A Dalmation and a Flat Coated Retriever at the Coast

OK. I'm up for a challenge! This commission was for a Secret Santa gift exchange for someone's colleague at work. All they could get was a blurry picture of the dogs on the grass.
I ended up putting them on a beach in Texas surrounded by beach morning glories. It wasn't quite finished before I showed it to a family member of mine who suggested black dogs don't have white spots. Good suggestion. I filled in the spots and added more shadows around the dalmation. I hope they liked it!

Sam

Here's another commission I had to paint a watercolor in memory of a beloved pet, "Sam", a very noble looking St Bernard.

Moxie

I've added a fun, new dimension to the business, painting pet portraits! I love it! Here's a watercolor painting I was commissioned to do of Moxie, a beautiful little Siamese cat. I also put Moxie on a mug. I wish I could have been there when they opened their Christmas presents!

La Selva Beach, Aptos, California

This Christmas I had lots of commissions for paintings from family, friends, and new friends. Here's one I painted for someone of the condos on La Selva Beach in Aptos, Ca. I took the photos a day after the rain fell so all of the colors were crisp and vivid. If you are wondering what kind of birds are in the sky, they're the local pelicans.

Holiday Show at the Sunnyvale Community Center

I set up for 2 hours today at the show coming up on Thursday and Friday this week! This is the kind of show I like where I can do the publicity for it ahead of time so I won't have to stay there all day for 2 days.

Show, Shows, and More Shows

I had a successful show at the San Jose Women's Club last Saturday. In a silent auction I won a great little china cabinet to use in my art studio. It was worth going just for that. I also met a very talented artisan who makes jewelry, gourds, candles, and other things. I'll post some of her great products. Her company is A Beading You'll Never Forget. Look her up and say hi for me.
Now I'm preparing for another show in Sunnyvale on Thursday and Friday at the Senior Center.
What to make, what to make.....

K2 at Christmas Time

Today I'll show you one of my favorite kittys, K2 (or Houdini since he's such an escape artist, but his name was K2 when I painted him, so that's still the name of the painting.) I guess you could call him my nephew from the cat family. He's such a beautiful cat and very soft as you can tell. I thought he looked very cozy and Christmasy sitting on a chair with a poinsettia pillow behind him. (This painting looks fantastic on a cup and on cards.)

My First Day of my Renewed Blog!!!!

Hello!

This is my second attempt at a blog. I think I can really keep it up this time. Well, I hope I can! My first blog was deleted from memory since I only updated it one time, two years ago.

The reason I'm going to re-start this blog is that I have a lot of artwork to show whoever would like to see it. It's also for sale. Maybe one of the reasons I didn't update my first blog was because I was so busy painting and making things that I had no time. I also have a website (www.celioarts.com) and thought that would be sufficient, but I don't know how to update it easily. My younger son who did the updating for me moved away to college. My older son said I should go back to keeping a blog spot. So here we are..... I also like to write.

So whoever reads this, you're in for a very pleasant surprise in the future bloggings to come. In the last two years I've painted over 50 paintings in addition to what I painted before (about 33 paintings.) I'll show you at least one painting on every new blog. I've added my latest watercolor pen and ink painting to this blog. I call it, Butterflies- God's Wisps of Joy. I also make greeting cards, cups, bookmarks, magnets, prints..... and more. (I'll try to add a price list and maybe Paypal later too.

Till next time,
Keep finding joy in all the little things around you,

Charlene