New Daily Painting - ACEO

"Heart Flower" - (Sketch)
2.5" x 3.5"
Oil on gessoed board

Does anyone ever really catch up? Being behind just seems like a constant in my life. I have not painted since last Wednesday or Thursday and it makes me feel - well - icky, restless, antsy. I guess I NEED to paint. I did this little ACEO sized painting as a sketch for the Joyful Project - trying to work through some stuff. I actually did it early last week, before the abstract - It will probably go up on "FeeBay" when I get around to it. Oh look! - the sun is out, I have potatoes I want to plant - I have never grown potatoes, so maybe I can get out there and pot them up today. It has been cold and rainy here for days and days and days, and I feel like I have a "gloomy day hang-over" from it - I need a kick start - No painting for me today - again. It is after 1PM - I am still in my robe - and by the time I get myself moving it will be time to get ready to go to dinner for my birthday.

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www.NathalieDavis.com
NathalieSDavis.blogspot.com

New Painting a Day and a bug and...

Window Watcher
5" x 5"
Oil on hardboard

Here is today's offering. This is for Karin Jurick's Different Strokes from Different Strokes challenge - and let me tell ya - for me it IS a challenge. I have never been one for architecture and landscapes - not that I don't want to be, I do. I'd love to be a landscape painter but I just don't seem to lean that way and when I do it is very uncomfortable. However, not being one to back away from very many challenges - here I am trying my hand at it. It seems funny to me that I can navigate a face or figure just fine - but give me a building and I can't keep track of which window, wall, or post I am working on or where I am in the painting- it totally confuses me - thus these tiny paintings take FOREVER! And then there is this...


This is a terrible photo - I know. But I took a lunch break and went out to check on my veggies and look what I saw! I ran back in the house for my camera and ruler - as I thought it was at LEAST a foot long - but alas it was only 3" - which still seems quite large for January! It was a bit of challenge to hold the ruler and the camera and lean way over to reach the fence and try to focus. As it happened I slipped and touch the grasshopper which jumped and took off like a small bird, making me and the dog jump - who immediately saw an opportunity to catch a "toy" and tore off after it. Bug and dog on a life or death chase through the garden. I think the bug lives on, the dog absolutely would not come in when I called and I had to catch her mid-stalk and carry her in, her grunting and grumbling the whole time. Grasshoppers in January? That is just weird for a girl raised in NW Ohio.

And my busy, busy brain runs on - I haven't even gotten to what I wanted to talk about - transitions and seasons and the things I have figured out and decided from going to the L A Art Show. i also have a disturbing but creative video I want to share with you too. Later I guess....tomorrow is another day. We will see-


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NathalieSDavis.blogspot.com
www.NSDavisArt.com

No Painting a Day and Look at This!

Yep- you read that right. No "Painting a Day" for me til - well, I hope next week. You might not get a blog email from me for a few days. I have decided to continue to clean, plan and organize and do a few things right this year. Getting a new web site is a top priority for me right now. I have been with Freeservers.com for a couple of years and they were fine for a while - until I needed some help and they turned into the rudest, most insulting and non-helpful people ever. I canceled my account and I see they have put advertising on my web site - even though I am paid through February NOT to have ads on it. They are resellers of an outfit from Australia and darned if those Aussies weren't just as rude and bad, I don't know how much $$ I spent on hold with Australia, until I gave in and hung up, which is what I think they wanted me to do anyway - Creeps - it's not worth any more of my time or effort - I just need to change it. SO to all of those people that I have recommended Freeservers.com too in the past - I am sorry, I take it back.

Resolving this and getting a new website is top priority right now - and I have been working on it the past few days - I bought web designing software and am trying to learn - really fast. SO let me see, I think I will list stuff:

1. New Website - actually 2, one a professional portfolio, and one a store for my Daily Paintings
2. Get my accounting and taxes in order
3. Clean up and organize my computer files - get my photos sorted and organized - right now they are all over the place, on disks and thumb drives and on 3 hard drives - ugh! How did this happen?
4. Start acting more like a serious business person and stop playing flighty, flaky eccentric artist -

*OK - no one ever gets everything on their list done now do they?? and actually I'm NOT playing LOL. Oh and ---

5. Get the big portrait done ASAP
6. Put my professional portfolio together and start looking for gallery representation

Yikes - now it's all out there, and now I feel really committed.

