Archie

My sister-in-law kept urging me to paint Archie, her dog. I kept thinking I've already done it! (joint portrait with Archie and Kathleen). But for Christmas I decided to go ahead and now I concede that, yes, Archie is worthy of his own portrait.

Purses

My friend Debs, who made an extraordinary red ostrich purse, inspired me to try to dabble in making purses. I made 2 as Christmas presents for my nieces. For purse A (above), I went to the thrift store to find a purse to cannibalize for the hardware. For purse B, I realized that the cannibalized purse had a nice zippered pocket feature remaining - so I built a purse around that.

Dem is dancin' shoes

When my wonderful friend Erin said she quit dance class because she didn't have any comfortable shoes I was inspired to try to remedy the problem. I didn't think the white leather would hold up so I ordered some blue dye - which turned out very bright.

Foxy!

For less than the cost of some "real" shoes I now have a huge grey hide. Let me know who wants to be in the shoe workshop to make a pair of grey shoes. I saw the fox design on a pair of baby shoes and thought it was so cute, but then I thought, why not put it on my next pair of shoes.

Julia and Blanky

Shoes for my Dad

For my whole life I have been the recipient of numerous beautiful handmade objects crafted by my Dad, so he was high on my list of someone I wanted to make a pair of shoes for after I learned how. His "QC" logo is on the vamp and my mother made the shoelaces on her braiding machine.

Becoming a Shoemaker

These are my latest handmade shoes that I made for my oldest granddaughter. I first got inspired by my youngest granddaughter showing up without shoes multiple times. I bought her a few pairs but she still showed up shoeless, so I looked on the internet and found a pattern for making soft soled baby shoes. After a making a few pairs I started to wonder how hard would it be to make regular shoes. The book that taught me everything I needed to know is called "Crafting Homemade Shoes" by Sharon Raymond. It is now out of print, but I was able to find a copy on the internet.

Waiting for the Parade

This is a painting of my granddaughter, Linnea, sitting on the curb - waiting for the Greenbelt Labor Day Parade to pass by.

Dorn

My Dad turned 83 today. One of his numerous hobbies is creating a family portrait gallery in his basement. Some of the portraits are by him and others are by me. He was bemoaning the fact that he did not have a picture of my brother Dorn, so I painted him one for his birthday. This is necessarily small (8x10) because he is running out of wall space down there.

Clouds Over Accokeek Creek

I hadn't painted a landscape in a long time but today I had the day off with no grandkids to babysit and it was beautiful outside so I took my paints down to Piscataway Park. This scene is from an observation perch looking down Accokeek Creek out to the Potomac.

Willow

A rainy day left me wondering what to do so I decided to make a quick painting of the one grandchild that I hadn't painted yet.

Kitchen Sink Art

When my kitchen was redone by the amazing Wilbur, he reused a cabinet which had had drawers, which, for a while, left a blank spot under the kitchen sink. After Wilbur made the missing piece I decided to make a painting on it. The subject is my granddaughter and my dogs. The artistic inspiration is Swedish painter Carl Larsson who also decorated his home with a lot of paintings. My Dad had a book about his amazing house. Also, a great house on the Moyaone Homes Tour, the "Flying Pig Cottage", had a painting under the sink.

The Flower Girls Hit the Dance Floor

The event inspiration was the wedding of the lovely Corinne with my granddaughter and great-niece as enthusiastic flower girls. There was beautiful light in the oceanside reception area. The artistic inspiration is Degas.

Painting Customized

This painting originally had a plain background - but my friend got me to personalize it to give to her son's violin teacher. Thus, a black and white cat, a StarTrek reference and the stained glass window were added. And now the background is light instead of dark.

Cousins

This is a painting of some of the Carlson family cousins. Hat tip to Innes for taking the reference photo at Thanksgiving. As soon as I saw it I thought it would make a good painting - I think because it reminded me of John Singer Sargent's painting Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (1883) (which in turn is thought to be inspired by Velazques' Las Meninas (1656)). It seems like every time I do a multi portrait, I have a lot of trouble with one of the figures. In this case, the Haven figure was very difficult for me.

Skateboard Park

I went to an art demo by Rogers Naylor yesterday and I thought I would complete a painting using his technique before I forgot what it was all about. I cheated a little here and there but managed to finish this one of a skateboarder at the Greenbelt Skate Park. Rogers has an ongoing art show right now at Susan Calloway gallery in Georgetown. People should check it out!

The Parade

This painting commemorates the only time I ever saw a parade go down the main street in Accokeek. At the time it was pretty exciting! I think the inspiration for a painting featuring flags comes from this Childe Hassam painting:

Naturally, the Accokeek version is a little scaled down.

Snowman

I'm sure I would have done some great paintings during the mega snow storms if I had had some canvases of the right size. Instead I worked on a snowman.