Artist Renee Lammers

   I took Monet on a solo hike today near Craigs Pond.  I remember painting this scene.

     My dream:  

   I drive to a shopping center to meet a lady to pick up my Siamese cat.

The Siamese cat costs me 500$. 

I drive off with the cat and remember I forgot to get the cat's registered papers.

The lady on the phone says the cat has no papers but is pretty much mostly Siamese.

The cat was suppose to be a boy but turned out to be a girl. 

The lady told me take the cat with you everywhere you go.

I stop off at a shopping plaza.  I leave the cat in the car.

I am at the back of the store when the store manager announces,

"Whoever left the Siamese cat in the store, please come pick the cat up

at the front of the store." 

I see the cat is waiting for me sitting on top of the cash register. 

Back on the road with my cat in the car we come to a four way stop.

Suddenly a man comes up to the driver's side, opens the door, and jumps

inside the car, pushing me over.  The car has on long front seat like in my

old 1969 Valiant Plymouth.  In fact it IS my 1960 Valiant Plymouth!

The Siamese cat disappeared under the front seat almost when the man

opened the door. 

The cat knows I am in danger.

The man is kidnapping us! 

The cat pushes out from under the seat a gun.

I see the gun, grab it, and shoot the guy right out of the car!

The man and the car door pops out!

The car door is gone, the cat is back in the passenger seat beside me, and the car is

still going! 

That is the end of the dream! 

The cheesecake is all gone.  I do have one more dream left to write tomorrow.

The other dream has no shooting, no cats, no giraffes, no mean bears, but it is interesting!

   Monet enjoyed his outing.  I will take him out by himself more often.

Have a good night.

   Ted and his dog Luke visited us today. 

Lily and Monet saw the navel oranges sitting on the table.

We were laughing at their fascination!

I don't think they have ever seen an orange before.

They thought these oranges were new balls to play with!

   Lily took an orange off the table.

She ran around the house with the orange growling.

We made a fuss over her 'new ball'. 

Monet would have loved an orange.

He could not reach them.

As is the custom in our house Monet took the 'new ball' from Lily.

He has possession of all new toys for a short time.

   Lily was able to get the orange. 

She walked around the house with it for a while.

She bit the orange hard.

I saw her face grimace. 

This new ball has a kick to it! 

I am not sure where the orange went.

   I have been experiencing strange dreams lately.

I can only imagine it is the cheesecake given to us at Thanksgiving causing these dreams.

    Here is my dream.  

    Robert and I are living somewhere in the tropics.

He has purchased hundreds of acres.

He has been rescuing animals.

There are no signs of golden retrievers.

Robert is working.  I am suppose to care for the animals.

The first animal is a giraffe.  This giraffe can only eat cheese by hand.

The other animal is a mean bear.  This bear was going to be put down if Robert didn't rescue him.

The bear was in custody because he ate someone.

  The bear and the giraffe are on an island together.

The giraffe is safe because the bear doesn't like to eat giraffes.

I arrive on the scene having been away painting somewhere.

I am asked to feed the giraffe cheese.

I am inside the enclosure on the island.  The island is surrounded by hundreds of crocodiles.

A zookeeper Robert hired arrives on the scene.

I am feeding the giraffe cheese but the bear stole the cheese.

I have no idea the bear is mean.

 I can tell he might be dangerous because he is showing teeth and sneaking around.

The zookeeper tells me not to feed the bear cheese.  Oh no he says.

He covers his eyes with his hand.

The bear starts to stalk me. 

The zookeeper yells out commands for me to get out of there.

For a long time I am scrambling over and under jungle vines trying to escape the bear.

I manage to crawl over the flimsy plywood bridge crossing to the mainland.

The crocodiles are snapping wildly just like in the Captain Hook movie.

Then I wake up.

Robert's Dream: 

   Robert announces he had a dream Poppy had a pet fish.

The pet fish was kept in a pouch.  The fish did not need water.

The fish went everywhere Poppy did. 

