School has begun and a new fall painting

Today my little man had his second day of school. He is in the first grade and I can hardly believe it. You may be wondering why I'm showing the 2nd day of school picture instead of the first. Well, that would be because the bus came ten minutes earlier than he said he would yesterday! He was honking his horn as Asher was getting his shoes on. So here is the first day... running late.

I didn't even get a "bye Mom" or a kiss or nothing. He didn't either. All he got was "run, baby run!" haha

So today we had a re-do. Here it is...

there goes my baby

He was up in a flash today. Good thing, because the bus came 5 minutes earlier than yesterday! But he loved riding the bus, although I can't imagine it will last. He is on it for a long time, about 45 minutes I'd say. Then he has to wait around in the school for it to begin. I'll probably soon be taking him, once the newness has wore off and he wants to sleep later.

In other news, I have managed to paint a fall painting. I haven't named it yet, but am thinking of Dreaming Amber... not sure. What do you think?

I also want to mention to my Blogger friends that I am soon leaving Blogger and moving over to Wordpress in order to get all my art business related stuff together on one site, you know things like my website, shop, etc.. I sincerely hope you will come over there and continue stay in touch with me. I'll have a link to get there, more about it later. It's a work in progress at the moment, but it's coming soon. I've even got a newsletter in the works. Busy times.

Dreaming Amber?

Well with all this new found time, I'm off to do more creating! Have a happy day...

iCAD #1

JaimeHaney2012iCAD1, a photo by Jaime Haney on Flickr.

Here's my first icad (index card a day) and I am sliding and screeching in on two wheels but I made it.

Finished pup has new owner

My painting of "Can I go home with you?" has a new owner. I didn't get to meet her, but I tried. She left before the winners were called. I hope she likes it, well obviously she likes it or she wouldn't have bid on it ;)  But what I mean is, I hope she is happy she won and likes it even more now that he is hers. 


I had a few people tell me they wanted to buy it as I was making my way up to add it to the items to be auctioned off, but of course it was for the benefit. But I did list it in my FineArtAmerica.com shop, here. Where are all these people when I am at an art show? haha Maybe I've hit a soft spot here with the pup. He is a cutie, and who doesn't love dogs?


My face painting gig went well. Lots of happy kids, which makes me happy. I got lots of cute pictures of their smiling painted faces (and an arm!). Here's a couple that I think turned out great...

New Acrylic Painting + Kitty update

I've been so busy outside I haven't done much painting lately, but last night I went into the studio and had a pretty productive couple hours. I've got a face painting gig on Saturday and they ask for a small donation for a silent auction and I've decided to donate this little guy. The art and craft show is to benefit a local no kill shelter in my county called Posey County Pound Puppies. So I thought a cute little dog would be perfect for the auction and I actually planned on painting this just for that purpose. I hope he gets a good home :) I think I'll name him "Can I go home with you?".  He's not quite finished, I need to add just a few little things. 


My poor kitty Glove is hanging in there. She started looking quite a bit better then all of a sudden I noticed she stopped drinking and eating again and I thought oh no, this is it. But Wednesday morning I got up and was petting her like normal and noticed this icky smell. I got to looking and she had an oozing wound on her little back end. I called the vet right away to get in because I knew in her current state she might not be able to heal very well. So I took her in and she had an abcess and they cleaned her up and clipped it away and discovered this giant hole! Turns out she had been bitten by a Brown Recluse Spider! I'll show you a picture at the bottom, so beware. Not a close up though.


We have Brown Recluse Spiders everywhere in my house, it's a constant threat for us. I worry about all the time. We have our home sprayed 4 times a year. God forbid my son get bit. But I never thought they would get through an animals fur, but then I remembered she has just had a lot of her fur clipped away due to all the matting. My poor baby! So it's been a couple days of anti-biotics, and I've been pampering her and feeding her with a spoon (she is so spoiled) and she is doing a lot better, Yay! She is eating, and wanting affection and I guess she has used up another one of her nine lives.


She also had some sort of colon clogging problem and the vet had to give her an enema. Ugh, I'm glad they did it and not me... lol. I left her there for an hour, so she wouldn't have a blow out in the cat carrier... haha  She's all unclogged now and he said it's soft food for her now for the rest of her life. No problemo, other than it stinks to high heaven, but she's worth it.


Here she is, hole and all the first day. It looks like it is healing pretty good now.

brown recluse spider bite at base of tail

IF you are a little morbid, like me and want to see a close go here.

Finished Oil Painting of Magnolias and sugar bowl

Hi everyone! I'm joining in PPF again :) Glad you could make it here. Today I'm sharing my first oil painting that I think is finished. I think. I fixed it from the first time I posted it - at least as best as I can now. (See the first jacked up one here) I'm loving the oils so far.

Have you tried oils? Or do you work in them often? I'd love any tips and/or advice you can offer :) Make sure to visit all the Party Goers at Paint Party Friday. Woo Hoo!

