Saturday, November 29, 2008

Dog at Work


Cassie has been hard at work at the east window again. The deer seem to be out there all the time now - including late last night, when I was noisily trying to shoo them away from the fence before letting Cassie out. Evidently they are too accustomed to me to be afraid - the biggest one came closer to the fence to check me out! Thier eyes are so big that the reflection off my flashlight beam looks like headlights out there. Finally they moseyed on out of range and Wild Dog could come out and roar for a while. This is the same dog that sent me further into bankruptcy Thanksgiving night when we made another visit to the Emergency Clinic (her tummy aches usually come on holidays). At this point she feels much better than I do!

Finally, I think I've figured out how to place the pictures! A real break-through for this technodoofus. Anyway, this is version two of the previous work, from the right corner of the window. It looks too dark at the moment, but I'm experimenting with the colors. Fun!


Friday, November 21, 2008

Hot Off the Window!


I've been busy getting ready for an art sale with a friend, and just this morning took a closer look at what Cassie's been doing on the east window. There have been deer out there for several days, with the usual ferocious reaction from my woolly partner; unfortunately she took such a flying leap into the blue chair that it slid almost into the window (inspite of rubber grips on the legs!) so there hasn't been a lot of "nose art" on it. She finds it hard to work well in such close proximity to the pane (gives her a pain). Yesterday I moved the chair back into position, and found her latest effort this morning. Looks like I'm going to need to just glue the chair in place and be done with it.

I see a lot of possibilities in this image; the one above is the first version, which may look totally different to you. My monitor is badly in need of calibration; actually printing the image is now necessary to see what I have, and boy does that get expensive. It reminds me of a young friend who crashed his bicycle and threw the steering out of whack. He had to turn the handlebars to the left to go straight. That's about how it is with me and the colors at this point. Sigh.








Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Close Encounter


OK - we're back to "duckies and bunnies", just for fun. This little giggle was back in the files and I found it while assembling a "PiCassieO" catalogue. I remember wondering how on earth Cassie made the marks in the upper left. They stood alone for a while, and then she added some more swipes and suddenly I was seeing a weird little UFO and a chipmunk, checking each other out!

While I'm thinking about it, Cassie and I send thanks to our friend Moira at "Dog Art Today" for the great article about our art! If you want to take a look, the address is: http://dogarttoday.com/ . The entry is for November 10. Any dog lover will enjoy Moira's site!

Reminder: "PiCassieO" prints will increase in price after December 31. Contact me at beth@bethstafford.com to order now!

And don't forget our store - lots of colorful, joyous art on gifts for everyone, at http://www.cafepress.com/airedale_art .

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Chimera

As soon as this one took shape on the screen, it reminded me of a Chinese New Year dragon or some other mythic monster, writhing and spewing fire. It's been in the file and mostly forgotten until yesterday, when I watched a rerun of "NCIS" which had the Gibbs team on a spooky ship called Chimera. I remembered the "dragon" and decided to give it a name, so here it is in it's present form (subject to change when I have time to play with it).

Cassie and I had a game of tag with one of the does and her twins yesterday - what a hullabaloo! The babies ran off into the woods, but Mom decided to have a leisurely snack, oblivious to my baying, screaming dog. I had a real workout holding onto her, but finally got Cassie pointing back toward home. Unfortunately she kept looking back, and then the babies decided to come out and play in the road. I got dragged to the end of the road while the deer finally went into the woods; just as I thought the situation was under control, there they were again. No fear at all. It took about 20 minutes to get Cassie calmed down a little, at least enough to get her back on course in the other direction. We walked up to the paved road, a little reluctantly on Cassie's part; when we turned back her pace picked up - she was ready for another go at those critters! By then it was getting too dark to see well, and I got spooked by another "chimera" : just a glimpse of an unidentified something running by at the curve. That was enough for me; I told Cassie, "We're OUTA here!" I think she understands that phrase from some of our previous adventures, so we made it home PDQ. An unsuspecting friend is coming over to walk with us in a few minutes - she doesn't know yet that she's the designated deer shooer! Here's hoping for a peaceful walk (and no more chimeras!).

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Celebrating!


The Dance is still a work-in-progress, but it seemed appropriate for my mood. With great joy I congratulate Barack Obama on his victory last night! Wow - at last I backed a winner!


Now, about that puppy he's getting the kids: Cassie and I think it should be an Airedale. Enough said.