Somehow the fish went missing. 

People returned the fish. 

Pretty cute dream Robert had!

I had a few other interesting dreams lately.  I will tell you more of my dreams tomorrow.

Good night!

   "Ready To Rock and Roll" 14x20 oil on copper 950$ framed in gold or black with gold.  Shipping Included.

I have been enjoying the challenge of painting larger! 

For so many years I painted small works.

I may work on the craftsmanship of this painting tomorrow.  UPDATE:  All Done!

Paintings always need a few edges softened or a stronger or weaker highlight.

So much thought went into choosing this image. 

Those little boats are so tricky to draw.  This is a huge challenge.

Then I slowly paint each boat.

The water doesn't take as long.

I worked for two days just on the boats and the water 5 hours!

I have spent 24 hours painting this one in the last two days.

I seem to be working longer hours now painting large.

I will never tire of painting boats.

      Here is Poppy trying to sleep in a bed downstairs.  She is waiting or me to sleep.

Monet and Lily are sound asleep.  They had a great day.  They have been eating

turkey with sweet potatoes over their dried dog food.  Robert took them to the beach.

Tonight Robert was telling me how enthusiastic Poppy is in the morning.

She howls and tries to climb into Robert's bed to wake him up!

I asked him if Lily does this?  He said Lily mimics everything Poppy does. 

Have a good night!

   Photo of a unique boat in Stonington taken a few weeks ago.

"Asticou Garden at Night"   14x20 oil on copper.  950$ framed in gold or black with gold.

   This painting was started  a few years ago when I started to paint larger on copper outside.

    I found the painting again behind shades in my house.

I set the painting on my easel.  Without any aid of photos I tweaked the painting.

This is a good thing to do. 

Sometimes the mind can get a painting there better than any other vehicle.

I guess it is all trial and error but it is amazing what our minds can remember!

Here is the painting before I tweaked it today.

    It was fine but it just didn't have the glowing feeling of night that I had remembered.

"Good Night" 14x20 oil on copper 950$ framed in gold or black with gold.  Shipping included.

   Here is a dory painting I started a few years ago.  I had two jazzy of a background then too dark

of a background.  Last night I sanded it down lightly and reworked the entire painting.

Now I looks good. 

    Here is a 200 pound pot bellied pig who had escaped a few weeks ago.

When I saw the pig I thought he would make a fine large painting.

Now I am not so sure about this!   Who would want a 20x26 painting of a big pig?

I know Jamie Wyeth painted large pigs but I just don't think I have it in me.

I don't really know pigs well enough to paint them.  I will just have to admire them.

    I drew nine drawings of possible boat paintings last night.

I like to see the boats in ink on white paper to look at the design before I paint them.

There are two drawings that stand out among the rest.   I need to decide on the design!

Have a good night.

   Lily!  Is that my bowl you are eating?

She jumped up on the dinner table to clean out my plate and bowl!

    Each time I went into the kitchen Lily polished off my plate!

  Oh Lily!  

Well she did make us all laugh.

   Poppy would never dream of climbing on to the dinner table.

She likes to be incognito.

Robert gave her plenty of turkey drumstick meat.

   Luke seemed to be looking at my latest painting. 

Lily told Luke all about the painting.  Poppy added a few words.

   Luke said it was a fine painting.  He wanted to know who the two little dogs were?

    Ted enjoyed Monet's company.

We all had fun.  I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!

"Stonington Morning Walk" 20x14 oil on copper 950$ framed in gold or black with gold.  Shipped.

    Two years ago I started this plein air painting.

I went to Stonington twice to work on this painting.

I was new to painting anything larger than a 10x10 two years ago.

Painting large was a challenge for me outside and still is!

The painting disappeared inside my house!

Yesterday while cleaning the painting was recovered behind shades in the window!

In fact five other paintings were discovered. 

I looked all yesterday for the photo of the scene in Stonington.

This morning I discovered where the photo was located on my computer.

I worked all day and night.  I painted in a friend and client who lives in Stonington.