Stay safe today all my peeps who are in the large area that is expecting strong storms today with tornadoes (which includes me - YIKES!) Unfortunately, some of my near by areas was hit by the Leap Day tornadoes where people's lives were lost. My prayers are with the people suffering through devastation right now. They are in the storms path again. Harrisburg, Illinois is just 54 miles from me and they were hit hard with a F4 tornado and Newburgh, Indiana which is about 37 miles away got hit with an F1. Thankfully no lives were lost there. I have many friends living there. Keep an eye on the sky.

Have a great weekend.

Pass the wine please

I'm working on a pastel painting at the moment, it's still of course a work in progress. "Roses for the Dead". You may remember seeing the drawing from some post from who knows when. I fall in love with pastels every time I use them. I don't know why I stop and go to other things. Paints for some reason just beckon me with their come hither texture and fabulous colors not to mention I find such delight in just admiring my palette. There's just something so romantic about holding a brush in your hand. Okay, I'm a little crazy.

But what  a fickle medium it is, I have these marvelous paintings in my mind and for some reason the end result gets hacked by either the paints, the brushes or technique. It can't possibly be me, right? haha Do you ever feel like you have no control over what you're doing?

Well I got the girls squished this week, Tuesday to be precise and then just yesterday I got the dreaded letter in the mail saying I have to go back in for "an ultra sound and further evaluation". Great. Just what I need, a week of worry and fret. I can't get back in until next Thursday. Pass the wine bottle please. I think I'll just stay drunk until then.

The chirpy girl on the other end of the phone was all "now this is all routine, it doesn't mean anything" Well if it doesn't mean anything then why the hell do I have to go back?!! I knew that technician was too good to be true. She didn't hurt me at all. She should've flattened those puppies out. At least now the pain would be gone and maybe now I would not be worried.

Ah so maybe I'm got a self portrait here...  just kidding. Other than that, I have tinnitus now in my left ear from probably coughing my head off and I just got back from having my eyes dilated. So I can't see a damn thing. If there's typo's I'm sorry but it's the doctors fault. I was sure I had macular degeneration. So far their just floaters, probably from coughing hard for so long. But I'm supposed to be looking for a black curtain, a sign of a  torn retina. Wonderful.

Let's see, is there anything else I can complain about? Not at this moment. Check back later though ;)

Happy Paint Party Friday! (I'm back!)

P.S. I've a quick question for everyone. Are the words too small and hard to read for you? It seems small to me, but I'd like your opinions.

UPDATE: I have an update on my mammogram that I had to have "further evaluation" on. I got great news yesterday (Thurs. 2/9/12). I had my mammogram redone yesterday and everything is fine. No cancer! I am so relieved. The doctor was pointing at these little lines that crossed over in my x-rays that he was showing me but it all looked the same to me. Good thing that's not my job! Anyway, thanks for all the nice things you all said and well wishes and prayers. I love our support group here in blogland.

New Inkings and paintings

I've been working on a few new pieces the last couple days. They are all on wood. I've got 3 inkings done and one of them painted and finished. This colored one is called "A Girl and Her Bird". It is inked with india ink and them painted with metallic paint mostly. The yellow is plain acrylic. The scanner just cannot capture the sheen to these and it looks so much better in person. So here's a photograph that shows the different metallics a little bit better...

Here's the inking:

This one I call "My Three Suns"

 This one is "Sinister Feline"

When I'm inking, the marks I make are totally random. I do not have anything in mind when I take my brush to the gesso'd wood. I don't sketch anything first. Once I get a few marks on the board, the story starts to come to me and the characters come out from hiding. It is always a surprise when it's finished. After I feel the painting is finished, I add color. I love to let the painting tell me what it wants to be.

There is going to be a local Art Show at my county's library that I'm trying to come up with something unique for. I'm not sure if everyone gets in or it's a juried event. In any case, I'm hoping I can get in. I've got until February 15th to come up with a masterpiece.. haha

Well me and the kid are sick at home again today. We just go from one cold to the next it seems. It's freezing outside and blowing the snow that is falling. I'm so ready for spring.

Later Taters,

New painting of baby barn owl

I haven't been in my studio much the last two weeks because of Christmas break, but I did manage to paint this baby barn owl right before Christmas. I thought it turned out wintery looking, probably the blue background. It is acrylics on wood (Luan).

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While I hate the word cute being used to describe art, this little guy is kinda cute, huh?

It's Paint Party Friday! Take time to visit the other artists and their work if you have a chance. Lots of talent!

Butterfly Housing

I've been working on painting a butterfly box for a Christmas present and I've got it finished except for the clear coats. I used acrylics and of course I had to add a little metallic paint and what perfect place to add that but the only colored butterfly on the whole box. It looks a bit like a hot mess in these photos, I took them at night. But it really does look better in natural light.

close up of metallic butterfly!

