"Beignet"

4"x 6" watercolor/colored pencil/acrylic

Beignet is Jay's pup! We call him Ben! I haven't met him yet but love him already! 

So many pets to paint... stay tuned

 

"Mowgli"

 

4"x 6" watercolor/colored pencil/acrylic

Then Mowgli! He's Catty's boy and is a friend to Lady B.

We love him!

"Toulouse"

4" x 6" watercolor/colored pencil/acrylic

It all started with this little card for my lovely daughter! She adopted this crazy cat and sends me the most adorable photos of him! He's a charmer!

 

"Lady B"

Happy Father's Day Dan! 

His sweet Lady B (for Beagle)

5" x 7" watercolor/colored pencil/acrylic

Small watercolors are my new favorite thing! A touch of colored pencil and highlights in acrylic.

"Heatwave"

6" x 6" acrylic on gessoed fiberboard

Flowers from the garden. Small white periwinkles appropriately named "Heatwave" and certainly representative of August in Louisiana! 

Jelly Bean ~ "a total diva"

8" x 10" oil on wrapped canvas

It was an honor and joy to paint this portrait of Jelly Bean. She was commissioned by co-workers for Dee Ratcliff. Can you imagine you and your precious pet being so loved?

Here is a small part of Jelly's story as told by Dee:

Her story, well I had lost my Boston Terrier who was my everything. After a year of being sad, my friends took me to a pet store. I have always been against this and wouldn't you know my dream dog was there! I still have guilt over buying a dog from a pet store! Ok, this is not about my guilt but about the girl that brought me back to life! Jelly did that! She made me excited to get up again. She was a total diva and commanded respect! I still had my English bulldog, Torre. She became Mama Torre, she loved Jelly! Jelly would fight her over toys and antagonize her because Jelly was the total alpha! Jelly was my perfect baby!

~ She was diagnosed with bone cancer and given 4-6 months. She lived for another year and a half! I know she did that for me. I lost my brother a few years back and didn't handle it well. My Jelly watched me not handle it well. I believe that is why she fought so hard to be here for me. Sadly, the cancer progressed. She put up such a fight but the cancer had obviously gotten into her brain. I knew I couldn't let her keep fighting. She became so lost and I couldn't watch her suffer. I cry thinking about that day, but I know she is in heaven with Geronimo and Mama Torre! It's not fair that our beloved pets can't live longer lives. 

~ I was incredibly touched by your painting! I look at it and see my girl looking back!


Dee is a dog groomer and fellow artist. Dee's art has been on hold for awhile, but she has been inspired to begin again! Hurray for new beginnings! I look forward to seeing her creations! I'm thinking Jelly Bean would be happy about it as well!

I'm back!

"Ralph"   6" x 6" oil on panel

After 7 years, I've decided to resurrect the art blog! I've not been far and have enjoyed viewing other artists' blogs. I've missed it! So, here we go! First up is Ralph, selfie style! A bit older than in his adventure with the fraternity drink cozy.

Hands in Art

12" x 14" colored pencil by Laura

12"x16" colored pencil by Anna

My daughter Laura and her friend Anna did a lovely job with this value study "cubist" style.  Incredibleart.org has some fantastic ideas for working with students of all ages. For the guidelines of this project and a host of others, check out their Hands in Art ideas here.

Contour Shoes by Cat

My girls' art instructor has put his students art in an online student museum called Artsonia! It's a very cool thing.  I love the work my girls are doing in his class. Go check out Cat's art!

This is Rebekah's "Contour Shoes" from the same class!  This lucky instructor has both my girls in the same class this semester!  Check out Rebekah's work at Arsonia!

"Hugs"

Guess how many bags of Hugs I went through before finding just the right one!


4" x 4" oil on gessoed fiberboard

elizabethannfrazier@gmail.com

"Ralph"

This is my son's cat, Ralph.  He lives in the Kappa Sigma house with Jay.  I'm not sure if I'm done with it or not ~ what do you think?

6" x 6"  oil on gessoed fiberboard

elizabethannfrazier@gmail.com

"Motya"

Meet Motya!  Her portrait is part 2 of the birthday gift for my sister-in-law. Here is Moyta's story from Jon.


