Hard Riding Santa

Here is the new Monday night class Christmas painting for 2009. The original drawing has another horse following with a sack full of toys. Everyone was wanting to get the painting finished in time to have Christmas cards made, so I cut the drawing down to just Santa on his horse. Debbie and Sharon put snow flakes on theirs. I decided not to add any snow to mine so that all the detail would show up, but the premise of the painting is that Santa is in a hurry to deliver the toys because it is starting to snow. I do plan to paint the entire scene on a larger canvas later on.

This painting is in oil on a 16" x 20" x 3/4" gallery wrapped canvas. The scene wraps around the sides so it can be hung without a frame if desired. Priced at $300. To purchase contact me personally at sassyfrasinn@yahoo.com with "painting" listed in the subject line.

Big Hat Cowgirls

I did not realize that I was this far behind in my postings. Life has been forever altered since Jack had his stroke the first part of June. He is doing alot better now and is going twice a week to physical therapy. He can walk on his own without a walker now, but is still somewhat wobbly. There are alot of things that he can do for himself which has been a relief to me, but his care still takes so much of my time.

I still teach my Monday night painting class as well as a few private lessons. Here is a couple of the paintings we just finished in class the last couple of weeks. They are our versions of Doreman Burns' cowgirls. I only have pictures of mine this time as Debbie and Sharon are still adding some bling to theirs. It doesn't show up well in the photos, but I added some sparkle to the earrings, conchos and belt buckle on the girl in chaps, and put crystals for buttons down the front of her shirt. The girl in red has crystals on her earrings and on her ring finger as well as some red glitter dust hearts on her boots and a glitter and crystal star on her hatband. These are really fun to do. They are 16" x 20" oil on stretched canvas. Contact me at sassyfrasinn@yahoo.com for information.

Sandy's Stenograph at the Beach

My friend, Sandy Lease, asked me to do a painting of the steno machine she uses for a convention she was going to this weekend. It is being held in Jacksonville, Florida, so she wanted the machine painted on the beach. I thought it would be more appealing if it was under a brightly colored umbrella. Here is the result. Sandy was very happy with this painting and called me from Florida to tell me that the other people attending the convention were asking about getting prints of it or other paintings done for themselves as this one was to be auctioned off. Who knows, maybe I'll get some commissions from this one.

This is done in oil on a 20" x 20" gallery wrapped canvas. To contact me about a painting email me at sassyfrasinn@yahoo.com or call me at 903-288-9216.

Wow, here it is July 19th and I haven't painted anything new for days. My husband suffered a stroke on June 9th and was in the hospital for about four weeks. Fortunately it was a moderate stroke and only did a small amount of damage. It was very scarey for both of us at first. Jack had lost the strength in his right arm and had minor short term memory loss. Therapy helped him to be able to use his right arm and be able to eat by himself, and to get around using either a wheel chair or a walker. He also had surgery on the artery in the left side of his neck which was 95% blocked and was the cause of the stroke. He has been home for two weeks now and is receiving home health care which includes physical and occupational therapy as well as a nurse visiting a couple of time a week to check his vital signs. He is progressing, but this will take time for him to get anywhere near to what he was before the stroke.

I did get a couple of small paintings done while he was in the rehabilitation center at the hospital. Those were the last two paintings I posted here. But since he has been home I have not had a moment to myself to paint anything. As I get into a routine of caring for him I am sure that I will get a chance to start back painting. I have still been teaching Monday night class. It takes about a month and a half to produce a painting in class due to the step by step process I teach. Hopefully I will have a painting to post soon. Right now I am just worn out with my husbands care, but will back to normal soon.

3 via Delle Cascine, florence, Italy

3 Via Delle Cascine, Florence, Italy. This is the second painting I did for The Virtual Paintout. I think I like it better than the first one. I will submit it also. I don't know if that is allowed, but I did see another artist that listed two paintings earlier in the month. There are some really nice paintings that have been entered. I hope that this challenge will help me improve my skills in painting buildings.

Viale degli Olmi

Here is my first attempt for a new painting challenge I ran across that is called "The Virtual Paintout". At the first of each month a new city is listed from Google's Virtual map. Any artist that is interested can click on the map link that will take them to the vitual map of that particular challenge and use the little yellow man to walk the streets of the city to find what they would like to paint. The artists then have a month to finish and submit the paintings.

I found several places, printed them and chose two to paint. I will post this one today and try to finish the other one and post it either tonight or tommorrow (it is turning out to be the better of the two paintings). This one is a 5 3/4" x 4 1/2" oil on canvas and is for sale for $49.95. Email me at pyrmom@yahoo.com with "painting" in the subject line to purchase.

Cowgirls progression

Here are the results of last night's class. We are just a little futher along in the underpainting. Mine is listed first, then Debbie's, and then Sharon's.