She has a cute little black poodle and a brown little dog.

I worked hard to achieve the early morning light in this painting.

I loved all the light at this time of the morning.

I am very pleased with the painting.

    I can tell how much better I am getting at painting larger and painting architecture.

One thing that has helped me paint better is a light.

I purchased a piano light to clip on top of my easel called Lotus Light.

The Lotus Light offers LED lighting.  It completely illuminates my painting and palette.

I can paint all night long now!  The cost of the Lotus Light was about 150$.

It is battery powered and regular power. 

The benefits of this Lotus Light will be night time plein air painting.

At plein air events I will clip on a Lotus Light above my paintings so they will be visible.

Some plein air events offer poor lighting. 

People need to see a painting to consider purchasing the painting.

Lotus Light is fantastic.

    I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!  Good night.

    "Monhegan Lighthouse View" 20x26 oil on copper 1750$ framed in gold or black with gold.  Shipping included.

    I stayed up very late painting people into the painting. 

Painting each person was fun!

This morning I cropped each section to work more on the painting.

It is finished.  It has the light and just the right amount of detail to convey the beautiful scene!

   Here are a few close up photos of the painting.

   This is the most complex painting I have ever painted!

"Acadia's Beehive Trail in November" 20x26 oil on copper  1250$ framed in gold or black with gold.

shipping included.

    It was a grey day here in Maine.  I love to photograph my work on grey days. 

I take each painting outside, set it against the rail of the deck, use my Canon 7D to take a photo.

The colors come out perfect and so do the values.

Using indoor lights to illuminate a painting to photograph does not seem as accurate.

   Today we invited Ted and his golden retriever Luke to Thanksgiving Dinner.

Ted will bring a special pie from Dysart. 

They cost 20$ each and are handmade by ladies at the gas station.

Ted says they are the best pies in Maine.

He declined a couple of invitations because Luke, his dog, was not invited.

I thought that was funny.  Of course Luke has to come to dinner.

It will be a fun day!  Good night.

"November On The Beehive Trail" 20x26  oil on copper.  Almost finished!

 Last night I decided to paint this large painting.

This is a scene on the Beehive Trail in Acadia National Park across the street to Sand Beach.

The sun was setting glowing on the tip of the Beehive.

Robert surprised me with a pecan pie!

Pecan pie has good nutrients for inspiring creativity!

I painted all night and went to bed at 3:30 am.

I ordered a new brush called the Silver Monza short bright!

It is a fantastic brush made of synthetics perfect for painting with oils on copper.

This is the first synthetic brush I have discovered that works on copper.

I normally use Kolinsky sables. 

I am pleased to find a synthetic brush.

   Few photos of the sunset on Mount Desert Island.

  A star showed up in the photo!

   Lily brought Monet's football/turkey toy outside.  Poppy and Lily were playing mine!

   Monet was playing with his favorite ball when he noticed his toy being played with.

I loved his look.  "Hey!  That is my toy!"

   They were thrilled when Luke showed up with Ted!  

Lily was even giving Luke a few kisses!  

Good night!

   Here is my plein air efforts today in Acadia National Park.  8x12 oil on copper. 

I might work on it in my studio to see if I can save the painting.

UPDATE:   I worked on the painting for a few hours in the studio.

I will let it dry for a while before I paint a few tiny limbs coming out of the main

birch tree.  It has a better feeling.  I think it will be fine.

I don't paint trees or low light paintings too often.

Tricky for me.

   The colors were so beautiful today.  I loved the Beehive Mountain in the distance.

I might try to paint something like this larger!

   Here are a few photos of Acadia National Park.

   I climbed up to the base of the Beehive.  I would like to climb this Beehive Mountain.

I wonder if I could do it?  I might bring a tiny plein air easel in my backpack.

   Ted and Luke visited us today. 

The dogs wrestled and chased each other to entertain them.

It is nice to have a visitor. 

Good night.

"Monhegan's Wik Wak Cottage" 14x20 oil on copper.  950$ framed in gold or black with gold.

