My doggie – watercolor on 140# Arches coldpress approx 1/4 sheet
This painting turned out to be a very late Christmas present for The Husband. It’s not quite finished, but finished enough to post. Just like my hot air balloon painting that I was going to leave alone and then I didn’t which is here. My pooch looks a little sad because we were up at my sister’s house and that’s where we usually leave her if we go on vacation. She gets to play with her cousin Gus the golden retriever and always has fun, but I think she has a little anxiety when we first arrive thinking we are going to leave her.
My old dog who we would also leave with my sister when we went on vacation would sit and stare at the front door of her house resulting in my mother once declaring she thought my dog was “a little disturbed.”
We had a wonderful holiday season made extra fun by the kids in our family. One 4 1/2 year-old niece who is a fan of Doc McStuffins (a Disney cartoon doctor) got a child’s medical bag as a gift and proceeded to give everyone check ups and diagnoses. One of my favorite diagnosis was when she told my brother-in-law he had “two inches of allergies.” Achoo!
My biggest faux pas of the season was sending gifts to my family in Alaska with the wrong address. They took forever to get there only to be “returned to sender.” Ugh. I’m still waiting to get them back so I can resend them. Merry President’s Day!
The new year in NYC brings a new mayoral administration and possible changes in my job. I don’t know exactly what they will be, but I hope they won’t be too stressful. I plan to eat better, following a “real food” diet. I also plan to do more exercise, draw and paint more and I swear, this year I will learn to speak Spanish!
I’m already exhausted.
Necesito una siesta! Happy New Year everyone.
40 comments
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January 5, 2014 at 6:35 pm
neihtn2012
The expression on that dog is so real!
January 6, 2014 at 11:08 am
Carol King
thank you!
January 5, 2014 at 7:00 pm
Barry Coombs
Me gusta mucho el perro! I need to work on my command of Spanish, as well. Feliz Ano Neuvo.
January 6, 2014 at 11:09 am
Carol King
Gracias, señor. You can practice your Spanish in Mexico!
January 5, 2014 at 7:43 pm
hw (hallie) farber
I love the squareness of your tiles, the roundness of your doggie, the sadness in her eyes. It’s doggoned fantastic.
January 6, 2014 at 11:10 am
Carol King
LOL! Thanks Hallie. Interesting observation. I liked your Santa very much and now you must teach me all that secret stuff you talked about in your post.
January 5, 2014 at 10:25 pm
candy7
Your husband is going to love your painting. I love it, too. She’s so sweet and you’ve captured that expression perfectly. Briscoe gives me that look all the time. He stands in front of me and stares – sometimes because he has seen the suitcases come out, but most of the time because he wants me to put him to work. He’s happiest when he has a job to do. He’s so eager to please. I just can’t think of enough things for him to do. Your mom would probably think he was disturbed, too:)
Buena suerte con aprender el español. Your plans for the new year are similar to mine.
January 6, 2014 at 11:32 am
Carol King
Aren’t dogs the best? What kind of work do you give to Briscoe?
January 11, 2014 at 1:34 am
candy7
Yes, I love all dogs! I ask Briscoe to do the typical things – sit, lie down, go find your sister, go find your dad. I wish we had known about agility training when we first got him. I think he would have been good at it. He’s 14 now and is still in good shape, but I think he’s starting to get arthritis in his hind legs.
January 6, 2014 at 12:32 am
Padmaja
The top view makes me feel I am standing there and looking at her expressive eyes, she wants a hug from me 🙂 , lovely job Carol!
January 6, 2014 at 11:32 am
Carol King
Awww, thanks Padmaja. I’ll give her a hug for you.
January 6, 2014 at 5:40 am
cathgatland
Wonderful expressive doggy look Carol, what a great present. I’ve enjoyed catching up on a few posts I missed – lovely hot air balloon over Albequerque too! Happy 2014 to you, my goals are about the same except for Spanish – I think I might try Zulu(again!)
January 6, 2014 at 12:25 pm
Carol King
Hi Cathy, thanks for stopping by and commenting. I will be very impressed to hear you speaking Zulu! Good luck. 🙂
January 6, 2014 at 6:19 am
nicsearth
Happy new year. Your dog painting is beautiful. I love that sad look in her eyes-per wee thing. I get that same look everytime I get ready to go to work!!
Funny enough i plan to stay eating ‘clean’ food this year.i am probably the unhealthiest vegan ever as I eat way to many processed things and potato crisps (chips) are my downfall so now that they’re out of the house after xmas we plan to only eat whole food that doesn’t come with a list of ingredients! I’ve started using the My Fitness Pal app to record my eating and exercise and seeing it in black and white really helps!
Good luck with your job changes if there are any and with learning Spanish-i always wish I’d kept it up after I left school but it’s a bit difficult if you don’t have any one Spanish to speak to!!
January 6, 2014 at 12:26 pm
Carol King
Nicola, I really appreciate you commenting on my dog, since you paint dogs so well! Good luck with your eating plan. I’m trying to be healthy vegetarian/vegan, but I do LOVE potato chips!
