Day 24 of the 30 in 30 - "Make 'em Laugh - Cosmo Brown"

When I am feeling inspired to paint my whimsical duck paintings, I am guessing that I am being influenced by my past occupation as a Children's Librarian. I worked as one for just over 6 years and  I have to say that it was truly one of the best jobs I have ever had.  Heck,  I got to choose and read beautifully illustrated books to happy, un-jaded little children every week.  What more could you ask for in a job?  And of course you can't beat the free dissemination of information that public libraries offer and defend every day of their existence.  Public Libraries Rock and don't you forget it.  
The title comes from the classic musical "Singing in the Rain", because at first I thought about titling it "Quacking in the Rain",  but just couldn't bring myself to this level of absurdity... And then I remembered this quote from Cosmo Brown, a character in the movie. -  "No matter what, never lose your sense of humor... keep smiling and make em laugh"... If you haven't seen the musical, check it out.   Its a classic for a reason! And I just remembered, the first time I ever saw this movie, I rented it from the library I was working in!  Yay! Love it when life brings you full  circle...

Make 'em Laugh - Cosmo Brown, oil, 6"x6", to purchase click here

Day 18 of the 30 in 30 - "Family Outing"

I had to revisit the duck family today.  I figured Sunday was a good day to check this sweet little clutch out again as they could be just coming back from church or maybe going to Mom-Mom's... I left this one very gestural as I was pinched and had to limit my time in the studio.  As an aside, it is really a good exercise to sometimes give yourself an hour (only) and finish a painting in that time.  Makes you plan and work efficiently, plus gives some good lessons along the way...

Family Outing, oil, 8"x8", $135, to purchase click here

Day 4 of the 30 in 30 - "Ducks in London"

Evidently London held first place for a long time as the number one place visited in the world, until last year.  Then Bangkok took that title, and London moved to second place.  Still not too shabby.  I can actually say that I have been to London, and saw Big Ben in person.  Not something I can say about many of the other places on the list.  But, I flew into Heathrow when I was about 20 years old and stayed in the square mile for a few days before moving on to Glasgow where I studied ceramics.  

This is another of my "Glimpsed" paintings in which I present to you fleeting visions of the World's 20 most popular tourist sites.  It is a view of Big Ben with two Bobbies taking a stroll.  One of them just found out they are being followed by some friendly ducks. I added the ducks just for so, (I thought this composition could use 'em) and made the sky a bit more dramatic than was in the original reference pic I got while perusing Google Street view. If you scroll down below my painting, I included the original screenshot. As you can see, there are many alterations I make to a reference photo before I make it into a painting I can live with.

Ducks in London, oil, 4"x18"
for purchasing info, please click here