    Today I decided to repaint most of this plein air painting.

    I worked on Monhegan Island for a two days with this painting.

I thought it was finished.  It could have been.

I just thought the sky might be better brighter!

Then I wanted to work on the windows and the siding.

The only thing I didn't work on was the roof and the trees!

The painting seems to have a richness now. 

   Here is the photo of the Wik Wak cottage. 

Many famous painters stayed in this cottage. 

   I have been thinking of painting trees on a large piece of copper!

The only difficulty is avoiding ticks. 

I worked inside today because it was so dark outside all day.

Temperatures are warmer for this time of the year in Maine!

    Have a good night! 

    I am thrilled to be juried into a very fine plein air event hosted by the beautiful Albin Polasek Museum

in Winter Park, Florida April 2017!   Winter Park is where I lived for more than 40 years.

I can visit with my parents who live in Winter Park as well as paint for the Museum! 

Perfect!   I have wonderful memories of riding the Winter Park city bus to downtown

Park Avenue for ten cents.  I attended Saint Margaret Mary on Park Avenue.

I even had my first professional hair cut on Park Avenue!  There is so much to paint there.

This will be great fun. 

   There are some of the very best Southern artists participating! 

It will be an honor to paint next to them.

Wow.  Still can not believe this good news!

"Sunset at Hodgedon Cove" 8x12 oil on copper 450$ framed in gold or black with gold.

This is a scene I saw in September from the South Port bridge. 

The cove is called Hodgedon Cove. 

The yellow horizon was so bright and beautiful.

I loved the two evergreen trees on the right!

"Stonington View" 20x26 oil on copper.  1750$ framed in gold or black with gold.  Shipped.

   I woke up this morning thinking about this painting.  There was something nagging at me

regarding this work.  I decided to take another look.  I realized I needed to rework the grass,

paint seagulls, put highlights and a few details on the roof.  Fix the cedar garden under the window

to the right.  Paint more sunlight on the top of the roof line to the right!  Paint more pink

on the roof on the left where the sunlight was hitting.  Paint more sunlight and lighten the distant

peninsula!  I closed my eyes and tried to remember this scene.  Yes I believe I am satisfied for now!

   This is the painting before I changed it today. 

   Lily, Poppy, Monet had a ball today.  It rained most of the day but any golden retriever

I know loves rain.  They roll around in mud.  They don't mind getting dirty. 

Their bark box came today.  Monet took the football/turkey toy.  It was his!

Poppy took the butcher knuckle bone.  Lily eyed the bone but decided the

little tug toy was hers.   Lily stole the knuckle bone when Poppy was drinking water.

   Then I saw Monet take the knuckle bone.  Poppy stole it back

with Lily taking over as she drank water again!  I put the knuckle bone on top of the

table to keep the peace!   Now I don't see that bone anywhere!   Monet is asleep in his

bed.  I wonder if he is laying on the bone?  Everyone is happy here.

Good night.

   Here is the 20x26 oil on copper painting so far!

This is the photograph I took from the top of the Monhegan Lighthouse! 

I am going to put the painting in a box for hair and dust protection!

I need to allow the painting to dry before I proceed with painting twenty people!

I was surprised at all the architectural changes I needed to make in the painting.

I thought my original two drawings were correct.  No they were not!

Most of the problems in drawings were made in the roof tops in the foregrounds.

Here is the painting after these last few days.

   You can see all the changes I made from yesterdays painting above to tonight.

I believe it is ok to make drawing mistakes as long as they are fixed!

   This is the painting after the second day on the easel.

   I drew this painting from a computer image.

This experience has made me more confident in my drawing ability when I am outdoors.

I can draw these large paintings out on location with about 90% accuracy compared

to about 60% accuracy using a computer monitor.

I think this is because I can see much better on location.   Everything is larger.

Images on the computer are small.   What a challenge!

    I played with the dogs for many hours today.  They were so funny.

They raced around after each other.  Poppy stalked poor Lily twice. 

Then I decided to take them to the beach!

   They humored me by posing for a group photo.  Lily was posing standing on a log.

   Lily and Monet play all the time together. 

Monet allows Lily to drag him across the yard!

Notice Poppy hiding behind Lily.  Sneaky Poppy!  Stalking me?

    Sandy Point in so pretty.  Good night.

    I worked until late last night on the painting.

This morning I picked up my brush again! 

Robert asked me if I was getting tired.

I decided to put the brush up for the night. 

Larger paintings take long hours to complete.

The rewards are great if the large painting turns out well!

Today I painted the foreground. 

I decided to paint the people later.

Who knows?  Maybe I will have completed the painting tomorrow!

  Lily and Poppy were enjoying the sunshine this morning!

   Monet has his own technique to enjoy the sun!

He always sits next to me so he can get more pets. 

  Monet is a pretty loveable boy!

Good night.

   I sat for an hour thinking about the part of the painting I would work on first.

I decided the most difficult part of the painting would be all the small houses lining the harbor.

I painted one house after another today.  I think they look good.

   Robert played with the dogs most of the day! 

They loved the beach, playing ball, and eating home cooked meals. 

Good night!

    This was difficult to sketch! 

I did it!  I am hopping around happy with myself!

I saw this view from Monhegan's Lighthouse this last July.

The Monhegan Island Museum and Lighthouse was free to explore.

There was a wonderful table set up full of treats created by the locals.

Fifty or more people climbed the huge hill to the lighthouse.

I remember standing high above in the lighthouse thinking this would be a great painting.

There was intense sunlight that day with all the trees and buildings backlit.

Manana Island was glowing in the distance. 

I may add a few sailboats in the right side of the ocean. 

I hope I can pull this painting off!

Painting size is 20x26 on copper!

   Monet, Poppy, and Lily were being dogs today.

Poppy ate something dead in my neighbor's yard.

Monet cleaned her face afterwards.

Lily growled back at the neighbor's dog. 

Neighbor's dog was not pleased at the growl.

The neighbor's dog was put inside for his own safety.

It took many minutes to get my dogs back in their own yard.

Robert took them to the beach.  They ate chicken liver for dinner. 

Lily still thinks my ripped up wool hat is great!

She walked around the house tonight carrying the hat, wagging her tail, and growling.

We all said she was very cute with her hat. 

Good night!

"Life Drawing Class" 14x20 oil on copper  850$ framed in gold or black with gold.

    I decided to paint the whole class and the model tonight!

I had three hours with about a half of hour of breaks accumulatively.

There were a few other painters in the class I could not get into the painting.

What a fun challenge.

Olena and Russ were the painters.  Heather was the model.

  I allowed Lily to hold my wool hat. 

I had no idea what Lily, Monet, Poppy, and Luke would do!

They had a tug of war with my hat party!

I was surprised to see Luke jump up and play tug of war.

He normally watches the dogs play.

He was very sweet to Lily.  He didn't growl at her.  She growled at him!

    I kept thinking this image of Lily and Monet might make a nice painting with the yellow maple!

   Lily put the hat on her face!  She was smelling the inside of the hat.

We thought Lily was adorable and funny today.

The hat was sacrificed for hours of great fun.

Good night.

"Stonington Gold" 20x26 oil on copper Sold today off my website.  Thank you!

    I sold the painting before it was even finished.

I asked if I could paint the telephone poles and tree in the right upper hand corner before

I sent it to her!  She said sure!  She wanted to see a photo.  Sounded reasonable!

She loved the finished painting. 

I was relieved the painting was finished!

  I loved the painting. 

 Sometimes I like the painting but not always do I love the painting.

I am so glad the painting sold.

This means I can invest in more oil paints, copper panels, and a few more brushes!

I will be able to paint larger all Winter long!  Very very exciting for me!

Painting big is a great challenge. 

I don't know if I will be successful painting large but it doesn't look too bad so far!

People seem to like my larger works. 

