Phoenix ducks

There's a group of lake reservoirs near me that supply Marin's water. Phoenix Lake is nearest to me so I ride my bike there, hang out, and enjoy the wildlife. A system of pipes runs across the lakes. Ducks and turtles like to lounge on them and I've often thought doing a painting of this and finally got around to it after being in Marin for almost twenty years.

Cindy

Cindy belongs to cousin Joyce. I don't know what breed she is but if there's such a thing as an Antarctic dog that's what she would be.  Big hair!!!  Although she has no history of boating activity, Cindy will NOT be left behind when Joyce and Don go fishing.  So this is Cindy hanging out on the boat in her Dolce Banana life jacket. 

Montybear, the painting

Cathleen commissioned me to do a black and white portrait of Montybear using the photo from the woodblock collage. I can see the reason for the bear reference. He's got a powerful head and from the body I could see in the photo he probably weighs at least 80 pounds. I don't know what it is about this image but it looks like a person sitting for a formal portrait. Maybe I should have added a jacket and tie. He's a little hairier than Cathleen's other kids.

Montybear

This is something different I just tried. I saw some painted wooden blocks that an artist created and decided to try one of my own. Never work this small so it was a challenge. I started with a length of a 2 by 4 piece of poplar wood and cut it down.  I'm guessing poplar is a hardwood, at least that's what the exhaustion of my arm told me after sawing for five minutes. This is a collage of different elements based on a zerox of a couple photos  with some paint and drawings. The dog is named Montybear and belongs to a friend, Cathleen.

Fonzie II

I did another version of the Fonz that is more of a colored drawing. 

Rosita Conchita Morita

Here's a study for my nieces' pet chihuahua Rosita. Since my niece Lauren is holding her she looks oddly placid when in fact she's a typical nutty chihuahua that moves quicker than a pickpocket. I'm going to do a painting of her and anticipating the challenge of doing her white face that is mainly in shadow. What's life without a challenge? It will serve to hone my technical chops. At least that's what I keep telling myself. 

Study for Daisy

I'm starting a portrait of Daisy, who belongs to Ed and Niamh.  All my paintings begin with sketches as this gives me a chance to get an understanding of construction and proportions. It's like taking some practice swings or warming up. Some things also require a little more studying to figure out, like animal's noses. Because they're totally unlike a human's, I had some difficulty with them initially but I'm feeling comfortable with them now.  Gee, that makes me think of  a dog loogie story...