Dog painting in progress #2

I spent a little time this lovely Easter morning working on Lady's painting. I'm still working on blocking in the face, particularly around her eyes. So far, it's coming along nicely. I usually paint animals who are facing to my left - I find it more difficult when they are facing to my right. So I'm taking it a little more slowly than I normally would.

If you would like to nominate your pet to be included in my 365 Pet Paintings series for the book "Best Friends", please visit GalleryJai.Com for instructions.

Dog painting in progress

After a t-totally rough week (you know the kind...the one you hope you never have to do over again), I have gotten back in the studio. This is the bare-bones-beginning of a painting of Lady, up close and personal. She has a very intense and studious look in her gaze, and I'm going to try to capture that in the painting as well. I usually don't put a background color in until after I've completed the dog, but I thought I'd try something a little different, as I wanted more softness to the background in this piece of art.

I figure it's about time Lady had a painting created...I've been so focused on the cats and neglecting my pups. After Lady, I'll do Max's painting, and then I have a commission work on the schedule.

This painting will be painting # 12 in my pet paintings series. If you would like to nominate your pet for inclusion, please visit GalleryJai.Com to see how.

Many of you have asked about the cats, specifically Mr. T and how he fared after the tree fell on our home this week. Nikko is doing quite well - she seems to be everywhere. I think that trunk hitting the ground must have really shook her energy level up! Here she is sniffing a dandelion:

And here's the elusive Mr. T...lounging on the very driveway that took the hit from the tree. He's laying under a row of pines here, and doesn't seem too worried. As you can tell, he's fine and quite healthy. :)


P.S Don't forget to nominate your pet!

365 Pet Paintings

I've changed the name of my series to 365 Pet Paintings in order to include other pets as well as cats. The 365 paintings will be featured in my upcoming book, Best Friends - 365 Pet Paintings.

And guess what? Your pet can be included! All you have to do is nominate your pet for inclusion at GalleryJai.Com! Dogs, cats, birds, horses, hamsters, mice, reptiles....no matter what species your best friend is, he/she has the opportunity to become the subject of a work of art and be included! Follow the instructions at GalleryJai.Com to nominate your pet. :)

Backyard Friends

The last several days, I've spent quite a bit of time out in the yard thanks to our falling tree. I've captured some photos of our little backyard friends and thought I'd share them:

This is a baby King Snake. One of the cats had him cornered and my neighbor put him in the tree so I could get photos of him. He posed quite nicely in this one!

After watching Mr. King Snake disappear up into the branches of the pine tree, I looked around for more cool things to take photos of, and I stumbled on this little toad. He didn't especially want his photo made, but I talked him into it. :)

I spent some time stalking the birds. This required sitting in a chair, with the camera turned on, and sitting absolutely still for a very long time. Captured this little Cardinal. He actually posed on that branch for quite a while, but he kept turning around. I finally got a photo of his cute little face.

I had quite a time getting the Blue Jay's to pose. None of them wanted a photo made and they'd fly away so quickly. But one brave soul finally got on the ground right in front of me and did a few little dance moves.

And last but not least, we have Mr. Squirrel. (Or maybe it was a missus...I'm not sure.) He played hide-n-seek around the tree trunk with me for quite a while.

Now you can see why it's never boring at my house. Between the dogs, the cats, the birds, the squirrels, the reptiles, and occasionally a groundhog, there's plenty to entertain us. In fact, I'd rather sit outside and watch them play over watching TV any day! :)

The Cats Response to the Fallen Tree

When the tree fell on our house Sunday night, all but one of the cats were on the carport. In fact, it was seeing their little heads pop up at the firecracker sounds of the tree initially coming down which let us know something big was happening. Bootsie had actually been spotted running from the direction of the falling tree up to the carport. (I TOLD HER to quit using that tree as a scratching post!)

So when the tree hit and shook our house to the core, all the cats disappeared over the wall. Rowdy was the first to come back and explore. In this first photo, he's shown checking out the hole where the tree uprooted from:

A few minutes later, he's shown climbing the part on our roof...going up to explore the roof:

The next morning, here's Oreo, sitting on the fallen tree in the midst of the foliage:

Bootsie checks out the tree...this smells funny!

Bootsie takes a walk on the tree:

Nikko returns...what in the world happened here?!

Rowdy...hmmm...wonder what's under here?

Nikko...this is unreal!

Nikko again...

Rowdy comes back to explore the uprooted portion again:

Bootsie...what am I gonna do with all this mess?

And last but not least, when we finally let Max out the back after cleanup, he runs over to check out this huge, empty spot.

It looks so weird now! Hard to believe the tree is not there anymore! My neighbors are probably even more shocked than I...as they've lived here 30 years and were as much married to that tree as they are to each other!

The tree is gone

After a few hours of hard work, the tree that hammered our house last night is gone. These guys with Bryant Tree Company in Jackson, TN are true professionals. They worked hard, fast, and were kind and respectful and answered many questions. I highly recommend them after what I saw today!

After removing the tree, we discovered my car has a dent just above the license plate. Word has it homeowners insurance will not pay for that...but we'll see. They say car insurance has to pay for that, but the car was under the carport for protection. Not sure how that works, but with this entire deal, we'll see if Allstate lives up to their good name! The adjuster will be here Thursday and will be receiving a CD will all of the photos I've shared here, plus many more!

Notice the big hole in the driveway...there are *3* of those. I've got the contractor from across the street coming tomorrow to do an estimate for me on the house and driveway damage.

So this is what it looks like now. Quite a difference from last night and this morning!

I am exhausted. I hardly slept at all last night, and I had nightmares about this tree when I did. I'll probably end up crazier than I was before, after all this. :)

Cutting up the tree

They're here to cut up the tree! See my previous posts of the night photos and early morning photos of the damage. It's a big sucker!

Daylight photos of tree on our house

Here are the day time photos of the tree that fell on our house last night: