Morning Walk with Daisy, 9×6″ pastel on paper. Available $110.
This is a pastel painting of my dog Daisy, walking along a path through the Manistee National Forest. This road in particular is one of our favorites. It winds along the Pere Marquette River for about a mile and goes past a couple of really awesome camping areas. They’re usually full of campers on the weekends, but now that it’s after Labor Day I’ll probably come here more often.
Here’s a video of me working on this piece:
Some detail shots here:
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“Roger Coming at You” 18×12″ pastel on paper by Marie Marfia..
This is a pastel of my dog, Roger. He’s the one that always comes at you for a pat after he’s finished investigating whatever was in the ferns on the side of the road. Daisy goes around you, but Roger comes right at you. He’s a very good boy.
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This is what happens when you walk into the house and the dogs haven’t seen you for two years! Instant happiness, that’s what. Levitating hounds. Whirling doggishness.
Humming right along. I don’t always like what I’m ending up with but it’s okay because I’m learning! I’m excited to try again every day. Onward and upward. That’s the ticket.
Oh yes, I was posting every day about my 100 Acrylics in 100 Days project. Whelp, there have been developments and suffice to say, I’m still doing these, but there may be interruptions from time to time. Please bear with me. I appreciate your patience.
Every time a Pride Festival happens…
…someone gets their wings. I was asked to provide a pair of wings for the Pride Festival coming up here in Ludington, Michigan on June 10 at Rotary Park. So here they are. I painted them on a gessoed tablecloth stretched to about 4’x5′. Hope you can come out and get your picture taken with these lovely rainbow wings. I’ll be there!
I remembered this morning that I had the Anderson Creek Kennels facebook page to use for inspiration and sure enough, there was a sweet pit in today’s pictures. I’ll probably do a bunch of doggy portraits. They’re really perfect for this size.
Calling it finished
Also figured out what to do with the background on this portrait of my brother Joe and his wife Anna. Two of my favorite people in the world. This was a pleasure to complete.
I like to watch people walking along the street in front of my store. Sometimes I hit the jackpot and they leave their big, friendly dogs parked in a truck. Cool!
This painting is on ebay as of 9pm tonight. Bidding starts at 99¢.
Whenever I’m at the studio I am entertained/dismayed/fascinated by the people walking by my window. Today I got lucky because someone left their big handsome bulldog in the truck across the street from me. He was a good boy, didn’t bark at anyone or anything. Just sat there calmly waiting for his ride to come back and take him home. Best doggo ever.
This painting is on ebay as of 9pm tonight. Bidding starts at 99¢.
At least it gets me off the couch in the mornings. Truthfully, if I had my way, I’d spend all day on the couch eating bonbons and flipping through Imgur on my iPad, but the dogs aren’t going to let themselves outside and since our yard isn’t fenced (yet!), I have to go with them.
This involves piling them into the back of my minivan and driving out to the woods. See, I’d walk them around the neighborhood but there are too many potential pitfalls involved with this, i.e. other loose dogs. So my preference is to drive about five miles south on Walhalla Road, turn off onto any one of half a dozen “seasonal roads” and tromp around the Manistee National Forest for an hour.
The dogs get to sniff and dig around, I don’t have to clean up after them (although I’ve unofficially adopted the first two miles of 6890 because, let’s face it, people are pigs), and we all get some fresh air and exercise.
Sometimes we see deer, sometimes a dead snake, and once Roger thought for sure a cat walked out of the ferns not six feet in front of him, but it was a skunk and he was not allowed to get any closer to it although he fussed a bit about my decision. I held firm, though. You should see the divots my feet left in the road even two weeks later. I held on for dear life, I’m telling you.
So how does this make me a better painter?
It provides subject matter, of course. I won’t tell you how many pictures of my dogs are on my Google drive right now, but it’s a lot. Like thousands. Sometimes I keep my finger on the camera button, snapping pic after pic of Roger digging in the dirt just to get that one glorious moment when he leaps back into the road to try to catch up to whatever he’s smelling off in the distance.
It lets me paint wonderful scenes of my dogs enjoying the great outdoors. I used to think I went out to the woods for me, but really, I go out there for them. They’re the ones that are having the great time.
I guess I’m jealous. Here I am, covered in Deet to keep off the bugs and checking for ticks and bears and swiping at deer flies and those two are just loping along with their tongues hanging out, having a grand old time. Every. Stinking. Morning.
I love it. I love them. I’m a lucky girl to have these lucky dogs.
You can find more of my daily paintings on ebay including the ones pictures here. They start at 99¢ and the auctions last for 7 days. Good luck and happy bidding!
I saw this young man with his two sweet dogs walking out in front of my shop and asked him if I could have a picture. He said they were two rescues. Cute pups. One of them needs a hernia operation and he was visiting the pawn shop nearby, presumably to come up with the money for her? I couldn’t resist their faces and they seem so calm and happy with him. I called it Three Gingers because the little dogs each have ginger colored patches that matched their master’s hair.
