Winter Watercolor Paintings

Here in Michigan we've already had our first major snowstorm of the season - Saturday, Nov. 21, which dumped 10 inches of snow on us here in Rochester Hills! It's not atypical to see a bit of snow in November. I created these watercolor paintings for a class assignment in college, based on source photographs I took in my uncle's front and back yard when we were there (in Grand Blanc, MI) for Thanksgiving one year.

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"Winter Bench" - 22x30" watercolor painting:
(For sale on esty here!)

Detail shots:

And here's the source photograph:

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"Winter Berries" - 15x22" watercolor painting:
(For sale on etsy here!)

Detail shots:

Here's the source photograph for this one:

Obviously, I chose to omit the fencing and the house siding for the watercolor painting, and focused instead just on the snow-covered berries.

I also created another large (22"x30") watercolor of his backyard, based on this source photograph:

But that watercolor isn't for sale (I gave it to my uncle as a gift), and I don't have any pictures of that finished watercolor on this computer to upload here for you to see.

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I've always loved the look of freshly fallen snow - especially in November, when it's still new. (Somehow snow never looks quite as appealing in February or March, after enduring several months of the stuff.)

Check out those paintings on my Etsy page. These would make great gifts for the winter-lover in your life - or to decorate the walls of your own house! :)

Ginny Update

I haven't written about our puppy Ginny lately, so I'm going to take this opportunity to post some photos of her adorableness. She just recently turned 8 months old, and now weighs about 28 pounds. (She was only 6 pounds when we adopted her!) She can be a little crazy (what puppy isn't?), but she's a pretty good dog. :)

In case you missed it, an early blog post detailed the breeds indicated by her DNA test, so if you're interested, go check that out.

Her underbite often makes it look like she's snarling :)

Waiting patiently for the vet. (She's gone to the vet a lot recently for stomach issues - she kept throwing up every morning! - and eye issues. Apparently she has a naturally acidic stomach and allergies that make her eyes run/inflame her eyelids. Fun!)

Om nom nom

Sleepy puppy

We have had to hide all throw pillows. She likes to destroy things.

Those ears!

Being a good watchdog

Back when there was still sunshine and grass to enjoy! (Instead of piles of muddy leaves and melting snow.)

Posing with her tags

Exploring autumn

Her adorable sweater!

We had a canvas crate to keep her in, but she kept biting/clawing through and escaping. I patched it twice (as you can see), and then she made another hole at the bottom. We have a wire crate for her now (which she doesn't mind at all), and she sleeps in this canvas crate (patched up - AGAIN) upstairs in our bedroom at night. She doesn't try to escape at night. She's too tired, I guess - or doesn't need to escape because she can hear us sleeping in the bed next to her.

For more puppy photos on a regular basis, follow me on Instagram. I post lots of artwork and puppy pics!

Small Business Saturday

It's "Small Business Saturday"! Might I make a couple quick suggestions?

1) If you live in the Metro-Detroit area, visit the Paint Creek Center for the Arts Holiday Art Market, which is open on Saturdays from 9 AM - 4 PM and is located at 407 Pine Street in downtown Rochester, Michigan.

I have several original Michigan watercolors (not prints!) for sale there at the moment - 8"x10" size with a white 11"x14" mat included for only $49. There are also lots of other holiday gift ideas - paintings, ceramic tiles, notebooks, blown glass ornaments, jewelry, scarves, etc. If you can't make it today, they're open every day (except Sunday) and the Holiday Art Market will be up until December 23. It's a great way to support local Michigan artists AND a local arts center.

2) If visiting the Holiday Art Market isn't an option, look to Etsy! Etsy itself may not qualify as a "small business" (I don't know what the cutoff is) but most of the money you spend on that site goes to the artists. You can even narrow your search and look for artists in your state or city specifically if you want to support local artists. And of course, I'd love it if you'd check out my Etsy store while you're there - etsy.com/shop/ArtworkbyAndreaArbit. I know I'll be searching for gifts for other people from other artists there - there are some amazing projects!

A quick sampling of some of my artwork:

"White Rose" 5x7 colored pencil drawing with 8x10 white mat ($39)

"Pattern Flora in Blue-Green" 5x7 watercolor painting with 8x10 white mat ($39)

"Debris" 22x30 watercolor painting ($399)

"Rainbow Crassula" 8x10 colored pencil drawing with 11x14 white mat ($59)

"Splattered Dahlia" 11x15 watercolor painting ($199)

"Flowering Herb" 5x7 colored pencil drawing with 8x10 white mat ($39)

Best of luck with all of your holiday shopping!

Tyler

When I was in fifth grade, my family adopted a mutt from the local Humane Society. I came home from school one January afternoon to find our family suddenly one member larger. My parents named him Tyler, after President Tyler. (My dad is an American history buff. The first dog my parents adopted together was Sherman, after General Sherman.)

Our guess was always that Tyler was some mix of German Shepherd/Lab/Spaniel - due to his black and brown fur coloring and the curly hair on his ears - but as my husband and I learned when we had Ginny's DNA tested, mutts can look a lot like breeds they aren't. Tyler was only a couple months old when we got him. He would be an adorable part of our lives for more than sixteen years.

Today would have been Tyler's 17th birthday - but unfortunately we had to put him down this summer. Here are some pictures of Tyler since 2005. (Pictures before 2005 are not on my computer, so I don't have any adorable puppy pictures here to post - just Tyler as a 7-16 year old dog.)

He had some trouble getting up and down as he got older. I think I would too, if I were over 112 in dog years!

Tyler got to meet Ginny toward the end of his life. We got Ginny in June this year, and we put Tyler down at the end of July. She was very excited to meet another dog - but Tyler wasn't as excited. (She was a little rowdy for him.)

Tyler loved getting in the middle of handing out Christmas gifts every year. Maybe because we were all crowded around in a circle with some of us sitting on the floor. Maybe because we always gave him a treat every time we went around the circle distributing gifts. Maybe both. :)

The blur of action.

This is a watercolor I painted of Tyler in 2005, in my senior year AP Art class. It was based on a photograph of him wearing a flowered lei.

More Christmases!

At my mom's feet - where he so often could be found.

He lived a great, long life and even toward the end didn't act consistently sick - which is why it was such a hard decision to put him down. He lost a lot of his eyesight and hearing toward the end, and had trouble walking and getting up and down. In the last ten years of photos I went through, it wasn't until I got to 2008 or 2007 that I started seeing evidence of him playing and chewing bones again. For the last several years he was a calm, sleeping, cuddling dog.

You will be missed, Tyler!