I am so grateful.

   Lily grabbed an empty diet mountain dew container out of the trash.

It is very difficult to capture Lily to retrieve an item.

She just loves bottles.  She can open the lid. 

   It is getting darker early.  I need to play hard with the dogs while it is still light!

Robert comes home after dark.  It is up to me to take them to the beach!

   Here is Lily twisting the lid off the plastic soda bottle. 

They each have their own personality!

   They didn't seem as excited to be at the beach with me. 

Robert might be more fun at the beach. 

He has more energy.

He is more athletic.

    I did tire them out at home in our backyard before we were at the beach!

Lily decided she was not coming home in the van.

She sat down.  Lily wanted to stay at the beach all night long.

Monet, Poppy, and I sat in the van.  We waited for Lily.

Lily sat there for a while.  She climbed into the van.

I told the dogs I would take them to the beach again tomorrow.

Good Night!

"Stonington Golds" 20x26 oil on copper.  Almost finished!  Sold.  Thanks.

    I would like to paint a few ropes on the left foreground. 

Then I would like to paint another distant telephone pole on the upper right. 

Dundee might look great sitting in the left foreground looking towards the harbor.

I have difficulty painting the cat the right size into a painting. 

Once I painted Dundee into a painting very carefully.

Robert said it looked like a giant bear!

He pointed out the Spruce tree was the same size as the cat!

The painting has a nice warm glow all over that might not be visible in the photo.

I will take a better photo outside later.

I will let the painting dry before I paint more. 

I don't want to mess anything up!

   Luke came to visit us today.  We were all excited to see Luke!

Monet and Lily gave Luke many kisses until Luke growled.  Enough he must have thought.

Poppy bounced all about when Luke arrived.

Luke, Monet, Poppy, and Lily all enjoy a liverwurst snack after they play together.

Luke really loves liverwurst.  He comes inside the house to drink water because of all the salt.

Monet, Lily, and Poppy just watch him come inside.  They don't mind Luke.

   This is Luke's Daughter.  Her name is Maddie.  Maddie and Ziva came over to look after my

pups when I was in Florida.  Ziva and Maddie are both self trained medical dogs.

Bruce took these photos of his dog Maddie.  Thank you Bruce.

Maddie  has the gift of drawing animals and birds to her.

Ted  told the story of a fawn coming out of the woods to visit Maddie.

The fawn's Mother was in the woods watching.

Maddie has squirrels visit her.

Ted said Maddie is a mystical type of dog.

No one can explain how Maddie draws birds and animals to her. 

   Once a dragonfly landed on Maddie's nose and didn't leave for a long time.

Maddie never hurts the animals.

How fascinating.  I wonder how Maddie does this?  Good night.

    Last night I studied the photos I took in Stonington, Maine.

I decided to paint this view by the Post Office.

I have painted this view several times with good success.

I knew I would need to ask permission to paint on someone's property.

I rang the doorbell.  I gave her a postcard showing the image painted from Church Street.

The painting on the postcard showed her house and fishing shack. 

She was so pleased.  She asked for another postcard for her children.

I came back with a stack of postcards.  She was very happy and so was I!

I used my Stapleton Kearns model of the Take it Easel. 

This easel is excellent for painting larger.

It is nearly wind resistant. 

It is lightweight.  I put the easel inside of a LLBean riffle back to keep it safe.

I love the fact this Take it Easel is American made!

I drew out the sketch in the www.Sketch-N-Can.com 

Then I carefully redrew the sketch onto the 20x26 copper panel.

This was very difficult but I think I did a good job of it.

Then I quickly started to paint!

I knew I had only one or two hours at the most before the light changed.

  Here is the sketch on the 20x26 copper panel.  I used a long string to check the perspective.

   Here is the Take It Easel. 

   I was painting for about 20 minutes when I saw Dundee, the orange Maine Coon cat!

He was careful to watch for traffic.  He came over to say hello.

   Dundee posed for many photos.  I think he would like to be painted.

