Another beautiful Sunday afternoon ...

 

... a perfect time for venturing out into the pasture for more daffodil gathering.

 Three weeks since these yellow jonquils first start blooming, and they're still going strong!

 These little white ones with orange centers
just started making their appearance a few days ago.

 Roadie came with me, to “help.”

After a while, the neighbors came out to visit.

As usual, I stayed out longer than I had intended. (I am my father’s daughter in this regard.)

When I decided it was probably about time to be heading in and turned around, 

the oh-so-close-to-being-full moon rising up over the trees along the railroad track 

took my breath away. 

Then Roadie and I came inside for a snack of hot chocolate and Milk Bones.

Roadie had the Milk Bones. I opted for the hot chocolate. 

Surprise!

SOLD

Perennial Joy  © 2013 Karen Mathison Schmidt, artist

6 x 6 inches • oil on archival, museum-quality GessobordTM

private collection • Shreveport, Louisiana

... or maybe you totally saw this daffodil painting coming.

After working on my Threshold of Glory landscape for a day or two, I found myself getting bogged down and fussing around too much with detail, so I decided to step back from it for the time being, and work on some sort of abstract-y, expressionist-y paintings to shake that nit-picky mood and cleanse my palate. (Or palette, maybe?) Then I can go back to that one with refreshed eyes.

I’ve been a busy art bee the last couple of days: 

• I thoroughly enjoyed painting these joyful jonquils (you can see a close-up detail below) ...

• plus I started a new horse painting ... 

• plus I finished the logo for our church’s upcoming Women’s Night Out event, the theme of which is an apropos reminder NOT to let myself get into a creativity rut (if there even is such a thing!)

Happy Painting!

Almost done ...

 Threshold of Glory WORK-IN-PROGRESS

Almost finished this one yesterday ... check back later for the finished painting, 

Lord willing and the creeks don’t rise, that is!

A new landscape

WORK-IN-PROGRESS

Here’s where I am on a new landscape. This one is larger than my usual: 18 x 36 inches, the sunrise over the overflowing pond out in the pasture. Can hardly wait to start adding color!

Happy painting!

Shades of Where the Red Fern Grows ...

Two of a Kind © 2013 Karen Mathison Schmidt, artist

7 x 5 inches • acrylic on museum quality, archival GessobordTM

gloss varnish for UV protection

Here are Sophie and Buster enjoying a father/daughter moment in the winter sun on the back steps.

Chances are if you’re around my age and were living just about anywhere in the South when you were a fourth-, fifth- or sixth-grader, you read, or had read to you at one time or another, Wilson Rawls’ children’s classic, Where the Red Fern Grows. When I was putting the finishing touches on this one, it brought to mind the dogs in the story, Old Dan and Little Ann. Those fictional dogs were pure Redbones, mind you, and ours are mixed. But still. I remember how much I enjoyed reading it, and of course, crying at the end.

Later it was made into a movie, in 1974, and then again in 2003, and though neither was quite as good as the book, I still cried at the end. If you enjoy dog stories, you might want to look for it at your library, the bookstore, or here on Amazon. 

Even though it’s a children’s book, I still enjoy it. If you’ve never read it, try to resist googling the synopsis, and go straight for the book. Be sure to have some Kleenex handy.

Old Dan was brave and strong, while Little Ann was very intelligent. Both were very loyal to each other and to Billy. ... Old Dan had the brawn, and Little Ann had the brains.

Daffodils ... such a jocund company!

I received an email today from a fellow dog lover who recently bought a couple of art prints from me (thanks, Lori!) She lives in Michigan, and she shared that she has been busy shoveling the tons of snow they’ve had lately.

That made me feel super blessed (and just a teeny bit guilty) to be able to walk out just before dark this evening to gather some daffodils to share with friends.

We have a bumper crop of blooms this year, testifying to the fact that we’ve had just the right amount of rain and sunshine in January and February.

Not to mention plenty of natural fertilizer ...

... direct from the source.

I’m really glad the source didn’t trample these beauties 

in the process of leaving her contribution.

There have been lots of double and triple blooms this year.

I love this teeny ones, just about a half inch in diameter, and oh, so fragrant!

The Irish snowdrops are just starting to come onto the scene ... 

they’ll be out in full force in a few days.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

Sophie: a dog of concerns

I was able to squeeze in a little more time on this one today. I just love painting these redbones!

 Two of a Kind work-in-progress detail: Sophie

Here’s our Sophie. She’s a dog of concerns. 

She hasn’t shared any of them with me because she doesn’t want to burden me.

But I can tell she has concerns because ever since she was just a pup 

she’s gone around with a perpetually furrowed brow and a rather worried look. 

 Which I think is precious.

And absolutely beautiful.