Dog years

Growing up, it's always been me and my 2 siblings. My younger brother and my Dad's dog.

My brother and I have always played second fiddle to the Dog, regardless of whether it was Mr. Flanders, Birds, Peepers, or Sparkles. Dad and ____________ (fill in current dog) had an unbreakable bond. I mean, seriously....when I asked my Dad to write something for my Mom's 60th birthday celebration he said: "I love your Mom because she always put up with and let me have my dog." (God Bless my Mom). It was understood that "the Dog" was going to get the good scrapes of meat, the best seat on the couch, popcorn snacks, talked to in a "special dog" voice (those with dogs, don't deny it, you know you all do it) and the weekend ride on the boat with free beer included. FREE BEER! And I know one of my sisters tried many an opportunity to get her freebies.....Lush. 

The Dog...Always and Forever Dad's Favorite. 

Spark...aka Sparkles (2016)
Oil on Canvas Borad 8x10

They rarely out live us & the loss............ not even in dog years could one speed up the heartache; but I was told if you're really good in this life, you get to come back in the next life as a dog. 

Henry (2016)
Oil on Gesso Board 11x9

"Dogs are the best kind of people." -Dad
I sure hope I come back as one of the dogs. 

-Cheree 

Breaking the Monet-any

For about a month now, I've been quite focused on my little single fruit still lifes; painting these "still lifes" in my everything but still life. Two nights ago I took a break from the still life.
I got out my knife (palette knife).
I put some Justin Timberlake on the Pandora
And I went Monet-ing.

I've gone Monet-ing with a knife before and it's better than chocolate (I'm not talking American chocolate, because we all know that crap sucks, I'm talking Swiss chocolate.........ohhhhhh or Belgium chocolate, even better.....wait, no, not Belgium chocolate. It's not better than Belgium chocolate. So, ya, better than Swiss chocolate).
It's really quite calming to don your knife and paint till you get that Monet high (similar to Belgium chocolate).

I dug up a picture from 2010 from the Denver Botanic Gardens of one of the lily ponds. A time when life was simple. One child simple; working 2 nights a week, 5 days off, sleeping till 9, no school drop offs, pickups, no fighting over whos pancake is "lighter" (Yes, they fight over who has the ligher pancake....I know, makes no sense) .....Just a slow, peaceful, quiet pond of a life.

Colorado Pond Performers (2016)
Oil on Clay Board 8x8
Place a Bid

Orange you Lilies Something (2016)
Oil on gesso board 5x7
Place a Bid

These days, it's important to have a useful knife (and did I mention Belgium chocolate....because that's important to have too....really, really important). 

-Cheree 

Things that make you go hmmmmmm mmmmmm mmm

I have not been painting at 4am for months now.
It's too dark and cold. And I'm too tired.
So, instead I've been staying up late, which is why I'm too tired to get up at 4am.

This has created a disturbance in "Information Central".
For those who don't know what Information Central is, it's the living room.
But for the Peacock, it is the heart of the ship he is guiding, the control center for the Master of the Universe, all informing, all powerful, all knowing. Bow down to the great TV in our living room......
Information Central.
This is where the peacock will laugh with Stephen Colbert, survive with Cody Lundine, converse with Rachel Maddow, yell at Joe & Minka, celebrate the Wisconsin Badgers, and bond with the kindred souls of Chris Hayes & Thom Hartman.
Information Central: Good friends, Better conversation, Always informed.
The rules for Information Central include:
1. Do Not override ANY of the DVR shows set to record.  
2. No E! or WE or OWN or any of that other stupid crap, it is harmful to Information Central. 
3. No interrupting the shows unless you have cut your arm off, are drowning in your own saliva, or dinner is ready. 

Well, for the past few weeks I've been painting my fruity little still lifes while the Peacock does his fruity little work and bathes himself in all that is Information Central. So far I have not been banned, but I have been placed on warning a few times. Here are a few of the creations done in Information Central......

2 Pears (2016)
Oil on clay Board 6x6
Place a Bid

Bowl of Cuties (2016)
Oil on clay board 6x6
Place a Bid

Berry Proud (2016)
Oil on clay board 6x6
Place a Bid

Oh and
4. No humming.....apparently
-Cheree

Unnecessary Roughness

The classes I've taken lately, I've painted with very talented individuals. I like learning not only from the instructor, but also from the other, more practiced painters. I usually look forward to this and all that I have to learn. But for some reason, this evening, I was very rough on myself, my painting ability, the painting itself. I was wishing I'd just stayed home sick (I was a bit under the weather I should mention, but I'm somewhat cheap & didn't want to lose my money I paid for the class....ahh, digression back to the blog now)....I was having a hard time seeing the success of it, when others were perfectly capable of seeing it for me. The roughness then digressed to: why am I even here doing this? I'm selfish for doing this....I should be home....I'm a bad parent for taking time to do this for myself......my brain was spiraling out of control. I had to step away from this painting So. Many. Damn. Times and get myself together! It was fooling me. Fooling me of life and fooling me with that damn brown bottle on the orange cloth. That bottle is brown, dark brown, but I can see through it. How the hell do you paint "see through"? How the hell do you see through such darkness? How do I show that there is light even in that dark empty bottle? I know it's just my brain playing tricks on me.

Unnecessary.

Roughness.

Take a deep breath,
Break it all down into smaller pieces of shapes and colors. It's not that rough. In fact, it's easy to get through.  And it is necessary to do it this way.

