Blog Tag

My dear, darling friend Carolee blog tagged me today. Fun. Okay, not really and I don't usually play along with these things but since she's coming over for dinner tonight and bringing with her the majority of the dinner since our car is still in the garage awiting inspection, I will be nice.

So all I have to do is list 5 unimportant things about myself. I'm interpreting that to mean I just need to tell my readers 5 strange little facts about myself.
Here you go (I know you're holding your breath):

1. I once shipped a sign to Wayne Newton in Las Vegas. It was an Arabian sign purchased by a friend and sent to him for Christmas.

2. I was a punk in high school back in the late 80's. Even shaved half my head. Crazy, huh? My poor mom sure thought it was.

3. Sticking with my punk roots, I still mainly wear black clothing. My friends and family are always shocked when I wear a pastel color. I have a few in the closet I bought when I was having a weak, girly moment.

4. I secretly wish I could have been on one of those PBS reality shows; Pioneer House, Frontier House or Colonial House.

5. When I was young I commited the ultimate museum crime, I touched a painting by a famous painter. It was Dead Toreador by Manet. I hope I can't get into trouble now, that was so long ago. I thought some of Manet's spirit would somehow leap from the painting and into my finger. I'm sorry, National Gallery of Art. Je regrette, Manet.

3 Kittens

I have been taking care of some 3 week old kittens the last 2 days and they are so cute. My mom's cat, Shelby, was hit by a car and my mom had been bottle feeding them. Because she has a very busy work schedule as garden manager at an Ace store, I told her I would take over until they were old enough to eat on their own.
I think we will let Zoe keep one. I am keen on one of the tortoise shell kittens but there is also one that I think will turn black that I want to keep. We'll see. Our two cats are not happy at all and my cat hid all day yesterday.
Here are some pictures...

Counting Sheep

I thought I was would something a little different this week. I've always loved folk art with animals so I've painted three counting sheep in the night sky. I had a lot of fun with this piece and I feel the photos don't do it justice. The colors really pop. I think I may do a few more like this in the near future. I have a couple of sketches floating around in my brain.

Counting Sheep Auction

Update on the baby bird in my yard.
Yesterday, right before he took off with his mom, he jumped on my finger and pooped. Luckily I had the camera right in my had. Later that day I saw him following his mom around the yard learning how to find food and improve his flying technique. I also saw another momma starling with three babies in tow doing the same thing. Moving from the coutry to the suburbs, I never thought I would see so much wildlife. From the birds to the bunnies, chipmunks and squirrels, there always seems to be something to look at out of the windows!

Pippy's Sign

One of my favorite customers emailed me some great photos of her filly, Pippy, I just painted on a stall sign. It is such a great thrill for me to see my signs at a person's home or at a horse show so I had to post a photo that Katrina took.
Pippy is lovely Shire/Thoroughbred cross and I hear that she is as sweet as she looks! Please visit Katrina's Farm's website when you get the chance. There are more photos from Pippy's show as well as other Shire photos.
First Draught Farm, Georgia

After the Rain

It seems like it has been raining here for days and it finally stopped so I thought
I would take a few pictures this evening. One interesting find in the garden was a fledgling starling. He has been squawking all day long. We can see him right outside our dining room window and his mother has been feeding him often.
~Jen

Ginger Cat

I've just finished painting a young orange tabby cat looking at a Dogface butterfly. Can you see the dogs in the top part of the wings? This butterfly is in the Sulphur family and feeds on clover like the one I've painted.
I'm just tickled with how this one came out. I find it much more challenging to paint cats and I have been really enjoying it.
Check my ebay auctions. I will be listing it later tonight.
~Jen

Two Cats & a Frog

I've been feeling a little catty lately and painted two feline themed signs:)
They are both on ebay as of tonight.

My Ebay Auctions
Thanks for looking!
Jen

Gardens

I just had to write about how happy I am to finally have a yard that I can garden in. If you haven't seen much of my work on Ebay or Etsy it's because I can't get my hands out of the dirt:) My DH gave me a generous gift certificate to my favorite new greenhouse for Mother's Day and I bought so many flowers that I had to dig a new garden. I have had a little one planned for a week now around the old butterfly bush that didn't grow back after my overzealous Fall pruning. On the dead branches of the bush I have rested a shallowed glazed pottery dish to serve as a bird bath. We don't have the money for a tiller right now so I'm digging everything my hand. The veggie garden was the hardest and luckily Kevin helped with that one. So far I have planted 2 heirloom Brandywine tomatoes, 2 types of cherry tomatoes, 1 roma and a tomato from Washington Boro, a nearby town famous for the fruit. That leaves space left for two more, another roma type for making sauce and maybe a black Brandywine, zebra or Cherokee purple. Haven't decided yet. My mom and stepfather raise heirloom tomatoes for restaurants so I have to raid their greenhouse soon for something good. Also in the veg garden I have about 11 red sails lettuce plants and a row of spring mix lettuce that we're already eating from. There are also many different herb plants and a ton of basil planted for making homemade pesto, yum!
For something fun I've planted nasturtiums. I thought they would look really pretty in our salads.
There were two main gardens out back when we moved in. Both were completely overgrown with poison ivy, weeds and baby junk trees that were a real pain to dig out. After several bouts of poison ivy rash I think I've finally gotten it under control. In those gardens I've planted a ton of flowers such as spiderwort, lungwort, shast daisy, coneflower, black eyed susan, butterfly bush, tickseed, peony, bleeding heart, foxglove, russian sage, lavender, marigolds, dusty miller, purple salvia, petunias, snapdragon, cosmos, love in the mist, cocks comb, lilies, lilly of the valley, hostas, wisteria, impatiens, scabiosa, bluebells, balloon flower, caladium, yarrow, evening primrose, forget-me-not and several more I can't think of right now. I even have a little strawberry patch with about 2 pints of strawberries growing on the plants (I have my fingers crossed that the critters don't eat them).
I've taken a few pictures of my gardens. They are not filled in yet so they're not much to look at. I think next year they will be spectacular. The best thing with all those perennials is that the flowers will spready and multiply and I can make new gardens without all the cost next year.
I did manage to get two cat pieces painted today because it rained. I will have them on ebay in the near future!
~Jen

Happy Mother's Day!

Something Spooky

Lately I've been reading Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree and The October Country and felt like painting some more Hallowen themed art.
Please check them out on ebay...

Gypsy Witch

I was feeling a little Halloweeny this week so I thought I would paint a witch driving a Gypsy Vanner Horse. I love painting all the little details like the pumpkins on the cart, black cats (there are 3 in the painting) and houses on the hill with tiny people in the windows and ghosts coming out of the chimneys.

It will be on ebay later tonight and it's just a 3 day auction so please check it out!

I also wanted to let people know about a project I started with my Ebay horse art group. We are passing around a sketchbook to 14 members who will create on 5 pages each. After it is finished we will auction it off on ebay for a horse charity. So far we've had two Brit artists who've completed their sketches and one artist who's added a seperate watercolor painting that is just stunning. Please check it out. I have a blog going for the project to keep everyone posted.
Whoa Sketchbook Project

New signs... finally:)

Ebay Auction Link

I finally had some time to paint a few signs for ebay this week. I just listed a really nice Grand Prix dressage horse and rider. Also listed are a small Friesian Horse sign and Gypsy Vanner sign. I have been so busy with Zoe and my gardens, it's hard to find time to do it all. To make matters worse I managed to get poison ivy around my eyes and mouth and had a terrible time with it for 4-5 days.
Well, time to get back to work while the kiddo is napping!
~Jen