He looked very nice today.  Someone had brushed Dundee.

   Dundee sat there for three minutes while I took his photo.

I really need to buy Fish Flakes for Dundee.  He deserved a treat.

    This was all I could do today on location.  The sun sets at 4:00pm.

   Once at home, I continued work on the painting, finally called it quits at 11:00pm.

I had a turkey and spinach sandwich. 

 Monet, Poppy, and Lily were pleased I shared my sandwich!

  Lily likes her bed stacked on top of another bed!

  Last night Lily made me laugh.  She fell asleep with her nose in my boot!

I picked up my boot.  Inside the boot was very warm!  I have a boot warmer! 

    I will take the dogs to the beach tomorrow, finish this painting, and figure out what to do next!

Goodnight!

  It was beautiful 45 degree sunny Autumn Day in Maine. 

I drove to Stonington to paint a larger painting.

I was admiring the view of the harbor.

I heard a 'meow'!  

There was Dundee, the orange Maine Coon Cat!

He allowed me to pet him!

   Dundee laid down.  He was kneading his paws and purring!

   When I pet Dundee's stomach, I felt a big tick, and pulled it out! 

Dundee stood up after this and gave me a curious look!

Dundee came over and let me scratch his neck.  He was purring again!

   Dundee felt playful today! 

 He put his paws around my arm, kicked with his back legs, and bit me!

   Just a few love nips!   I picked Dundee up.  I have him a big hug.  Then I put him down.

Dundee said goodbye.   He took off to mouse somewhere!

  The light in Stonington was perfect.  I drove around and took photos.

I could not decide where to paint!  I had a great time.

    I stopped to look at an very old abandoned  station wagon.

Letters spelling Estate Wagon were on the back.

UPDATE:  1958 Buick Century Caberallo Estate Wagon!

Thanks to many friends on Facebook who helped me figure out what car this was!

   I love looking at very old things.  I love the way things were designed.

I was looking for the mileage. 

   I wish I knew what year and brand of vehicle this was.  Now I know!  Thanks.

      In Brooklin I discovered two pigs!  They had escaped.  They weighed over 200 pounds.

I searched for their homeowners.  They were not at home.

The pigs were too large to load into the van.

I doubt they would have enjoyed being rescued by me!

I stood there admiring the pigs.  Their fur was so shiny. 

The pigs looked up to see me.  They were busy finding something to eat.

Their bellies dragged on the leaves as they walked.

    Nice to be back home again!  Stonington never lets me down.  What a beautiful

place to visit!  Good night.

    Poppy is an interesting golden retriever.

   In the middle of the night Poppy came downstairs when she heard a potato chip

being eaten.   She thought there was a prowler?

She sneaked behind the wood stove.

  She poked her head around to see who was eating the chips.

I let out a shriek.  The noise sent Poppy running upstairs.  

Ten minutes pass.  I can hear Poppy sitting behind the wood stove.

 This time she crept low to the ground. 

She approached me with caution.  I threw Poppy a few potato chips.

She ate then and ran back upstairs.  She did come back for seconds

a few times.

Today I was brushing Poppy.  She loves being brushed. 

She has such a wonderful expression in her eyes while being brushed.

   Monet wanted to be brushed.  He waited as close as possible to the brush.

  Monet seemed to love being brushed.  The soft boar hair brush only cost 2$.

The brush was a huge hit with Poppy and Monet.

   Lily found a piece of firewood. 

She thought it was a chewy bone! 

 She didn't eat any of the wood. 

 She made a nice pile of pieces of wood.

  There are still many beautiful Autumn leaves to appreciate!

I am trying to decide what to paint next!  Good night.

"Stonington View" 20x26 oil on copper 1750$ framed in gold or black with gold. Shipped.

   I spent the last few days admiring my new painting.

I asked a friend I trust to give my painting a critic.

He suggested I remove light straw from the bottom left corner as he thought it was a distraction.

 This is the painting with the straw on the left corner.

I agreed with him! 