Motya - After Kuzya died, I really wasn't interested in getting another dog. I hit the Internet and studied canine health to help me understand why my best friend died. Sveta however, found a Golden Retriever Rescue and saw Motya, her name was Dolly at the time. We inquired but learned she had been adopted already. Sveta kept looking for a dog. Motya showed up again 2 months later. The family gave her back because she wasn't fun.  Nobody wanted her and the
Rescue was desperate to find her a home. We decided to foster her. On the 3rd day that we had her, she managed to slip out of her collar.  She ran off during the coldest, snowy days of the winter. I tracked her for 9 days in the 5 miles of fields around Mom's home and eventually caught her in a live trap using deer meat. Since then, Motya never gets more than 100ft from us. Sveta recalls the moment Motya realized she was part of the family. Moyta looked up at us both, her tail went up and she changed to an open posture.  :D

Motya is a princess. She needs her space. When we go to the dog park, she is ready to leave after about 10 minutes while a normal dog would never want to leave. Motya was abused the first 12 months of her life.  She was adopted once and then returned because the family didn't think she behaved like they thought a dog should. It has taken a while for her to trust us. She doesn't approach strangers and will tolerate kids petting her only if I am there. She will give me that look, "Must I endure this?"  

Motya has won 3 dog show beauty contests where we just showed up and entered the contest. No hours of preparation, no salons, no beauty contest training.

6" x 6" oil on cradled panel    

elizabethannfrazier@gmail.com

"Kuzya"

This sweet golden retriever is Kuzya.  My brother has commissioned this painting for his lovely wife's birthday. Kuzya passed away 2 years ago and is greatly missed. Here is her story from my brother, Jon.


Kuzya - Sveta and I like to follow crowds sometimes. You just never know what you'll find. So we followed a crowd to the park near the Nebraska Humane Society. They had Golden Retrievers doing really advanced tricks. I was impressed. Then this guy came up to us and said the NHS had a Golden Retriever that was going to be destroyed because nobody wanted her. I begged Sveta to go look with me. There she was. 9 months old,  skinny, very awkward and lanky. She was trying to get people's attention but nobody was interested. The family gave her up because they had a newborn baby and were afraid. The rest is kind of a blur to me. We took her home that day, she ran to every room upstairs downstairs, then came back to us at the door and sat on my foot. We were officially adopted. I had no intention of getting a dog that day.

Kuzya was our little girl in a fur coat. goofy and photogenic. Kuzya was our comforter, protector and entertainer. She always wanted to play. Kuzya had to be everywhere we were. She helped Sveta get through law school by staying awake while Sveta studied. 

When she wanted to go for a walk she would bring us her leash. I taught Kuzya how to get her leash off the hook and carry it to me.

The last week of her life I carried her around the house and placed her next to me where ever I was. She barely had enough strength to hold her head up. I was carrying her through the kitchen and she raised her head and grabbed her leash. Sveta and I went to tears.

Kuzya loved the pool. She figured out how to use the raft.

6" x 6" oil on cradled board   

"Pears"

A neighbor kept us in pears for weeks this fall!  Good food, good props!

6" x 8" oil on canvas board

elizabethannfrazier@gmail.com 

"Something's Fishy"

Isn't this terrific?  My daughter Laura created this collage for her art class. The rubric asked for the following:
     *Collage is clearly a portrait, still life, or landscape.
     *Collage exhibits Surrealism by using metamorphosis and/or combining realistic objects in an unrealistic way.
     *Objects and shapes are neatly and accurately cut.
     *There is a clear background and foreground. Images are organized into a clear
       picture, not randomly placed.
     *Design is balanced.
     *Similar art elements are included to give the collage a sense of unity.
     *Differences in art elements are included to add interest to the collage.
     *Collage is neatly glued with no tears or peeling edges.
     *There are no stray marks.

She had so much fun doing this project!  I had so much fun watching her enjoy the process! I'm pretty certain her teacher is going to love it! What do you think?

