Beautiful Babies are here!!!!

McKinley Paige and Kayleigh Lorelle Drennan

"Granzie" with her two precious bundles


Two Adorable Valentines

My two gorgeous granddaughters were born on Feb. 6 and came into this world healthy and ready to wrap us all around their fingers. Their are no words to describe what it felt like to become a grandmother. I am so lucky to be able to be up here in Lexington to help my son and daughter-in-law. I will gladly get up at 1 and 4 am for these lovely ladies.

I painted sporadically leading up to time to leave to come up here, but just did not have time to photograph and post what I did. I was so blessed to sell a few paintings and have enough income prior to my departure that it will hold me over till I can get back and get busy.

Also since I have been up here I got the great news that I was accepted into the Doubledecker festival in Oxford, MS. So hopefully I will be busy enough this spring to keep my mind off of being separated from my two prescious beauties.

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. : )

I have been painting...

Below are some paintings I have done to get ready for my show in Covington, La. next weekend. I am really looking forward to this one...I love Louisiana...the people, the music, the food.

Fluer de lis...18x24......Oil on canvas......$300

This is a fun one I did because the Fleur-de-lis is so popular down there.

That Empty Feeling....10x20.....Oil on Gallery Wrap......$200

Of course, to go along with the good food, you need a little wine. And we all know how much I like to paint wine bottles.

Hot stuff.....6x12.....Oil on Canvas.....$80

Tabasco is a prevalent ingredient in spicy Cajun food and the popularity of the Tabasco image is unsurpassed by many brand names that I know of.

The Wine Line-up.....18x36.....Oil on Gallery Wrap.......$650

This is another painting derived from my "woman's trip" to South Louisiana. Who knows, I may even see some of the women that helped drink this wine. (I saw one in Gulf Shores during the Shrimp Festival.)

The Stare.......11x14......Oil on Canvas.......$200

I am so happy with how this one turned out. It reminds me of how far I have come since I started painting. When I first began I would have never dreamed of doing something like this. I wouldn't have known where to start. I just know some LSU fan is going to really need this guy!

Courtyard Fountain in New Orleans Oil Painting

Courtyard Fountain.......18x24......oil on canvas.....$450

I can't believe I have not posted this one yet! That's how crazy it has been for me lately! I love the way this one turned out! It got a lot of interest at the last festival.

I remember taking the photo and how the fountain was out in the direct sunlight and there were cool shadows under the balcony. When I look at the painting I think you can get that feeling for sure.

This was one of those lucky little things you stumble upon when out wandering around. This was actually a residential courtyard behind a shop that I had happened into. I could see it behind the shop and asked if I could go take photos. Luckily for me the answer was yes.

I am off to the River Arts Festival in Memphis this weekend. This past weekend my son and DIL that are expecting twins were in town for a shower thrown by my wonderful friend Tracy and attended by even more wonderful friends. I know this sounds sappy, but if you are ever tempted to take your friends for granted you need to step back and look around and realize what an amazing group they are. I am still just blown away by what my friends did for Michael and Heather and (drum roll) McKinley and Kayleigh. That will be my little granddaughters...Mckinley and Kayleigh.

I think M & H did a wonderful job on the names...they sound like twins without being matchy-matchy and they both have different initials, which will make labeling everything much easier. Heather is Heather Leigh, hence the spelling of Kayleigh's name.

Well, today's to-do list is very long and it's not getting done while I am here typing.

Tomatoes, Basil, Garlic Oil painting

Recipe......18x24 Oil on Canvas............$390

This is a really nice painting in person. I don't cook much, so I don't use a lot of fresh basil, but now I can, at least, say I have painted it.

Paintings that have yet to be posted!

I have been so busy with the planning, painting and readying for the Shrimp Festival that I have got a stock pile of paintings that have not been posted for your viewing pleasure. Since I am going to be out of town next week, I am just going to post as many as I can right now so that they will at least be on here.

First up is a series that I really enjoyed doing. All the paintings are 12x12 oil on canvas. They attracted much attention during the four days of the festival. I sold one, but had mucho requests for prints...you know, people that really wanted one but not enough to pay $125 for an oil painting. The plan is to have prints available by my next show. Plus I did get a mailing list of people that wanted them when I had them available.

A funny for my Art Friends!

This was sent to me by a friend and since I am still unpacking and getting my feet back on the ground from our trip (we just got home from the Shrimp Festival last night) I thought I would send it to the artsy folks who follo9w my blog. It's just silly enough to make you smile. And timely, too!

A thief in Paris planned to steal some paintings from the Louvre.

After careful planning, he got past security,stole the paintings, and made it safely to his van.However, he was captured only two blocks away when his van ran out of gas.

When asked how he could mastermind such a crime and then make such an obvious error,he replied, 'Monsieur, that is the reason I stole the paintings.'

I had no Monet ...

to buy Degas...

to make the Van Gogh!'

See if you have De Gaulle... to send this on to someone else.

I sent it to you because I figured I had nothing Toulouse.
When it comes to the price of gas one must maintain his sense of humor these days, even though it is difficult at times.

Hi from the Shrimp Festival!

I am heading over for the last day of the Shrimp Festival. Things have gone very well and the weather has been beautiful. I have met some nice people and if you are tuning in after meeting my down there let me say, meeting all of the nice people and hearing your input has been the highlight of my trip. I will post new things when I return next week.

Until then....if the gentleman who bought four of my paintings the other evening would contact me via my cell phone I would really appreciate it! I forgot to get your expiration date and I cannot process your credit card transaction. What a business woman I am!

Jazz Man Oil Painting

Jazz Man.....10x20.....Oil on Gallery Wrap......$200 (SOLD)

This is from a photo I shot while walking down Bourbon Street when we attended a wedding in New Orleans earlier this summer. It was a blazing hot day, the bar that this man was playing in was dark and cool and then BAM! here was this smoking hot, glowing orange guy belting out a tune. If we weren't on our way to another destination, we would have definitely stopped. As it was I snapped a super cool photo.