"Goats Who Stare at Men"

Spent a lovely and productive morning in the studio yesterday and put the finishing touches on my latest painting, "Goats Who Stare at Men"... I've been meaning to paint this old guy for a long time and the painting flowed effortlessy from start to finish (I LOVE when they do that). I feel as if I accomplished my goal of trying to capture Basil"s unique personality and the smile never left my face the whole time I was painting.  I wished they all were like that!

I'm Back........Finally!!!

Wow, it's been so long since I have blogged that I'm not quite sure where to begin.  Apologising for my cyber disappearance would be a good place to start. I took what was supposed to be about a month off and seemed to develop a ridiculous case of Blogger's Block...sigh...and the more time that elapsed the harder it was for me to actually break through the block to share my paintings and processes.  Go figure.  It's great to be back!  And I look forward to catching up with all of you....

I have been busy painting and showing during my computer walkabout, I was happy to be accepted into two Nationally juried competitions this past summer.  Also recently, I was picked for a solo exhibition at the Liriodendren Mansion in Belair, Md. March of 2010.  This was a huge coup for me both artisticly and personally, because it was a goal I hoped to obtain when I wrote up my bussiness plan last year.  But it was under my long term goals...It feels really good to be checking off things that I've accomplished a few years in advance :)

I thought I would share a few of my photo's that I took yesterday morning as I was feeding the menagerie that inspire me on a daily basis.  I've also included a painting I started yesterday of my oldest goat, a whether named Basil.  He is 11 years old and the Elder Statesman of our farm.  He's a genuine sweetheart, and refuses to eat his hay until he gets a kiss on the nose and a two minute back scratch...I guess he's got me trained pretty well eh?

So glad to be Back!

Yours in Paint,

Jude