Andrea Doughtie, Rural Painter

Found this skull in the woods but don’t know what the critter was–a rabbit maybe?  There’s one tooth left; maybe they grew too long for the poor thing to be able to eat.

Gavin and Jill gave me wonderful markers for Christmas last year so I thought I’d try them again. (Many of the participants in the DrawMo! project use ink to very good effect.) Here’s one of the Crocs I wear when I paint. It’s probably good for me to do something I can’t control as carefully as  graphite or charcoal– certainly vivid!

So these are the last flowers of the series I started last summer. The petunias made it through two frosts but we’ve had to take down the window boxes now that we’re getting freezing temperatures every night. Maybe I’ll paint house plants some this winter but for now I’m done with blooms.

Petunias          oil on birch panel 11 x 14 $350

These are mannequins I got some time ago for still life set ups.  It’s funny how anytime I put characters together–people, animals, etc. it looks like a little short story.  That’s a pearl earring the guy is holding but it looks more like a little light bulb.   I meant to cover these folks with skin and make them look realistic but decided that was more trouble than I wanted to go to. Although the catalog claims these two are “anatomically accurate” I have my doubts.

We went for a walk  in the woods yesterday and I found some great dried vegetation–milkweed pods, goldenrod, pearly everlasting, etc.  This drawing is of a sensitive fern–a rather coarse invasive type.  I really liked the animation of the dead fern–all those twisting lines, like a dance.

Playing dolls again.   This one is so pale it may not be readable.  Anyway, the DrawMo! project is really good for my drawing skills.  Painting realistically requires accurate drawing too but it’s different.

Here’s a mannequin hand I got a long time ago for a still life painting which I still haven’t done.  That’s a marble it’s holding.

Last night I went to a meeting at the library. After the business–treasurer’s report, etc. one of those attending said he’d like to make announcement. He’d found a black sheep wandering on a nearby road and wondered if anybody knew whose it was. Immediately people started suggesting various Straffordites who might be missing a sheep while others chimed in and explained why it couldn’t possibly be that person’s sheep. Then another member noted that a certain person was missing a black goat. Was it for sure a black *sheep* he had found? He assured everybody he knew a sheep from a goat!

When we first came up here I went to an evening presentation at the library and when I came out later a dog and a small black sheep were waiting (patiently) for their owners, right there on the library steps. It was then I truly realized I wasn’t in Houston anymore! How I love life in this little village.

I’ve wanted to draw/paint a piece of ginger for a long time–such a strange-looking form, and complicated!

I thought I’d go for spontaneous in today’s drawing so I decided to throw some ink onto the paper and  see if I could make a picture out of whatever landed there.  It’s a little sinister–the character seems to be fighting off some alien life form.  I punched holes in the eyes and tried to take a photo with the light shining through the eyeballs but couldn’t get it to show up.  Anyway, a welcome change from careful rendering.