8" x 10" collage on fiberboard     $10,000.00    :D
   

"Emma"

Another sweet girl to paint!  This is on a small 4" x 4" canvas.  I've got several I'm working on this week.  Emma started out in acrylic, and I finished her in oils this morning.  The photograph picks up the weave of the canvas, but in life, it's not as severe as it looks here.

Sometimes I paint the sides a dark color so they "float" on the wall.  I wrapped the image just a bit on this one.

4"x4" oil on wrapped canvas

elizabethannfrazier@gmail.com

The Cute Girls ~ Finished!

Yes, I have finally finished their portrait. The family has been so kind and patient with me.  These girls are absolutely adorable! I know, I've said that before, but everything they do is cute! Everything they wear is cute!  Every time I see them, I want to do another painting of them! Okay, I will not stalk these girls with my camera! To view this portrait in progressive steps, click here.

16" x 20" pastel on Wallis paper

elizabethannfrazier@gmail.com

7 Links Project

The purpose of the project is "To unite bloggers (from all sectors) in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again"

I have been tagged by my artist friend Azra Iqbal to list paintings in the following 7 categories.

Your most beautiful post
Your most popular post
Your most controversial post
Your most helpful post
A post whose success surprised you
A post you feel didn't get the attention it deserved
The post you are most proud of

                                      So, here we go... My most beautiful post, in my opinion, and in the comments and emails sent is "That Dog."  Sera was a joy to paint, and the story of her name was included in the post.

My most popular post, if you went by pageviews would be "Wild Violets."  Hmmm, it's a cute little painting, however, I would never have thought it would be viewed by so many!  It's my favorite little flower, but did you know that some folks spray poison to kill the sweet things in their yards?

I'm not sure that I have a most controversial painting, I'll work on that, but for now I'll go with "Fire and Ice".  It caused some friction in the family over reflections in the vase, too many, too few, wrong colors, too tight... ah... family!

My most helpful post, and I take that to mean to other artists as well as to myself would be "Boogie Samantha."  It's the first post to include in-progress photos.

The painting whose success surprised me the most would be "Black Eyed Susan."  It's a little 4"x4" oil on wood.  It's quite plain, but folks liked it.

The post I feel didn't get the attention it deserved is "Bands of Freedom."  I loved painting our countries flag!  I am proud to be an American!

The painting I am most proud of is not quite finished yet... it's "Those Cute Girls."  Now that my kiddos are all settled in their classes, the daily routine is becoming, well, routine ~ so I'll be back in the studio soon!

Thanks for taking a look at my art! Thanks for the tag Azra!

The Cute Girls...

Update~ The picture on the left is where I started today.  The one on the right is where I had to stop.  Looking at them side by side and having the work in front of me, I can see that there is a lighting problem.  The skin tones of the girls are very similar, not as different as they seem in the photos.  It could also be a light leak in my camera!  I'm still working on the older sister.

The cute girls have been patiently waiting for me to get back to work. Those life things keep happening!  So ~ I'll be working mostly on the girl in blue today.  I may have to go visit the girls before putting down the final strokes.

elizabethannfrazier@gmail.com 

More of the Cute Girls...

As you can see, I've started filling in the background.  I'm adjusting lights and shadows on the girls as more colors are introduced with the flowers.

This is where I am starting today!

I have received a couple of emails asking about time spent on a portrait.  It depends on so many things: size, number of subjects, amount of detail.  On this particular pastel, what you see above is 20 hours.  I estimate at least another 10 before I'm ready for the client to view.  Although ~ my clients are welcome to see the work at any time during the process.

I work in 30 minute "pomodoro" (my timer) segments.  Actually, it's 25 min. then I back off for 5 minutes.  This works well for me, because with pastels I stand at my easel, and when my timer goes off, I can move around a bit, mark my time, and wash the pastel off my hands.  I find that this allows me to really focus on what I'm doing and it relieves me from the parental tendency to watch the clock.  Also, my kids know that if the timer is a-tickin' ~ unless it's a 911 situation ~ don't interrupt!

Okay, time to set that timer!

elizabethannfrazier@gmail.com