I removed the straw with the palette knife and painted more juniper.

Then I decided I didn't like the dark roof on the right side. 

I created warm tones gliding over the dark roof.

I lightened the backgrounds for the feeling of sunshine.

I spent many hours tweaking the painting.

    I went to sleep last night happy.  Here is the painting then.

This morning I set the painting back on the easel for the final once over!

I looked for any specks of copper left without paint and covered them up.

I refined edges making sure craftsmanship was there! 

Sloppiness is not good!

   I took the painting outside to examine under sunlight!

I removed a few dog hairs.  I found a few brush hairs! 

I took a photo with my Canon 7D!  Here is the final painting! 

Now it is sitting inside of a large cardboard box to dry for a few weeks. 

I am very satisfied with this large painting!  It was a great challenge.

Now I am on to the next large painting!

I ordered 400$ worth of oil paint.  This is 8 tubes of oil paint.

They average about 50$ per tube of paint.  I use about 8 tubes of paint in one month!

Just thought I would throw this information out there for those who might think painting is

a cheap hobby.  Ha! 

Then I decided to add more sunlight colors and some seagulls!  Now it is done.

Good night!

"Best View In Stonington" 20x26 oil on copper 1750$ framed in gold or black with gold. 

Shipping is included.

     I am sitting back looking at my finished painting. 

There is such a sense of pride and relief looking at finished work. 

Painting larger is exciting and a wonderful challenge! 

I am so tired.  I can't think of anything else to write! 

Good night.

   I started a larger 20x26 oil on copper on Church Street in Stonington.

The easel is by Richeson. 

This easel is great for painting larger.

The only negative is the weight of the easel.  There are wheels.

  The most important task today was to sketch out the painting on to the copper.

Then I decided to paint color patches. 

   I hold up my brush to see if the color matches the area behind the brush.

It is best to do this with a larger brush instead of a 2 size brush. 

I decided to paint this scene at the golden hour. 

The magic happens so quick!

I think these color patches will really help paint this painting with more authentic color.

Tonight I will paint in the 'poster shapes' using the color patches as a guide.

Then if the weather holds up tomorrow, I hope to head back to Stonington, to paint more on

location!

   I was standing on Sand Beach in Stonington as the sunset.

The sun was a bright pink behind a huge cloud peeking through.

  What a treat!

   Stonington is a beautiful place. 

  Luke came over to visit his girl friend Poppy. 

   Monet gave his Dad a few kisses. 

We had to distract Monet with a tennis ball because Luke was growling.

Luke just likes to hang out with the gang.

He barks as the car is going over the bridge.  He loves to visit.

Lily came over to visit with her Grandpa Luke.  He likes Lily.  She is a sweet girl.

Good night!

"The Green Cottage" 14x20 oil on copper.  Sold. 

    I worked on this painting until it was finished today. 

It sold within an hour of posting.  What a lucky day.

Some paintings take me a year to sell. 

We agreed to let her make small payments for two years.

I would rather make painting purchases easy for clients.

Payment plans work well. 

Someone asked me if anyone doesn't pay?

So far so good!  I don't think people who buy paintings rip off artists.

    We still have plenty of Autumn colors!  Here is the Penobscot Bridge on Verona Island.

   What a beautiful sunset in Bass Harbor last night!

   Poppy put her slow moving quiet hunting moves on Lily this morning.

This is not Lily's favorite activity.

Lily's tail was down.  She stood there with a ball in her mouth closely watching Poppy.

Poppy was taking her time stalking Lily.

Poppy would move one leg to replace another front leg.

Lily backed up a few times but Poppy still stalked her as she was prey!

Finally the game was over.  Poppy ran up to Lily and tackled her.

Lily let Poppy put her on her back.  She gave up easy.

Monet watched.  I don't think he likes Poppy doing this to Lily.

Monet brought Lily a toy and shook it.  They played gently together.

Poppy was left out. 

Poppy is the boss but she still likes to play. 

She has to get on her back to encourage the two to play with her!

Good night.