somehow mondays always turn out to be grand art days ... something about starting fresh off a weekend ....

let's start this blog post with a recap of the weekend .... dessert! .... with two family birthdays in january, it is really all about the desserts ... and how many we can have in as short as possible a time span .... did i tell you that on january 1, in utah, for dinner that first day of the year, my family had ice cream? for dinner ... really ... ice cream .... and it's been one long sugar roller coaster since then ... lots of cakes and cookies and brownies and sundaes and more cookies ... we're cookie people .... so ... before the  art pics from my day, here's my best dessert pic... a banana split:

and on to less caloric pursuits .... the first thing i did in my studio this morning (at 8am!! she says pridefully) was put another layer on each of these four canvases .... here they are flung aside and drying ....
while those 4 18inch squares dried, i worked on this long and lovely canvas ... 10 by 30 inches :
with my extra paint today, rather than just cleaning off brushes and palettes, i painted papers to use on future pieces .... i set the wet paint papers on cut open trash bags ...  if i'm just doing a bit of paper painting, i just put them on the floor under my table ... but i did a bunch today .... 
i was happy with how this long blue canvas turned out .... so i decided to take a picture of all the blues i used on it .... so i have photo documentation at least, should i decide to do something similar again .... plus i just like how that pile of blue looks ...
then ... another long canvas .. with a swath of florida across it .... 
here it is photo cropped ... prior to glazing it a blue ... sky blue actually .... with the intent to actually do something landscapey on it .... 
and here are the two long canvases i've just shown you, as well as two more ... i did all of them this morning .... papered them and glazed them .... tomorrow i'll get some lettering on them, i hope ....
see that long one up there on the right? .... it is 12 inches by 48 inches ... and i used to use it as my DOG gate .... i had it propped across the doorway during the potty training days ... 12 inches tall and it towered over dixie the wonder dog ..... she could get over it now, but only with ingenuity and her grand jumping skills .. she's not even 12 inches tall .... anyway ... the dog door is now going to go back to its original purpose in life and be a painting .... dixie won't mind ... 

then ... my finished piece today .... the red canvas that i posted about last week .... jeannie, i finished it since you were so excited about it!  hope you like it .... or, at least, thanks for paying attention! 
so, 18 inches square .... without a name yet ... i'll work on that .... i'll put it up on flickr in a few minutes and always get a name going for that .... 

so, a recap .... i got to my house and my studio at 8 ... right after dropping my kids off at school .... and my studio is the only sane place in my whole house (we're getting renovated, in case you aren't quite caught up with the life o' me,e) .... the demolition appears to be done ... the kitchen is ripped out down to studs ... stairs have been built to the attic .... a giant hole-that-will-be-a-dormer appeared in the roof .... crazy stuff .... so ... my work pace was different ... i couldn't dawdle and go up to the kitchen for a snack or lunch ... i couldn't go lounge on the couch to check my email ....i could have checked my email, but i didn't! i was trying to be disciplined and productive .. that's a first! .... i drank the soda i'd brought with me, but i didn't even eat the banana i had brought .... so, at a bit before noon, i cleaned up ... really! ... i tidied my space and prepared for tomorrow's artsy endeavors .... i then went home to my brown rental home and my lovely dog .... the dog was confused about such a big walk in the middle of the day, but that might be our new normal....art first, exercise later .... i'm still looking for the routine that's going to work for me these six months .... and lastly, just like in the real house, i put the new art over the fireplace so i could study it ..... so far it is standing up to scrutiny .... 

can you see that my christmas cactus is blooming? that's two christmases in a row .... not bad! .... my rental house mantle is indicative of the rest of the house ... more than a titch dated! 

tomorrow, i plan to be painting by 8 o'clock am ... that's good right? and in tomorrow's post, i'll tell you why i feel like i need to paint 30 paintings in the next two weeks ...i'm not going to .. but i feel like i should .... 

how'd your week start out?