KITTEN DELIVERY!

YEOWR!

So, friends of ours had a kitten emergency. They adopted a cat from a shelter, and although this shelter requires that the cats they give out be neutered or spayed before they will relinquish the cat, and in fact they make the adopting people pay for this process...someone at the shelter or vet's office made a mistake. My friends payed to adopt a spayed cat, especially important as they wanted an indoor/outdoor cat. The cat became pregnant about 5 minutes after they got it home. Oh dear!

The cat had five kittens, too, and well, son H begged and begged and we caved. Today was Kitten Delivery Day!

Smiles and tears from the nice family giving the kitty to us...

H gets to know his new pet a little

"Whatchu lookin' at?"  Attitude already at 10 weeks...!

Learning how to hold a squirming kitten...not as easy as you'd think! But fun. :-)

Horsey!

Last week I spent an afternoon with a horse named Jim. Peter Van Dyck invited me to sit in on his animal drawing class at PAFA while the horse was scheduled to be there, as I had expressed interest in this opportunity last semester. I love drawing animals, and horses are so "architectural" that it's a special pleasure to draw them. Last time I painted a horse I was sitting out in a field broiling and swatting stinging insects, so having a horse come on in to the great indoors was a real treat!

Jim's arrival via freight elevator was a thrill! He himself was perfectly calm.

My first study...unfinished as the model decided to stop grazing.

My second study, very unfinished but I like how I caught that Jim was tiring. After a few hours of standing he had sort of "sunk" in  a bit, in his back and at his hocks (right word? I mean what look like his ankles.) And his whole expression became somewhat resigned.

Somebody just asked, so yeah, these are quick little oil sketches done from life. That was the whole point. :-) I brought my camera and I took some photos thinking I might work further on my sketches later from reference shots, but turns out I did not in fact get exactly the same angles as I was painting, and angles are key in horse painting. So, we'll see. These will most likely just remain unfinished studies. 

Bunnies Beware!

Homemade BB Gun target found in my recycling bin. Summer is here and boredom is the mother of invention it seems! ;-)

Last Night's Visitor

his steps sank softly
into the brown sugar mud,
hello and goodbye

Autumn Meadow

Autumn meadow
with painter and sheep (it's Beaver Farm a few weeks ago, of course!) That's Dianne Morrow painting the old ram, Elvis.

To Autumn
by William Blake

O Autumn, Laden with fruit, and stain’d
With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit
Beneath my shady roof; there thou may’st rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe,
And all the daughters of the year shall dance!
Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.

The narrow bud opens her beauties to
The sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins;
Blossoms hang round the brows of Morning, and
Flourish down the bright cheek of modest Eve,
Till clust’ring Summer breaks forth into singing,
And feather’d clouds strew flowers round her head.

The spirits of the air live in the smells
Of fruit; and Joy, with pinions light, roves round
The gardens, or sits singing in the trees.’
Thus sang the jolly Autumn as he sat,
Then rose, girded himself, and o’er the bleak
Hills fled from our sight; but left his golden load.

Reptilian Surprise!

My neighbor Fay found this handsome fellow in the road, and decided to save his life, at least temporarily, by putting him into her garden. With all the rain we had earlier this summer there should be a fine harvest of slugs for this eastern box turtle. Always something new happening on my street!



This scene strongly suggests one of Fay's own artworks!

Mothering on the Farm

FARM is the theme today over at Unique Exposures. I took this in May while visiting Beaver Farm, site of Camphill Special School's transition program. I was told that this sow is the best mother pig they have ever known...and she sure does seem a calm and generous being!

I Rented a Lobster

Strange but true. I wanted to paint a lobster, partly because I was invited to participate in a Lobster themed show at gWatson Gallery this summer. I was delighted to be invited, and actually, the idea of painting a lobster had been in my head for some time. Not surprising as I am a food painter, and I also paint in Maine! Kind of an "Oh yeah, duh!" equation. It was just a question of when I was going to get around to it, and this invitation proved the catalyst.

But the obstacle: killing a lobster so I could paint her. Hmm. Lobsters go bad pretty quickly after they're cooked so I'd probably have to work fast and then end up finishing the painting from a photo: unappealing! I only paint still life from life. Plus, in any case very likely the lobster would spoil and have to be trashed, uneaten. What a waste! For all kinds of reasons I was balking.

