Take a sneak peek at what I’m working on now.  The entire painting will be revealed soon!

This is Marilyn nuzzling newborn daughter Akili at the Memphis Zoo, moments after birth. Did you know that the birth of a giraffe includes an 18′ drop to the earth for baby? Hello! Then just after the baby stands up the mother does the most unimaginable thing. She kicks her baby tumbling! And after baby manages to struggle to her feet mom does it again! You might wonder why the cruelty but actually she wants baby to remember how she got up. You see in the wild mom needs the protection of the heard and her young must be able to keep up. Maybe this hug came after boot camp (hows that for a pun!).

This summer, by invitation, I entered three pieces into the American Art Awards. Much to my delight and surprise, “Pearl” took 1st Place in the 31st Category – Portrait of Someone Famous. The other two entries won in the 5th Category – Pastel;  The Cobbler took 3rd place and Flower Girl took 5th. I’m so excited!

This is my kind of art competition. The “judge” was not one person looking at hundreds of entries from all over the globe, but rather this was a panel of gallery owners. I seem to always walk away from art competitions saying, “What was he/she thinking!?” I wish the whole structure of juried exhibitions would change the one judge model and truly have a jury (as in many people) of qualified judges.

After the competition, several of the participating galleries have contacted me to have a show at their gallery. Wow! That’s so exciting! I think I need to build up a body of works before I do that. Maybe in 2011…?

It’s finished. Here’s a close-up.

Hummingbird enjoys its nectar at dawn’s first light.

Finally finished the wolf… I need to review my notes from the workshop so I can call the painting after her (she’s a she wolf) name.

Anyways, it’s been great to be back and great to paint daily. Something I wasn’t doing before I left.

Next post should be the lion that we started at the workshop.