Okay - now look at these pictures!! A pea flower! I am going to have at least 1 pea pod to eat! Hooray! (as long as the birds or pests don't get it first) I guess it pays to go outside during the day : ) Actually it is just beautiful out there today. I noticed the fountain wasn't running. I looked out and saw that the bottom tier was completely empty - even though I just filled it the other night. Get that Rick? Another leak to fix. So I went out to fill it and lo and behold I saw this pretty little flower on my pea vine, and another bud starting too. They are on the vine that looks like it might not make it - it figures, so we will see. I may try to get a few minutes in to plant a few more things - this weekend is supposed to be warm and gorgeous too. Good, maybe my feet will finally warm up -
.

And will ya just look at that sky? Beautiful. Since I live in a hole and feel like I am always looking up - I thought this view would be particularly appropriate. LOL








"See ya" in a couple of days

Visit me here:
NathalieSDavis.blogspot.com
www.NSDavisArt.com - uh, well not here, not right now - but soon

Garden Update -good news and bad

I am taking these photos around 4:30 PM and it is already so dark that I have to use my flash - and I can't even see well enough out here to really focus and frame these pictures. That's because it's winter and we live in a "hole" - some might call it a valley, or down south they might call it a "holler" - but really it's a hole, and it gets dark down in here very early. It's been about a week since I planted my little vegetable patches. The weather hasn't been so terrific and I haven't been too disciplined this week. As you can see the transplanted peas seem to be doing okay - not growing a lot but they remain alive and mostly healthy, and I can just start to see some of the seeds sprouting. I have harvested some of the lettuce and it is certainly not regrowing as it does during warmer months. I guess that is reasonable. Also, this little patch gets way less sun that I thought. The sun is so low, it is almost completely shaded by the bar-b-que island.

And then there is the spinach pot - hmmmmm, something is missing here -- like the spinach plants! And here is the good and bad news. The good news is that Rick has seen bunny rabbits in the neighborhood on his early morning walks. That means that the coyotes have moved far enough away that some small creatures - besides snails and rats - are now living around here. The bad news is there are bunny rabbits in the neighborhood - and they are eating my spinach! I thought because these are in pots they would be relatively safe from the snails for a while - never thought about rabbits or anything eating them. Today they got wrapped up in bird netting to protect them.



This week my gardening goal is to get some spinach and lettuce seed planted and start a bucket of potatoes. That's my goal anyway - Christmas is coming fast and I still have to make all my annual ornaments, ship and mail stuff, finish shopping and wrapping and haven't even gotten cards yet, and blah blah blah - so we will see what actually gets done.

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NathalieSDavis.blogspot.com
www.NSDavisArt.com

Another digital version

Here is today's painting offering, digital again. This time I worked in watercolor and chalk. And once again it is a very dark painting - not where I want to go but can't seem to get away from dark, dark, dark. Today was not a great day - I feel kind of cruddy, and spent some time cleaning house. I also planted some sugar snap peas and broccoli in the back yard. I still have to resolve all of my online issues, but tomorrow I paint - with real paint.

Well, darn - I just looked again at this portrait - and I do not like the forehead area - I guess I may have to go back in and rework it a bit - or not. I should spend my time trying to go for a light version again.


OK - so I thought I was done - but I couldn't go to bed with that dark painting on my mind - sooo, here is this one. Lighter, pinker, differenter. :) Yes - it is from the same sketch - I just took some liberties, and sort of got away from the original a bit more. I did this one mostly in oil pastel - digital of course.

Visit me here:
NathalieSDavis.blogspot.com
www.NSDavisArt.com