Then a friend who is a set designer for commercials told me about props rentals! Wow, what a revelation! She took me to an amazing warehouse stuffed floor to ceiling with all kinds of props: furniture, musical instruments, stuffed animals and of course, fake food! My lobster is extremely realistic and comes from the Japanese faux food industry..verisimilitude is paramount! He costs 10 cents a day to rent, and I have become very fond of him. I am feeling reluctant to "throw him back" althought the painting is not only finished and framed but I delivered it by hand to the gallery in Maine on Friday! (I put the trip pictures in an album on Facebook: email me if you want an invitation to view!)

Lobster with Brioche, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches

Tolerance

how well she understands
all my little doggy ways,
this tall hoofed snorter

Feathered Friends
Young H is the somewhat understated James Herriot of the family, and is building up quite a little pet-watching service in our neighborhood. He took Kippie the cockatiel on as a short-term boarder not long ago, and Kippie certainly added a lot of personality (and bird poop) to our household while he was here! We all felt glamorously Saint Francis-like when Kippie rode around on our shoulders.

Pet
is the theme over at Photo Friday today. This is a recent shot that I thought would fit the bill:
Woman with Chihuahua

Parakeet Kiss
claws scrabbling for a stronghold-
sharp bite of the beak

ANXIETY

A Papillon meets a Springer Spaniel...oh dear! They went nose to nose outside the Lupine Gallery on Monhegan Island. I never saw so many people bringing their dogs with them on vacation as I did on Monhegan. Although the booklet published by the Island Association suggests that pets should be left at home, it seemed as though every third visitor had a dog on a leash. Perhaps the island has been listed in Dog Fancy magazine or some such publication as an ideal place to vacation with your pet?

As I myself did not have to break up dog fights or pick up dog droppings, I enjoyed the continual canine showcase. They are such beautiful creatures. In fact, I took so many shots of dogs that I could easily put together a photo calendar called Dogs of Monhegan!

PUG KISSES
I remembered that my friend Eliza used to have a pug, and still has a fondness for the breed. So I called out to her when I saw the pugs from the window. Eliza hurried out of the house and in no time at all I was watching a spontaneous frenzy of pug love.

PIG FACE

She looks up at me
pink nose quivering: is this
food or foe? (or both?)

*******************************
I was visiting my old college friend Liz C. on her farm last week. She and her husband had just taken delivery of a pair of Gloucester Old Spotted pigs! I have to say, it was pretty exciting. Equally exciting, to me at least, is that my friend decided to start her own blog. Please welcome Pigs Gourds and Wikis!

PAINTING IN THE COUNTRY

Glossy horse trots by,
muscles rippling and bunching:
my brush hesitates

BLUEBIRD
I was painting yesterday in the Brandywine River Conservancy. Without realizing it at first, I had "set up shop" just across a dirt road from what turned out to be a Bluebird nest box. I have to admit, the birds were very distracting. I'd be painting away when a flash of vivid blue would catch my eye and I'd just have to look at what Bluebird père was up to. Bluebird mère was less flashily attractive, in fact she looked pretty dull and bedraggled, but her actions were equally interesting as she was engaged in constant defense of her nest. Dozens of small birds (martens?) were making multiple attempts to enter the nesting box, but to no avail. The bluebirds were obviously a united couple in defending their young. It looked pretty exhausting, but I guess that is parenthood for you!

I also have a new appreciation for bird photographers. My Nikon ran out of battery before I'd gotten a good descriptive shot of the birds, and this one was taken with my little purse camera. It was so blurry I had to put on a few art filters. But that blue of the bluebird's back! It is like nothing else on earth.

Rare Ape House
echoing hallways, sharp smells-
the stoic waiting.

STRANDED
How did they get here?
from distant forests they flew
into this small cage

SNAKE FIGHT
Here's something you don't see every day: two rattlesnakes engaged in scale to scale combat! We went to the zoo over the weekend and happened upon this little drama. The Zoo people were all pretty worked up about it...they kept coming and looking and getting other people to come and look...but nobody seemed to want to go in and break up the fight (!) One of the keepers told us it was two male diamond back rattlesnakes, and that they were engaged in a wrestling match over territory. I was surprised they didn't just bite each other...but I guess they are probably immune to their own poison. So they have to try and squeeze the life out of each other instead. Ah nature, red in tooth and claw!