Pleinair Painting

It seems such a shame these days that many artist friends of mine are not working full time in their field. The ability to create visual worlds is a gift, and a relatively rare one I am discovering. But, I have always taken it for granted. And as a result, it's taken me many years to place the appropriate value on my work. Sometimes I'm good at valuing it, other times, not so good. I think it's difficult to put value on one's work until someone else puts a price to it for you. But one thing is universally true for artists, and that is that we live in our own world…the world of our making. A painting student of mine said she had recently watched a video of Bob Ross yesterday. I'm taking it for granted that everyone who has ever painted or aspired to paint knows who Bob Ross is…if not google him. My student commented on his dialog while he painted, how soft and gentle he was. I have watched Bob paint at least 100 times in my life, and I never grow tired of him. He i...

It's true, I expect a lot from my dogs. I expect them to travel with me without complaint or concern for where we are going or what we are doing. I expect them to tell me when they need to go out, but to know that I often won't be able to take them out immediately (like when I'm on the interstate). I expect them to be off schedule, as I often am, and except eating dinner late, going to bed late and often in strange places. In fact, about the only thing a dog with me can count on is that I'll always be there with them and for them. That's always worked in the past with the three dogs that have chosen to spend their lives with me. So, imagine my surprise when my most recent dog started biting me for no reason at all. The attacks came at odd times. When I asked him to do something he didn't want to do, during playtime, before he went out, after he went out and during his time out. The worst times were during these last three. He would often fly at me at high speeds...