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The Enchanting Echidna, my new Children’s science book is being published by blurb.com as you read this. It should be available for purchase very soon. Spending the entire studio time today painting fine art was a welcome break from the cartoon characters that I have gotten to know while illustrating this book that I wrote. My cartoon characters and the storyline for this book make me chuckle when I read it…. is that conceit?

Deciding between a still life painting in oil and a pastel of a snow leopard portrait, that are both partially done, was my decision of choice today. The still life won. The simple arrangement of a copper watering can, a potted white orchid and a stoppered glass bottle, half-filled with the blue water of dissolved fertilizer, were my companions today. However, there was a battle in the studio, so maybe I should call them my adversaries instead of companions. Well, to be honest, only the orchid was my foe. A simple white orchid and it was testing my patience. Finally, after several hours of working on the orchid's flowers, I scraped the paint off of the flower portion in the painting and picked out another orchid to replace it. My new companion was a yellow and burgundy beauty, and its colors were perfect for the feeling that I am going for in this piece. The painting quickly fell into place. After struggling for so long today with that white orchid, I couldn’t believe how having the “right” colored orchid made all the difference in winning the battle. I couldn’t “fix” the flower because it was “unfixable” due to the fact that it was not right for the painting. Not having the right elements in the composition can keep you struggling with no solution.

Mountain Meadow Graziers used to have three bull elk in velvet lying down in the grass. It was one of those paintings that just didn’t seem to come together for me. I didn’t think it looked bad, in fact, I really liked how the elk bulls turned out, but they didn’t look right for the painting. Sometimes the best thing to do is to take out what isn’t working. Painting out the elk and letting the meadow stay empty for a while gave me time to ruminate about the piece [pun intended :D ]. Slowly, an idea formed, and three little heifers wandered into the field. Are they right or wrong for the piece? I don’t know. I do know that my husband likes them there, so they can graze peacefully, for now. If some day I don’t think that they  look right for the piece, I might have to let them go on to greener pastures.