January 6, 2014 at 8:27 am
Kathryn
Carol, you continue to inspire me! Beautiful painting, and I really like the way you’ve blocked in the head and muzzle. What a great gift! Btw, I was in Oaxaca last fall, and know the perfect place for you to rent and practice your spanish. Happy new year 😉
January 6, 2014 at 12:27 pm
Carol King
Kathryn! So nice to see you comment. How are you? I would love to go to Oaxaca to learn Spanish and to get out of the cold. How is your painting coming along. Thank you for visiting.
January 6, 2014 at 5:49 pm
Beth Parker
Great job capturing that worried expression! Happy New Year, Carol!
January 9, 2014 at 9:39 am
Carol King
Happy New Year Beth. thanks for your comment. Now I have to work on a painting that doesn’t make her look so worried.
January 6, 2014 at 5:56 pm
lesliepaints
The painting of Kaiya is FANTASTIC, Carol! Wow! I also like the composition with the two types of flooring and the color choices are perfect! Great Christmas gift, methinks. Good luck with all those resolutions! Happy New Year!
January 9, 2014 at 9:40 am
Carol King
Thanks so much Leslie. The tiles on my sister’s floor are a dark reddish/terracotta color so I changed it to blue so the color would look better against Kaiya’s fur.
January 6, 2014 at 9:21 pm
cathy
Dog painting is wonderful the expressive eyes and floppy ears. Perfect and difficult to do. My resolutions are the same as yours!!!!! When I first read your resolutions I thought you stated that you were going to swear more, which I thought was swell.Either way my resolutions are the same!!! adios!
January 9, 2014 at 9:42 am
Carol King
thanks for your comments on the painting Cathy. As for swearing more, I don’t think I need a resolution for that, I already swear enough, according to the Husband.
January 6, 2014 at 9:24 pm
cathy
oh rats my comment didn’t post. the dog painting is so very expressive,not a easy thing to accomplish. Sweet pup. My resolutions are exactly the same as yours. At first I thought ,after reading your resolutions that you were going to swear more, I thought yippee what fun, me to… but alas, I was mistaken. Adios!
January 9, 2014 at 9:43 am
Carol King
for some strange reason your comments went into the spam folder but I was able to retrieve them easily with only a few swear words. Ciao! (I’m multi-lingual. hahaha.)
January 7, 2014 at 1:47 am
tomsimard
Great post. My but your dog does look worried!
Really enjoyed your mom’s comment about the old dog you used to leave with her being “a little disturbed” and your niece’s “two inches of allergies.”
January 9, 2014 at 9:45 am
Carol King
Mom never did hold back with her comments. I could do whole posts of them. And only a 4 year old could come up with a diagnosis of “2 inches of allergies”, right? She cracks us up. thanks for your comments about the poochie. As I said earlier, I need to work on a painting where she doesn’t look so worried.
January 7, 2014 at 5:15 am
Irina
I wish your possible job changes will not disappoint you.
Doggie’s face expression makes me laugh, it is so concerned..
Yesterday I put a sticker on monitor’s frame: “Sport, Painting, Communication, Discipline, English, Food”. He-he-he.
January 9, 2014 at 9:46 am
Carol King
happy new year Irina and I hope you follow all the things you wrote on your monitor sticker. Thanks for your comment about my worried dog.
January 7, 2014 at 8:53 am
Joan T
Bueno!!! Prospero anno nuevo. I’ve exhausted my Spanish for the new year. Glad you were somewhere having fun. Too bad about the gifts, but there should be less mail slowing things down now. lol The dog came out great. Funny that when you take him up to your sister’s he’s afraid he’s being left again…they have such good memories. Hope to see you soon!
January 9, 2014 at 10:22 am
Carol King
Joan, can you believe the gifts that got to Alaska and then were sent back still have not arrived! Thanks for your comments on the painting and the post. Once we no longer have a polar vortex maybe i will try and meet you for some urban sketching!
January 9, 2014 at 7:52 am
lindahalcombfineart
I just want to give him a big hug! What a sweetie. But then my dogs are my kids since my daughters are all in their 40″s and have families of their own.
January 9, 2014 at 10:22 am
Carol King
Thanks for your visit and comment. My dog is my baby too!
January 9, 2014 at 10:28 am
elenacaravela
He’s wonderful! Happy New Year Carol!
January 12, 2014 at 6:59 pm
Carol King
Same to you Elena. Thanks for stopping by.
January 10, 2014 at 4:18 pm
RHCarpenter
You’ve captured that frightened and possibly sad or anxious look in her eyes perfectly! Poor little one – even though she has fun, she doesn’t want Mum and Dad to leave her! And all those resolutions!! I can see why you had to have a nap! 🙂
January 12, 2014 at 6:59 pm
Carol King
LOL! I always need to nap Rhonda. Thanks for your comments.
January 11, 2014 at 7:56 am
napabelle
Wow Carol! Leslie now has some competition with painting animals! What a great painting and such a sweet dog! You’ve really capture his sweetness! The head is especially well done!
January 12, 2014 at 7:02 pm
Carol King
Thank you so much Isabelle!
January 13, 2014 at 5:33 am
violetski
The painting of your dog is amazing , Carol!
And what a wonderful choice for tiles colors❤️
Love this painting and hope you had a great Christmas😃❤️
xxx