Monday, December 7, 2009

Little Lost Squirrels: Safe at Home

This painting brings the "Little Lost Squirrels" series to a happy conclusion with all the little squirrels sleeping soundly after their troubling adventures away from home and Mother Squirrel.
I was a little concerned that I might end up using to much brown in painting the interior of the squirrels' tree home, so I made a solid effort to bring a lot of color - pinks and purples - into the wood walls and floors and I think it worked out pretty well. Given the chilly weather we've been having as of late, I think the Mother Squirrel's got the right idea having a warm cup of tea after a long day.

On a personal note, I just took a short break from another project while my parents were in town visiting. We all had a good visit and in continuation of our occasional hobby of staying in supposedly "haunted" hotels, we took a couple days to drive down to San Antonio for an overnight stay at the reputedly haunted Menger Hotel. We also took the opportunity while we were in town to visit the Witte Museum and the McNay Art Museum. Sometimes I find that I like the architecture and design of the buildings of art museums as much as (or sometimes better) than the art collections housed within. I found this was somewhat the case with the McNay where a portion of the collection was housed within an old mansion. The mansion encircled a lush courtyard full of decorations and interesting architectural details. Patterns similar to those on the stairs in these pictures were repeated on ceilings in a couple rooms of the mansion - a nice reward just for looking up!




It was nice to recharge for a couple days, but now I have to get back to work. But just maybe I'll put on some Christmas music and wrap a few presents before I dive back into painting.....