It’s time once again for the Art on 45 Auction and exhibition. Hosted and organized by Christiane Drieling. I am thrilled to say, my piece was accepted. This will be the final Art on 45 event.

I was thinking of my Dad, when I came up with the idea for this. I remembered all the road trips we would take. Late nights driving through the desert. How brilliant the sky seemed, and how open the landscape was. The 45 is debossed, and I did not want to cover that up. If you zoom in, you can see the Chrysalis butterfly logo, Leo Sayer, and more. It is completely legible in person.

I have had so much fun, as a contributing artist for the last several years. Congratulations to Christiane, Markus, and everyone who has made this event possible!

Catching Up

I don’t need to tell you, I was silent here, on the blog. For 4 months. Yikes! I was busy painting. I just wasn’t busy blogging. Below is a brief recap.

In October was busy painting Christmas gifts, and this chicken. A birthday gift for a friend. She had found a picture that she liked, and asked me to paint one like it. I changed a few things. Made the weathered wood grey toned, to work with her interior. This is on a deep edged canvas, and the details continue around the edges.

I continued by finishing up some gifts I had started in 2021. These were for a friend’s grandbabies. I had started the bear, and completed the three florals (below), prior to having Covid.

I had to paint Coco melon ( the boy), and the lavender flowers. These are all on deep canvas.

Coco & the bear are 4 x 4, the florals are 6 x 6. The group of chickens is 6 x 6, watercolor. (A second birthday gift.)

The floral wreath is 4 x 4. A gift for my doctor’s new baby girl. For the wreath, I covered an ugly dollar store frame with plaster. I sanded it for a rustic look, sealed it, & it really turned out nice.

The Cactus you have seen. That was December’s project.

I designed a logo for a tech friend. IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment.

Building A Desert

I built a simple model train layout. A desert scene, of course. I intended to keep it fairly flat, so it could be stored away easily when needed. The tracks are not attached, merely resting on top.

I found a scenery sand, textured paint. But it was much too dark. Dark brown. I painted it, 8 or 9 times before I got the look I wanted. I added pebbles, rocks and boulders that had to be painted as well. The tiny pebbles along the outer edge forced me to use my magnifying glasses. But the task was surprisingly fast. I also found some miniature bushes. They are meant for an arctic scene, but they look just like sage brush to me.

This has been an ongoing project. A late birthday gift to myself (last year). I had fun working on it. Part of the reason for my studio make over (June 24, 2023). It is an N scale. Below you can see just how tiny that is. There are actually 4 sizes smaller than N. Only one is shown here. The most popular for models is O scale. The larger ones, G, you see in parks or zoos. Outdoor displays.

The engine lights up, and it is fun to run at night. Meditative. You might remember, I’ve had a slight fascination with trains for a while now.

If you are curious, this shows how they are made, (5 minutes). This is more in depth a factory tour, (16 minutes, more explanation). And this is a look at the real trains, and how they clear the snow off of Donner pass. You can skip forward to the 19:30 mark, and view to 23:00. The trees are so pretty.

I know, I’m a geek. (This is one of my tiny things, Dotty.)

That is the end. Whew! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Have an awesome weekend!

Wishing you JOY!