Still #Four (2016)

Oil on canvas board 16x20

Sometimes stuff is rough,
But rarely unnecessary.
And when you can see through a dark brown bottle, it means that your liquor is out.
-Cheree

Still making a comeback.

For a few weeks now, I have been mostly engulfing myself in stillness.
Still life stillness.
Twenty years ago in high school I hated still life! Hated, Hated, Hated it.
Oh I hated it so much.
And charcoal still life was all we did for my entire 1st semester art; also, we were not allowed to have an eraser for the semester either (but that's a different blog writing to come later). Oh and I guess I also did a charcoal self-portrait. But anyways,
Sooooooooooooooooooo boooooooooooooooooring.
Cans, bottles, fruit and antlers (yes antlers....always antlers, it was a ranch town) sitting staged, place on a sheet with a light shining directly on it. Seriously?
Sooooooooooooooooooo boooooooooooooooooring.
I really thought I'd be making my master piece back then during my very first semester, because when you are an adolescent art student not only do you believe you are the next Picasso or Van Gogh, but you also create your master piece with little training and practice and very quickly, like by end of 4th period quickly. My master piece making self back then, did not appreciate that the still life studies are quite important in developing skill, patience, and experimentation. My master piece self did not realize that all good things take time, lots of dedication, practice, failure, and eventually a comeback.

Well, it's been a long time and the 90's are coming back! Antlers and all!
We got: No Doubt reunion, crop tops, High waist-low flare jeans, Birkenstocks (my personal fav) and a Point Blank remake for starters.
Hell, Bill Clinton might even be coming back to Washington.
Oh, and Still life (well, for me anyway)

Here are a few more of my stills from the comeback art class I'm taking and my practice.

Little Cuties (2016)

Oil on clayboard 6x6

Place a Bid

Still #Two (2016)

Oil on canvas board 20x24

Chatty Lemons (2016)

Oil on clayboard 6x6

In the words & wisdom of the great LL Cool J: 

"Don't call it a comeback. I been here for years." 

-Cheree 

Never say Later, Procrastinate Now

Back in November I signed up for some drop in art classes. These classes are taught by local professional artists and I have found them to be very relaxing, informative and quite beneficial. The class I signed up for is about using color, value and temperature in your paintings and we are painting different still life set ups.

I must admit that I am a VERY last minute kind of person. And even though I signed up for this drop in art class in November, I did not even look at the material supply list until the night before the class. (I don't recommend waiting this long to have your supplies ready).
This is when I noticed that on the very top of the supply list IN ALL CAPS it said:
OIL PAINT ONLY
Oh crap! Crap! Crap! Crap! I don't even own oil paint. Why didn't I look at this sooner?
I don't paint in oils because I have 2 small curious children, and oils are messy, smelly and well....oily. The solvents are sometimes toxic, plus they take weeks to dry. WEEKS!
Also, I was saving my oil paintings for later, much, much later, like my retirement; when painting in 900 square feet with poor ventilation and getting high on paint fumes won't make any difference.

Anyhow, since it looks like I (and most of my generation) will not have any social security to retire on, and therefore I will most likely die in front of my computer typing out a email to a surgeon, who most likely won't read it and then email me later asking for the information in the email I just sent them?!?!?!?..., I might as well bite the bullet and buy some oil paints ASAP and start now.

Still Life #One (2016)

Oil on canvas board 20x24

I should admit that I am head over heels in love with my oil paints and I'm not just saying that because I've been painting all morning with the windows closed.
I am glad I never read that class list early!
I take it all back, I would absolutely recommend this type of procrastination. It seems this is the key to great discovery.
Here's to making later, now & to my early retirement!
-Cheree

Fast sleds, Smiles wide, Laughing loud, forever.

Two years ago today, my cousin passed away.

It is still very hard for me to type this and fathom it all. 

It Still, 2 years later, does not feel real. 

It still feels like he will just crawl out from under the Thanksgiving table and sit down next to me to pass the potatoes.

When we were kids my brother and I could not wait for our Denver cousins to arrive for holy hell playtime. It was with my brother and my cousins that I could truly be myself. They were and remain to this day, my best friends. We were uninhibited to let our imaginations run wild (as well as our endless energy) and we had the parents to let us, as they were just to damn tired to control us after months spent apart. 

Our favorite activity of all time: 

Sledding. 

Winter sledding was fun, but not nearly as fun as stair sledding down our grandma and grandpa's old stair case. When we would stairway sled we would line the entire stair case with a fleece, wool, satiny blend blanket to provide good speed (these thin blanket blends work the best. If they are the kind that can repel water and are most likely flammable, you know they are going to be fast). We then would wrap ourselves into other blankets as tight as we could and down we'd go..................

Wait!!! STop!!! Wait!!!

I forgot the most important rule: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER sled into the door at the bottom. You must stop the blanket sleds before the bottom, because that's when one of the adult males would come and project their authority on the shenanigans taking place. 

It was however, inevitable, that on one fast sled ride, the four of us would sled into the door and with this a large explosion would sound and four very loudly laughing children would rocket out the stairway door.
(This is the closest picture I found that resembles our stairway sledding).

We have a bond, the four of us. 

We have a bond that won't ever be broken. 

Little Sled Hill (2016)

Acrylic on canvas panel 8x8

Sledding will do that to kids, bond them for life. The excitement, the danger, the thrill.....

The joy of the wild rambunctious ride. Fast Sleds, Smiles Wide, Laughter Loud. 

Forever.  

-Cheree 

I told this story at my cousin's service. It is my most favorite time in all of my childhood. It's how I remember him.