I had great fun doing this painting of my pug, Pippin, appearing with my friend Stacy’s lovely legs and her satin and lace shoes. (HER legs have appeared in catalogs, so she is a pro. Not so my Pippin. You can see him raising first one paw, then another. He didn’t quite know how to pose, but I can assure you that this posture is characteristic, if nothing else.)

As I promised myself last week, I painted at our North Woods cabin, enjoying the new greens of the spring forest through the window, listening to Josh Grobin and Enya as my husband, Matt, froze his buns off fishing for walleyes in a 39 degree wind.
I tried hard to keep the brush strokes painterly and textured. There is violet peeping through in the carpet and black visible through scraping on the green of the wall. The legs and hand are painted rather loosely, for all that the canvas is only 8×10 and rather complex. I haven’t gotten back to the Victorian Bust and the Red Chair, since I have to set the still life up in my studio again and take advantage of natural light to finish it. I have a large painting underway, the one I was frustrated with when I painted the Lemon Cake. I will work on that this weekend again in the North Woods.

I hadn’t been to our cabin since last July and when I’m up there, my eye is niggled by all the potential subjects. The beauty of spring is so fleeting before Wisconsin settles into the heavy greenness of summer. Our yard at Rosewind is currently resplendant with flowering apple trees and lilacs. Meanwhile, I come and go about my tasks instead of setting my easle up and painting the apple blossoms. They only last only a few days.

If we’re up north longer than just the three day weekend, I’ll hope to paint a very tasty looking Chocolate Croissant I have reserved.

Pug with Glamorous Legs, 8×10 on canvas board, Sold