Before You Write – Lou Belcher

So, yes, I’ve been absent from the blog for a while. I have been deep in painting and have a whole new painting life.

A couple months ago, I took a 12-week on-line painting class. It concentrated mostly on abstract painting principles and I thought I would apply what I learned to realistic painting. However, I was surprised that as I learned concepts of abstract painting, I began loving it. It’s much more complicated than I realized, but I found it fascinating.

Here are a couple of my latest pieces…

They are 12 x 12 inches and are acrylic and mixed media on cradled board.

I had a really good day yesterday. I painted this on Monday. First, it started as a cityscape, then became a floral, then I just kept applying paint until it was an abstract and I was happy with it. Yesterday morning, I posted it on my Facebook page and before noon I had sold it. What a good day it was.

I just finished reading The Plant-Based Journey by Lani Muelrath. Excellent book. I have reviewed it on Thehelpfulblogger.com

Have a great day….

Art

Here’s my latest painting. This one is 8″ x 8″ x 1.5″ mixed media (acrylic, charcoal, paint sticks) on gallery-wrapped canvas. Just an experiment with the yellow background. I do enjoy flowers… And, I know all you in the north are looking forward to when the flowers are blooming up there again.

Have a great Sunday…

The Boys

Yes, we are participating in the Sunday Selfie Blog Hop put on by The Cat on My Head blog.

We hope you all have a wonderful day!

hugs,

Bugsy, Knuckles, and Lou

Yes, we are participating in the Sunday Selfie Blog Hop put on by The Cat on My Head blog.

We hope you all have a wonderful day! Us? We’re getting our easy on!

hugs, Bugsy, Knuckles, and HH (Lou)

Art

Here’s yesterday’s painting…

Not a joke. More times than any artist cares to admit, paintings just don’t work out. I used to fret over the failures and try to fix them.

I painted the painting above a couple days ago. It was a group of flowers. Somewhere along the way, it took an ugly turn. Today, I attempted to bring it to life. That didn’t work. When I heard the canvas groaning in disgust, I got out the gesso and painted over it. That’s how it works. Tomorrow a fresh start right over the flowers. No sweat. It’s all just part of the process.

Bugsy and Knuckles are hopping today

We’ve missed the Sunday Selfie Blog Hop put on by The Cat On My Head blog for a while. Today we are participating.

Here’s our selfie.

Have a great day!!!

Hugs, Bugsy, Knuckles, and Lou.

This piece is the large floral (24″ x 30″) painting. On gallery-wrapped canvas that I completed in the fall workshop I did with Lynn Whipple. The workshop was wonderful. I have a couple more paintings from that 3-day workshop that need some tweaking. I’ll be getting to those soon and will show them to you as I finish them.

Writing

I have set some intentions for 2019, but they are general… 1. Write daily 2. Paint daily 3. Eat less 4. Move more. In the past I’ve done detailed lists of resolutions. This year I decided to go simple… So far it’s working fine.

In the writing area, I’m contemplating a memoir. Not because my life is so exciting. Rather, because I’ve learned so things the hard way it may be useful for others to know the lessons I’ve learned. After all, people seemed to like the lessons in Max the Quilt Cat’s book. The Zen of Max. Ha!

The Boys

Bugsy and Knuckles are doing great and are wishing all of you a great weekend.

Here’s Knuckles keeping warm by basking in the light of the lamp. I think he thinks it’s a sun lamp… His favorite spot!

Ha! Just kidding… This recipe actually takes quite a bit of time but is therapeutic to do…

I posted this on The Helpful Blogger yesterday. Thought you might like to see it. You could make a vegan very thankful on Thanksgiving with this dish or make it as a show-stopping side dish.

Anyway… we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.

Enjoy!

Lou

Maybe your skin is tighter than mine — especially around the jowls — but this happened to me Saturday at the book fair……

While sitting there, I worked on the above pen and ink. A lady came by and loved it and said she wanted to buy it. Yay…

At the same time, a photographer from one of the local magazines stopped by and started taking photos. The photographer encouraged me to continue to work on the drawing-she wanted an action shot.

So I did…until… the first lady said, “No, look up.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because when you look down like that, your face hangs down.”

Yuck! At that pointed, I ended the photo shoot and asked the photographer to delete the photos.

Glad that I’m healthy, but aging is a bit of a pain… When I get up the nerve, I’m going to take a selfie to see how bad it is. For now, (LOL) ignorance is bliss.

Have a great day!

Writing

Spent today and will spend tomorrow at the Meet the Authors’ Book Fair. Lots of energy throughout the day…

Sold a couple books and hope to sell more tomorrow. All-in-all, the authors said sales of books were down. I took my 30-Day little paintings and was pleased with comments and the response. Sold several of those.

The best part was talking with other writers and friends I hadn’t seen in a while.

The Boys

I won’t be around tomorrow and I’ve missed too mamy of the Sunday Selfie blog hops lately. So popping on tonight to post our selfie. Thanks to the Cat on My Head blog for sponsoring it.

Bugsy found out that playing with two ribbons at once doesn’t always work. He caught them both, but now he can’t move.

Have a great day…

Hugs, Bugsy, Knuckles, and Lou