D’Ache and Senneliers to try…they are considered the highest quality out there… I liked both but I REALLY liked the Senns. They were so much “creamier” than my Cray Pas and the Caran D’Ache. So I splurged on a small set that made my heart flutter.
Yum, right?
A couple months ago I had tried to do a White-Line Linocut of Lela. It came out really crappy but I loved the picture and sketch–she was just ripping into a stuffed raccoon- So I re-did it this week on a medium gray Canson Art Board.
“You’re working on a picture of me? Cool.”
I really tried to keep it ‘loose’ with this. I didn’t want to do “fur and feather” uber-detailed “I can look at the portrait of that dog and tell you who its sire and dam are, it’s so lifelike” kind of painting. I wanted my pencil sketch to come through in areas. I wanted to kind of do this Oil Pastel in a way you’d do a White-Line Woodcut, where the areas are separated by the color of the paper, accentuating subjects and shape. I wanted that color coming through to give some interest and excitement like White-Line Woodcuts possess- but maybe not do it as ‘strictly’ as a White-Line? I dunno if I’m explaining it right.
Anyway, I’m so happy with how this came out. Already working on some Greyhound Oil Pastels– stay tuned.
It’s time for the September installment of Bitey Face-Gator Mouth!
Jack hasn’t been feeling great the past week or so (falling off the dock while camping set us wayyyyy back on his Iliopsois healing, sigh) but he has a great attitude and is still willing (and able) to kick Lela’s butt. He’s just being gentler about it. Which is great, because I’m hovering like a blackfly waiting to break things up if he gets too riled.
Phew. Just got back from Lela’s first camping trip, and our second (and probably last) of the season! We had a pretty good time. Weather was good until Sunday morning when we left- I guess no surprise- there’s RARELY been a time when I’ve camped in the Adirondacks and it DIDN’T rain.
This time around I joined up with my parents on a family trip to Moffitt Beach, just outside of Speculator- our old stomping grounds! We used to go there all the time when I was really young. There’s very little I remember besides the “Welcome to Speculator” sign. Suffice to say, the campground bathrooms look like they haven’t been updated since 1985 either. Ugh. Not that I’m a potty snob, but after experiencing the beautiful McMansion-ish bathrooms at Wompatuck State Park outside of Boston this summer? Why can’t NYS campground bathrooms be that nice? God, we pay enough taxes… humpf.
Anyway, the trip started out a bit… shaky. We got to the campground and first thing, I took my dogs out of the car, set up the ex-pen, shoved dogs in said ex-pen, and then began unloading the rest of the car. Suddenly I hear a huge BANG. I leap out of the car and see Jack standing in the middle of the campsite–with his jaw figuratively on the ground. Just Stunned. The ex-pen is in the bushes, 2 feet away. Lela is happily trotting down the road to the neighboring campsites. WTF. WTF?!?! There’s no way to keep calm when your dogs get loose and you’re in the middle of the wilderness! OMG. I get both dogs within minutes but… holy hell. That incident took 10 years off my life.
Needless to say, Miss Lela wasn’t trusted unsupervised in the ex-pen for the rest of the weekend. Seriously, I need to get this dog into some… sport… or something. She’s a machine!
Because of Jack’s Iliopsois injury, he was on “limited activity” this trip but Lela was amped to the max and on sensory overload. Living most of her 2 years in a shelter, I’m sure being in the mountains camping was Pretty Super Freaking Awesome to her, lol. We had a water site where she chased the waves, biting them ‘ferociously’, swam (!!!!!!!!), and went duck hunting every day! I think she was in Seventh Heaven.
Most of Jack’s hikes were little walks around the campground (which wasn’t boring… we love looking at other people’s campsites, oggling over their trailers and motorhomes, and checking everyone’s camp signs which, sadly, seem to be going out of fashion) but we did do a really nice little walk long the Sacandaga River Path, which was beautiful. It started right in the town of Speculator.
One of the paths went to a great floating dock on the Sacandaga River, which led to some great photo opps. I’m not really sure what was in Jack’s head though when he decided to take an ass-over-kettle jump into the river?? One minute he was squatting down to Wet His Whistle and– well, next I know he’s fallen (stepped??) in and is up to his elbows in mud and water. At that point we BOTH panicked a little. The water had only looked a few inches deep off the dock and him sinking in so deep? It was quicksandy- mud. I really had to struggle to pull him out (while Lela was un-helpfully trying to slip her collar and explore a patch of witch hopple) and he screamed a few times. Did he re-hurt his groin?? Was he just screaming in fear?? Was all our Physical Therapy down the drain because he HAD to step off a stupid dock?? I was PISSED. I mean, not AT him, but… Well. Kind of at him.
Later on I decided to borrow one of my parents’ kayaks (I had left my canoe at home) and take a solo trip down the Sacandaga River. It was a beautiful paddle and I saw 3 blue herons, some black ducks, mallard ducks, and one un-identified duck.
Weekend Family Pics:
Dad with Amos.
…Mom with Benny…
…and Alice enjoying the fresh mountain air!