Spring is my favorite season! And a sure sign that spring here is the noise.. good noise! In addition to the birds, the spring peepers are out.. and last week the toads started singing.. trilling, if that's a word..... they were SO loud and EVERYWHERE underfoot. They were in full mating season and they didn't care who knew it.. I went down to the dock to snap a couple of photos and found this poor girl... I'm not sure if she was happy about mating season or not... but right after I took this picture some male toad hopped on her back and off they went... Who knows.. maybe this IS her happy face!! :)

36" x 60"

Thank you so much to the fellow artists, Chelsie Brady, Angela Elledge, Edward Burton, and Joanne Licsko who have been kind enough to tag me with blog awards! I am so blessed by the friends I have found on the artist blogging community. What a gift to not only experience so much creativity, but to gain so many friends along the way!

As part of this award I am to list 7 things I love and tag 7 other artists for this award.


1. I really love my family! They are always a source of joy, comfort, companionship, amazement and often entertainment!! :)
2. I love to paint.. I have always love to create, but have only recently found an unending passion and borderline addiction to oil paint!
3. I love to read these things and find out more about the people I care about, but am loathe to actually do it myself..
4. I love junk... the old, weathered stuff that most people would walk past, or, gasp!, throw away! 5. I love living in the country.. we have an abundance of wildlife and beauty in our yard and for me it's like being close to God out here...
6. I love going to New York to visit my daughter.... and I love when she comes home even more..
7. I love seeing other peoples art and ideas on their blogs! I find myself constantly amazed by how many talented, gifted artists there are and am always inspired to do better!

The artists I'd like to share do a group challenge amongst themselves and I am always so anxious to see what they do!!
1. Marie Fox
2. Silvina Day
3. Diana Moses Botkin
4. Michael Naples
5. Mike Beeman
6. Robin Cheers
7. Vicki Ross

Every morning I drive my youngest son, Ty, to school. He is like me, in that he is not a morning person... understatement!!... so he rarely has time to eat breakfast before we have to be out the door. So most every morning he eats his cereal on the way, and I am driving home after I drop him off with something like this in my lap, trying not to spill his leftover milk in the car. The upside is that I sometimes take a photo before I put it in the dishwasher and paint it! This painting is 48" x 60".

"Breakfast Ball"

This is my painting for the different strokes challenge... the challenge this time was this beautiful statue of Companion of Diana.... I didn't have any canvases or boards this shape, so i gessoed some watercolor paper and painted on that.. It was very challenging!! The paint moved very differently from canvas or board... and seemed to absorb in... I'd like to experiment with more sometime... If anyone has helpful hints on how to prime/paint on paper I'd love to hear them!!

At the last minute I decided to enter the two coke paintings that I had done together, as a diptych, into the Mansfield Art Center May show. I thought they were stronger together vs. individually. It turns out they were judged in individually anyway... but they said they would hang them together. One never knows .... :) but I was very happy to get in!!!

So.. this is what they should look like...

Every time I walk by my oldest daughters bedroom, these shoes catch my eye. They have been sitting at the end of her bed since she was last home for Christmas, and today was the day ... I needed to paint them.

"Cats' Chucks" 16"x20"

Wow.. It's been too long since I last posted... and so much has happened! I was accepted into a gallery in the Short North area of Columbus OH. My work will now be shown at the Kathryn Gallery and I am thrilled! It is a beautiful space and the people there are wonderful! AND they called to say they have already sold a piece!! Yay!

I also had a painting accepted into the All Ohio show at the Ohio State -Mansfield campus that won the students choice award. Thank you to all who voted for my painting!! :)

It was spring break this week, so my friend Carmone, who is the high school art teacher, and I did some collograph printing... very fun! I will post the prints later this week.

But the very best part of the week was a quick trip to NYC to visit our oldest daughter! She is attending the School of Visual Arts and it's always wonderful to visit!

So now... it's back to work!! I finished this painting that I had started before I left for NY... I plan to enter it in the Mansfield Art Center May show... I'll let you know if it gets in..

48" x 48"
Coke2