Facebook Pets

I've been having some fun lately painting some of my facebook friends' pets.  

The first painting shown above features a pair of Cane Corso dogs, Ripley and Lucian.  I found two great head shots of them, and painted them together in one portrait.  This painting is available on prints here and merchandise here.

This is Harley the Shih Tzu.  He belongs to one of my long-time friends on Facebook and is spoiled rotten, from the sounds of things!  He is a beautiful example of the breed, and his painting is available on prints here and merchandise here.

And I couldn't resist doing this painting of Bunny the Kitten.  She is a sweet little calico, and was given her name "Bunny" because she hops around a lot.  Bunny's painting is available on prints here and merchandise here.

If you'd like to join my Facebook friends list, I may paint one of your pets as well!  Just click here and request a friendship.

InJoy,
Jai

Romantic Landscapes #4 and #5

Here's my two newest romantic landscapes in the series of 12 I'm working on.  The painting above is titled "Garden Kiss" and features a couple stealing a kiss on the garden walkway.  This painting is available on prints here and merchandise here.

This painting is titled "Wishing Pond" and features a couple sitting on a bench in front of a private miniature pond, making a wish together.  Wishing Pond is available on prints here and on merchandise here.

In the merchandise section, you'll notice the paintings are all available on wedding invitations.  These make fabulous choices if you're looking for a unique, artistic look for your wedding presentation!

Just seven more to go!

I hope you are enjoying these.

InJoy,
Jai

Going to the Chapel

This is painting #3 in my Romantic Landscape series.  Going to the Chapel actually features a couple I know.  A photo of them holding hands moved me, and since they were married recently, I thought it was quite fitting to use them for the inspiration for this painting.

Here's a close up showing the detail.  Going to the Chapel is available on products here.  There are 9 more paintings to go in this little series.

InJoy,
--Jai

New Animal Paintings

 And birds too!  One bird anyway...the gorgeous peacock above. :)  This peacock painting is available here.

And here we have a stunning Snow Leopard.  I photographed this guy at the Memphis Zoo.  He made a great subject for a portrait! I love his golden eyes.  Snow Leopard cards and gifts are available here.

And then we have a tiger...once again, I met this fella at the Memphis Zoo. This tiger portrait is available here.

Here's one of the dogs I met at a local dog show.  This fella was belonged to a vendor who was selling dog treats, and he kept a close eye on everything.  This Pug portrait is available here.

InJoy,
Jai

New Romantic Landscapes

I recently finished these two "romantic landscapes", as I call them.  I love peaceful and romantic scenes. These paintings are created using an impressionist style.  The first painting features lovers under a huge old tree. It's titled "Lover's Tree".  Check out the close up photo below:

 The Lover's Tree painting is available on a wide range of invitations, cards, and gifts in my shop.

I've titled this second painting "Secluded Stream".  It's a great place for a couple to meet and have an intimate moment. This painting is available on a variety of products here.

You can acquire fine art prints (plain, matted, or matted and framed) on paper and canvas in my other online gallery of work.

I plan on doing about 10 more of these romantic landscapes, for a total of 12 in the series. Hopefully I'll have them all done soon, as I'd love to offer everyone a new calendar in time for Christmas. :)

InJoy,
Jai

Matted Greeting Cards

This week, I began matting some of my greeting cards.  I'm listing them on Etsy for sale.  This first one I matted is a professionally printed 5x7" greeting card with my original white poodle painting.  I chose a mat with a lovely golden trim, which blends nicely with her fur colors in the painting.

These matted greeting cards are all matted in 8x10" size mats and are ready to drop into an 8x10" frame.  OR....if you really want to create a nice piece of art for your home or office, you can mat this in an 11x14" or larger complementary mat, and place in a larger frame.  These make great small works of art for your home and office, and all feature my original paintings and photos on these high quality greeting cards and/or my ColorSplash photo greeting cards.

