This painting was a challenge. It was a commission, a continuation of a story I began in an earlier piece about the tomato plant that fairly took over my front yard. Maybe you remember it with the lovely girl in her front garden picking a basket full of ripe tomatoes. The assignment here was to place our tomato girl in her garden again but this time at night. I don’t have a lot of experience painting night scenes. This is where I landed.

It’s a mild full moon night, the lady of the house sits on the bench in her side yard holding her squirming cat. There’s no doubt about her green thumb. The wild tomato plant in the front yard was no fluke. In fact you can see it at the edges of the scene trying to find a place here too. The air is perfumed with roses, peonies, dogwoods, tulips, trout lilies, daffodils, and those little seedy things. There’s scarcely room for anything else, the gardening style here being one of wild abandon. The little stream adds soft background music while birds and animals rest. The house is welcoming, warm light from the open window.

This is only the third commission I’ve taken. The first one was a success all around, the second was a nightmare which made me hesitant to take this “Midnight” assignment. But the patron was happy to review a sketch and then let me run with it. I was grateful for that and we are both pleased with the result.

“Midnight”
24 x 18 inches
Acrylic on claybord

Prints of this image are available in my Etsy shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1732756934/midnight-garden-art-print-of-original?click_key=88a21fe8b96e6e20b8bd45200102a90f8b7ee42c%3A1732756934&click_sum=70cc18d9&ref=shop_home_active_1

Thanks, as always, for taking a look!

I was thrilled to be asked to do another pet portrait. You may remember that I had done a watercolor of "Two Dogs On The Hudson." Here I have painted two Ragdoll cats. I was asked if I could get a wild turkey, a chipmunk, and part of the house into the picture too. This is the result. I've titled the painting "What Happened In The Garden" because I thought there was maybe a little story here...

Paris and Blanket Marie, the two lovely Ragdolls, are surprised and slightly confused by all of the activity in their garden. It's usually such a peaceful place with the sweet grass and bright flowers and the comfort of the conservatory a few steps away. It's a perfect place for a little nap, for instance. But who invited all of these birds? They're so noisy and they have certainly made themselves at home. Blanket Marie thinks the chipmunk is to blame. Sure, he looks innocent off there in the corner nibbling a nut, his back to the hullabaloo, but she knows he likes to start things. Paris, however, has a funny feeling about that show-off turkey.

"What Happened In The Garden" is done in watercolor and gouache and measures 11" x 11". I hope to do more pet portraits and should probably start planning one of my own dog, Maggie. I must give some thought to this.