Recently a friend and I visited the Botanical Gardens gift shop and found the cutest Easter little cuties. This little egg caught the attention of both of us. He has these cute wire feet and a feather sticking out of his head. I have him on my desk in my studio and for some reason, he makes me smile.
I am still painting rabbits. This one is more abstract and his name is Henry. Peter Rabbit was an animal character in various books written by Beatrix Potter. Reading about Peter I was reminded that all of the rabbits in the stories wore clothes. At one point, Peter's cousin, Benjamin, took Peter bag to Mr. McGregor's garden to retrieve the clothes Peter lost. They were gathering onions to give to Peter's mother when they were captured by Mr McGregor's cat. Benjamin's father rescues them but they got in trouble for going into the garden. I loved reading these stories to my kids, especially my oldest son who listened intently each time and even had his own make believe friend who traveled with him into Mr. McGregor's garden. I named this distant cousin of Peter's Henry.....Henry does not wear human clothes.
My good friend Deb and I met for lunch and a trip to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens with a visit to the gift shop. The shop has the most unusual gifts and little treasures. I found the cutest little rabbit, duck and other unknown little creature. I had fun painting the little rabbit today and named him in honor of another friend who calls her husband, "Honey Bunny" on occasion.
I love, love, love trying new things. I am very blessed to have several commissions to complete but I have been following some impressionistic, intuitive artists lately and I am intrigued with placing paint on the canvas and moving it about and pushing and pulling it until an image appears. It is so much fun and creates a "looseness" and a "freedom" that is seldom experienced when you, as the artist have a specific plan in mind. This is a little canvas - 5" x 7" and I have it on my desk and I feel like this little Mermaid is saying, "Hey, thanks. I just wanted to be painted."
This is a close up of a cow that I painted earlier from a photo reference provided by Bonnie Sitter. I love the look on this cow's face. There are two other cows on each side of her but she seems to be looking into the camera lens. I read a little about cows and I probably just sealed my fate as a vegetarian. I found that in laboratory studies, young cattle are able to memorize the locations of several food sources and retain this memory for at least 8 hours. Fifteen-month-old heifers learn more quickly than adult cows which have had either one or two calvings, but their longer-term memory is less stable. (I can identify with the the calves that do not learn as well after having children (calvings).) Then I read that they are also able to discriminate between familiar individuals and among humans!!! I will have green beans for dinner.