I've been sick this week and to add insult to injury, I fell down my very wicked stairs last night. I am so very sore. I couldn't even sleep on my injured side last night.

wicked stairs - see my slippers? that's where I landed.

Luckily, I landed on my very cushioned caboose and didn't break anything, bone-wise. It could have been very ugly. These stairs are wicked I tell you and there is a brick floor at the bottom. I was at the very top and took a step or two down (I had slippers on) and I felt it slide out from under me and down I went . I think I even bounced. I landed where you see the slippers, about half way down. Like I said it could've ended very badly. At least I didn't have an audience. I won't be wearing those slippers again. This is a good reason to try and talk my husband into a main floor studio!

Happy Holidays!

Ahoy me matey

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was wonderful. I had a rather dull one this year. We had plans to eat with Daryl's family but I had been sick and they were 7 and a half hours away, so that fizzled. I had no intention of cooking, so we had to hit the town to see what was open, and not a 2 hour wait. After checking three other restaurants we ended up at Denny's. Woo Hoo. Actually, it was really good but not terribly traditional. I got the turkey dinner, Daryl got a cheeseburger and Asher got chocolate chip pancakes. But we were all happy and we were together so that's all that matters.

On the artfront... I have been busier than a one legged man in a butt kickin' contest! I've got a show this weekend and I'm trying to get some new stuff ready for it and it is coming together rather slow. I've got new ideas but they are not quite coming together, yet.

I've drawn the pirate ship along with other pirate stuff for some boxes I'm making for boy treasure boxes. Or girl, I guess. I mean, I like pirates. Surely some girls do too.. haha

So here it is all painted in. I made the mistake of not using watercolor paper. I used 300 series Strathmore Sketch paper which says it's for watercolor pencils wet or dry, but I got a little ambitious with the water and then added real watercolors on top of it. I tried to iron it with my regular iron which helped a tiny bit, but it still looks pretty warpy. I've seen tricks where they spray the whole sheet of paper on the back with water to straighten it out, but I'm afraid to do that since it's not watercolor paper. Any suggestions?

I'll be 'round to visit all ye skally wags soon.

CMOE Dinosaur is finished!

I just took the final photos of my painted and adorned wooden dinosaur to benefit the Children's Museum of Evansville. I'm quite happy with how it turned out. You can see the project start to finish through this link. Start with the September post at the bottom of the link's page.

This angle shows the metallic paint a little bit. I used metallic paint on almost every inch of it. As you can see, my special touch that I was hiding from everyone was adding what I call glass blobs. These are actually little glass squares and I thought they would be perfect for this dinosaur.

I also adorned his toes with more glass blobs that show the metallic paint from underneath. The pictures just aren't doing the metallic paint justice. I just love the shimmer this guy has and the glass adds a little extra special sparkle.

The mouth is where you insert a quarter, this is after all what they have to collect donations for the museum in several local businesses. There will be a plastic coin collector belly where the giant hole is. I'm not actually sure who will be bidding for these dinosaurs and if they are businesses that will use this as a donation collection, but I kinda hope not. I think it would get nicked up, scratched and broken if it were just out in the public not being protected. I hope this will be viewed as artwork and not a donation box.

So there he is... I've wondered if I should name him since it wasn't asked of me, but since I usually title my work I will. I call him Seymour.

Feed me Seymour!

Thank you friends for your encouraging words and thoughts. It's been a fun project and I'm ready to move on to the next.

Abstract Dinosaur for CMOE still a WIP

I'm coming along with my abstract dinosaur that I'm painting for an auction to benefit CMOE (Children's Museum of Evansville). I've got several hours in on it so far and I've got quite a few more I think. There was lots of intricate work that has got my neck muscles screaming and my eyes crossing! I've got more shading to do and I'm going to do something a little special to it that you're gonna have to wait to find out what it is ;)

All the paint except the black is metallic. The pictures aren't picking up on that much, but I really like the effect. I'm fairly happy with the way it's looking but you know how it is, things are always just a little different in your head. Well, my head at least.

I know I'm getting off subject here, but did anyone catch that new show on FX called "American Horror Story"? Wow. I'm liking what I've seen so far. It was made just like a movie and kept my eyes glued on the TV! Does anyone else think the gimp was the ghost guy that burned his family or possibly the creepy patient of Ben's? Freaky! I love it! They've picked a great cast, with Jessica Lange playing a great role (as usual) and eye candy Dylan McDermott with semi nude scenes (which doesn't offend me in the least!) since he basically looks like Michelangelo's David. It's not for kids at all, but if you love a good scare, I think this will fit the bill. It comes on every Wednesday evening.

Does anyone have any advice on going from a 2 column to a 3 column? Blogger has changed so much, that the info I've seen seems outdated now. I want to make my own header and possibly background. Any help or links would be appreciated =)

Happy Paint Party Friday gang! Visit all the artists as you can...