Of course, you can always order the individual greeting cards and mat them yourself...BUT....you won't have the benefit of having my original artist signature on each mat!  That's right - each of these is signed and dated by yours truly, in either gold or silver ink.  Bookmark my Etsy shop, because I'll be listing more of these as I finish matting them over the coming weeks.  And you'll want to stay tuned for another little artsy-surprise I'm working on as well. :)

InJoy,
Jai

In the Forest

Recently we visited Cypress Grove Park here in Jackson, TN.  It's gorgeous inside the park, which is actually a boardwalk trail that winds deep into the forest.  It's very peaceful and serene, and I was able to get some beautiful photos.  Unfortunately, because of the darkness, the camera doesn't make the best pictures.  So these require quite a bit of editing before publishing.

I love the photo above, as it gives a glimpse of the sunlight coming in through the trees.  But of course, I thought it needed more color.  This is one of those scenes which would look wonderful if it would really glow from the sunlight.  So....I did a bit of editing, and this is how the photo looks now:

Full of rich color, an inviting scene has been created for the viewer.  I decided to take things one step farther and add some words of inspiration:

It reads:  BE STILL in the darkness and I will LIGHT your way.  This gorgeous image from "The Grove" is available on cards, prints and gifts here.  It's also available as fine art paper and canvas prints, matted and/or framed, in this gallery here.

I have some other great scenes I'll be sharing soon from this park visit, and a few birds of prey photos as well.  This park rescues injured, wild birds and keeps them in captivity until they heal, and there were several there when we visited.

InJoy,

Jai

Kitten Sweetness

Orange Kitten Fine Art Print

There's nothing sweeter than the miracle of new life.  After just losing my dog and one of our cats, the perfect cheer-me-up came to the door yesterday.  Meet Vol, a 6 week old orange and white kitten who was just adopted by a friend.  Little Vol almost didn't make it into this world.

Orange Cat Square Fine Art Print

This is Juicy, Vol's mother.  Juicy was a stray in our neighborhood. At the time this pregnant cat decided to roost at my house, there was also another stray who had just brought us three kittens.  This was in addition to our 4 rescued strays we already had here.  There was no way all of these cats could stay, so I got in touch with various animal rescue groups, who were of no help (because they all were full).  So I called the humane society.  She told me they were full and I'd have to call animal control.  I told her I didn't want to call them, because they are a kill facility.  She told me the cats/kittens had 30-40 days and that their cat adoption rate was very high.  Still hesitant, I called the female animal control officer I knew, and asked her to come pick up the cats, since I was out of money for food and had just enough food left to feed my 4 original cats until the next payday.

When she showed up, I was still hesitant to let them go, but when this female officer told me she was taking the cats to a local vet who spays/neuters them and puts the ones who don't get adopted onto her farm, I was willing to let them go, and was happy they would have a chance to be adopted and end up in a safe place if they didn't.

Fast forward two days, until I saw something very disturbing on Facebook (yes, Facebook allows the world to become very small these days!).  Turns out, the lady had lied to me -- the cats were taken straight to the kill shelter and were put on death row...with...get this...2-3 days to live!  On day 2, the orange female we called "Juicy" had her 4 kittens while in their "custody".  Still...she and the 4 kittens were scheduled to be put down. 

I was FURIOUS.  This wasn't what I was told at all, by either the Humane Society or the animal control officer.  And it turns out this is a long-standing problem here of Rabies Control misleading people, as a week or so later, this article came out in our local news.  According to that article, the officer had that man sign some documents.  I was never given any documents to sign.  But I was given a bunch of lies!  And now these poor kitties weren't even going to have a chance.

But once again, thanks to the beauty of Facebook and the ability to share information quickly, word got out and thanks to a kind, generous woman, Juicy and her babies were saved.  Photos of her and her kittens were circulating fast, and I shared the photo with a friend of mine who said she wanted the orange kitten.  I put her in touch with the lady who rescued them, and that is how "Vol" became adopted by my friend last night.

She brought him by so I could meet him, and of course, I had to shoot some photos.  What a precious little fella he is!  In fact, I've already added his sweet face to a variety of cards and gifts in my shop.  I'm so glad he made it and has a good home.  He was the only boy of the bunch and the only orange one.  His 3 sisters have already been adopted as well, and Juicy, the mother cat, is staying with her rescuer.  Despite a rough start -- almost NO start to life - these babies and their mother made it out okay, and for that, I am very thankful.

--Jai