been a while...

18x36

oil on gallery wrap

so it's been a while...i have been painting...then not painting.. and now painting again.. first of all.. this is the surprise birthday present my friend laura commissioned for her husband stan...it's his favorite place in canada to fish...called miminsiska falls.....i combined two photos and she tells me he was really surprised and really seems to love it!!.. so...there's that...and then we had a nice, if short, getaway to bonita springs, florida...played four days of golf..some good..some bad..davey scored great though!!...we got home on tuesday the 31st...that day our golden nellie seemed so strange..she had a bad night so i slept on the floor with her...soothing her when she needed me...and then the next morning..she just wasn't going to get up.  we think she waited for us to get home before she crossed the rainbow bridge..we have been devastated..we see her around every corner..cry at odd times.. she was 15 and 1/2 and saw all of us through good times and bad and helped to raise all five of our grands..so it was hard to do anything for a while..i can't believe how many wonderful notes i got on facebook..such a wonderful outpouring of compassion from other dog-lovers to us..many of the folks for whom i had done small remembrances when they'd lost their beloved pets...and then it happened that i had the urge to get back to the studio.. to do more of these remembrances..i wish i had somebody to do one for me..selfishly..but i am so grateful to be able to share what i've been given..so i will post these in the coming days..yesterday was our 46th ann'y and to celebrate, i did a museum painting, (more later about that), we hit some golf balls..went on a bike ride and out to dinner.. a wonderful dinner at tre b!!..as we were finishing, our waitress offered us a dessert on the house..(so gracious)...and said  "your dinner has been taken care of by #1 and #2 and their wives!"...(translation: jen and boogs and their hubbies!)..so special!!