I was very excited to paint Tye! I love King Charles Spaniels, so this was a treat. Their patches of burnt orange against bright white fur is perfect for my style of painting. Tye is my friend's-friend's dog. This was a interesting challenge because the photos were taken by an assistant so as to keep the painting a surprise for Tye's Mama. The stealthiness definitely deserves praise, however, it made it hard to get close ups of Tye's eyes and such. I just zoomed into the pictures I was given and blurred my eyes... I love how the painting came out and I hope Tye's Mama enjoys it too!

Great news! Wyland Lake Tahoe will be representing my artwork:) For Lake Tahoe, I will be featuring Tahoe birds, trees and flowers. To start, Tahoe is full of Mountain Chickadees. If you have looked at half of my non-Hawaii artwork, you will see that I really love chickadees of all kinds! What separates Mountain Chickadees from others is their Groucho Marx eyebrows. They are little bundles of happiness, full of energy and super friendly. Once again, I painted my chickadee with just a bare branch. In my head I could hear my mom and Mama Kris saying "it needs a flower or leaves"... Of course I previewed my mom on this painting and she said, "it needs some pine needles". I defended my decision, slept on it, then I looked at my cute little birdie and thought, "hmmm he needs some little pine needles"... Yup, thought of it all by myself!

Way back when I first started painting birds, I made "Big Red". He was a bigger guy, this Northern Cardinal is much smaller, so he's "Little Red". They are always so cute when they are little puffballs! I call him Bruce. Initially, I thought I was finished when I realized I hadn't painted his mask. I went back to the painting and added his black eye mask, and who'd a thunk? It's Batman! Bruce is Batman!!

Another Pueo! I can't get enough. They are so cute with those big cheery eyes and rounded body. This color combo is one of my favorites: pink and sea-green. It's so fresh and vibrant! My little Pueo looks like she's bright-eyed, fluffy-tailed and ready to take on the day.

Birdettes are my favorite! This Birdette is a Mountain Bluebird. As their name connotes, Mountain Bluebirds live in higher elevations and within valleys along the Sierra Nevadas and Rocky Mountains. Mountain Bluebirds are adaptive and will hang around domesticated areas if food is available. My bluebird Birdette came by to say hello! And if you have any treats, he'd sure be happy to join you for snack time.

Painting birds on a barb wire had been an idea floating around in my bird brain for a while now. My only concern was that it wasn't too sparse or dreary. So I remedied that with bright happy flowers and super round birds. Hooray! Turns out everything that looks rough, tough and mean as dirt can have a softer side:)

I am enjoying the larger format paintings! This is a commission I am just finishing up for my brother-in-law and his wife and newborn baby girl. After looking at my website, Dan and fam liked "Family Tree" the best. I thought it funny that they selected that painting out of all the others because I painted that as a commission for my twin brother:) So it has a special place in my heart... We went with the same colors, the blue is a little more blue (less purple) than shown in this picture. And artistic license allowed me to go orange on the leaves rather than the natural green.

What a good lookin' family of White-Eyes! Just love this painting, and love my new additions to the family, Erika and Isla, as well!

So I have already mastered the art of Portlandia's "put a bird on it!" but I learned yesterday that I sometimes need to make things better by putting a flower on it. Thus my adjustment on "Welcome To B.I."

My buddy Mama Kris is always telling me what for do, so when she texted me, "I feel this needs a flower", my initial reaction was "I feel ... Ugh, she's right." And so I added the flower. Let me make this very clear, I did it because I agreed with Mama Kris, not because she told me to... after all, I'm a big girl, all growns up... I do what I like!

Willie Nelson version, not John Legend or the pile of other artists that have done their take on "All Of Me". Birdettes (my term for little, confident uber-fluffballs) are the best selling birds I paint. They are cuddly yet tough, in need of love yet independent. Java Sparrows don't get this coloring until they are a bit more mature, but who's going to protest? I mean, seriously, how could you turn this guy away?