Commissions.....

I have worked this week on commissions for Christmas and upcoming birthdays. There is an added pressure to doing commissions. It will be a relief to get back to painting works where I have to only please myself. I have three more to do. But here are the ones I worked on this week...

"Seven Little Shrimps"..........8x10.......oil on canvas.......SOLD

This first one is am image I did for a nice lady I met at the Shrimp Festival. She was down there with her grown children's families...which included SEVEN grandchildren under the age of FOUR!!!! So the seven little shrimps in the painting are to commemorate her "seven little shrimps" attending their first shrimp festival.

"Susie".........12x12...............Oil on canvas............SOLD

This is Susie. She was commissioned by a wife for her husband's birthday. It is such a sweet story, he misses Susie very much, and his wife is doing this for him. I sure hope he likes it.

"Plum-Pickin with my Pa-Paw".........20x24................Oil on canvas..........SOLD

This is for my dear sister-in-law. She is giving it to her father for Christmas. The image is her grandson and her father. So it's a great-grandson and his Pa-Paw. The photo just would not come out right, but it definitely looks like little Mr. Seth. She took a great photo. I wish they were all this great to work with.

One more piece of news....I was notified that my art is to be used by "CORK, A Red River Revel Wine Event". Cork is in April and is a wine tasting/dinner/wine festival event. It is actually a fundraiser for the Red River Revel Art Festival in Shreveport, LA in October. The October Festival sounds like an awesome event for the community. Every fourth-grader from two parishes is bused in and gets to do a bunch of hands-on art activities and get exposed to a lot of great art and meet the artists.

The really neat thing is that I met two of the board members in my booth in Covington. They purchased two of my prints. They said that they would be meeting in Dec. to decide about the featured artwork. Imagine my surprise when they called and said they want both images! They will use the bowl of corks in their promotional materials...postcards, web site, etc. Then the glasses toasting will be auctioned at the wine dinner, I believe, and they will also do a couple of giclees of it. I get to attend and have a set-up at the festival. I am pretty excited!

Baby Nursery Paintings...

This Thanksgiving was an unusual one for our family...of our six core family members, we were spread out in three different places. Plus the other usual suspects that are with us...well, my bro and SIL were at home in Tampa (I missed seing them for sure) their kids were in various places including my niece the Air traffic controller stationed in London, and my Mom and Bob were in Pensacola.

But we were all thankful for many things and gave thanks in many ways. I, myself, was in Lexington with the mommy and daddy-to-be. We spent Thursday with some of their wonderful friends and had a great dinner! Then the rest of the holiday weekend was spent getting ready for the babies. We were at Babies R Us at 5 am on Friday and managed to score one of the door- buster glider rockers. We shopped till we dropped and managed to fill in the gaps of all the stuff you need to bring 2 little girls into the world.

We also worked on creating beautiful surroundings for them to come home to. Michael and Heather, with the help of their, and my, fabulous friends had done a great job getting the nursery ready. So Mama D (that's me) came onto the scene to put on the finishing touches with a little artwork here and there.

Heather had chosen some adorably cute bedding by Bananafish called "Bubblegum" and I did the canvases on the wall to coordinate with it.

This first shot features McKinley's bed with her initial art above it. To the right is the corner where the rocking chair will go. Above that are the 12x12 squares that I did to match the bedding. You may not be able to see in the photos, but the stripes are featured on the dust ruffle and on the backs of the comforters. The circles are on the valance.

This next shot is of Kayleigh's bed with her initial and a great shot of the super cute lamp they received from my folks in Colorado.

This is a shot of the Pea Pod I did for them. The frame on the chest says "two peas in a pod", and that is what the artwork is about...two little peas in their pod. You probably can't see it, but the peas have little eyes and smiles. Let's hope our little peas stay in their pod long enough to develop strong lungs and all the other stuff they need to be healthy and happy.

This year I am so thankful for my wonderful, expanding family. I feel like we have actually four new family members on the verge of becoming official. In addition to the two "peas" we have Shaun and AnnaRae who are dating my daughter and son.

I also am thankful for my awesome friends that gave and attended the shower we had for M & H and the girls. I left Lexington knowing that between the efforts of Papa D, our friends, and our family; we are about as ready as we can be and when those little ones do come they are set. They will be safe, warm, well-dressed, and have everything else they need to get a good start in this life. (Plus a few things that their mom and I thought they might like.) ; )

Thanks to all who have helped and supported me in this past year. My thankful list includes too many things to mention all of them, but believe me, on that list are those of you who have supported my art adventure either by buying art, critiquing it, following my blog, jurying me into art shows .....all of those things help to make me a better artist.

Thank you Lord and bless all who take the time to read this. May there be a place in heaven for those kind souls. : )