The Entomologist

Dear Friends,

Here is another early sculpture piece. The title is self explanatory. This cat is inspecting a beetle ( which, by the way, is superbly rendered if I do say so myself ), but has no intention whatever of actually touching it. If you have cats, you know this situation. This piece is about 12" high and a tad longer. It is made of water based clay, fired to stone hardness, and it sits on a base of hand rubbed wood.

I've entered this in a couple of shows and it's done well, receiving good reviews and winning prizes. Judges seem to like the looseness.

I did this one early on in my sculpture learning process and I hope I've improved some since then. But maybe not. You'll have to be the judge as I present the pieces as they came later. There are some horses and those will come along in the blog soon. I hope you like this.

Our place is a riot of purple color right now. Since the bad drought last year killed off much of our grass, even the native stuff, the fields have been taken over by the weed species. In our case, at least the weeds are beautiful purple prairie verbena. I should post a photo just so you can see it. Maybe I will.

Best regards,

Jay

Faithful Reader,

Here is one of the sculptures I've done over the past year or so. This is one of the reasons you haven't heard from me. This African elephant was done from a series of photos taken by a friend of mine who was lucky enough to travel to Africa a few years ago and go on a photo safari. He was kind enough to let me use some of his wonderful work as model for this young African.

The piece is about a foot tall and about the same in length. It is made of fired clay and then painted to get the golden color I like on it. The tail, which I'll show in a later blog is made of wire covered with material and then also painted. This waterbased clay fires hard as a rock and is very durable. Will it break? Yes, if you smash it hard enough, but not under normal treatment for sculpture.

To answer a common question, yes the tusks are also fired clay.

I had a ball doing this piece and it sits in my home right now. But it is for sale at $350. You pay shipping. If you have questions, please feel free to ask. I have lots of pictures of this one.

Dear All,

I can't believe it's been so long since last I put something on the blog. Yes, I'm still in the clutches of a less than cooperative computer and between that and the lack of interest in photographing my work, I've had no enthusiasm for putting new entries out there. But I get complaints. So here is a piece I've had done for a while but it should be new to you. This is Louise, one of my own cats, sitting in her favorite spot--a sunbeam.

I do have plenty more oil paintings to show you, but I wanted to tell you that I am still doing sculpture and that is also a reason I've fallen off the face of the blog world. It's just too much fun. And it's time consuming. I've been learning a lot from Trace Guthrie, my instructor, and have even had my work accepted into a few sculpture shows and have even won a few prizes with it. I am sticking to what I know, meaning horses and dogs and cats. I want to show these pieces to you soon. One I am particularly happy about is a group of four horses running together. It doesn't sound like much, but my intent was to give an idea of the power and grace of a running horse and I think I've at least touched the edge of that. The problem with it is photographing it. It's fairly complicated. Eventually I'll get something good enough to put on the blog.

Here's hoping I get something else on the blog before next winter sets in. Please let me know you've heard from me.

Jay

Dog Sculpture

Dear All,

Here is the dog sculpture I talked about last time. This is one of the three first sculptures I did. It is not bronze, as it looks, but fired clay painted to look like bronze. The dog is based on my Aussie, Keen, but is not a portrait in that the ears are not placed as hers are. It was never meant to be anything more than a practice piece, but I was not unhappy with how it turned out.

This week my art friends and I went to the Pleasanton area, which is south of San Antonio, and painted wildflowers. Now this was not an ordinary spring trip. We've had two years of horrific drought which killed off a lot of the local grasses. This was followed by a record breaking wet winter and all of that contributed to the best year ever for wild flowers. Spectacular is not enough to describe the acres and acres of blue, salmon, pink, white, magenta, yellow. The flowers are everywhere--roadsides, fields, yards, pastures, woodlots, etc. We even found one of our best views in a sand pit area. I did three pieces which will need a bit of tweaking in the studio, but those will soon be on the blog. It was great to be outside painting again.

Jay

Pinguinos

Dear Folks,
I told you I'd be back. Here is one of my early returns to the watercolor medium. I think I've given the Spanish word for penguins correctly and spelled it right. If not, you can tell me I'm wrong and I'll change it. These are Gentoo Penguins, by the way, and I painted them from a photo in a magazine which means I can't use the painting for anything except practice, but I was pretty happy with this first effort. I sure like doing all sorts of animals.
Jay

"The Girls"

Dear Friends,

At long last I return to the blog with little excuse for having been away so long. I do note that the last post I made, which was in May, was the same time we acquired our new puppy and the rigors of raising a little baby pup--only 7 weeks old when we got her--have been distracting. She's a cutey though, and shows signs of being a great agility dog.

This portrait of three Labrador Retrievers has kept me busy too. I've spent most of the summer working on it one way or another. It took a while to arrange to have all three dogs together at the same time, as they live in different parts of the state, and we ended up bringing them all to my house so I could photo them together. That made it much easier for me rather than trying to match lighting and coloring from different photos taken at different times and in different places. Then I admit to a great deal of waffling on the background for the dogs. I don't think I spent more than a few weeks on the dogs themselves, but the background drove me nuts. I tried foliage. I tried a lot of foliage. I tried black, and orange, and green and ---you get the picture. It involved a lot of fooling around.

The issue was not helped when the mother dog--the one with all the gray on her face--passed away suddenly and left an owner in mourning and me feeling the pressure to put my best foot forward. Fortunately the owner and everyone else who has seen the painting and knew the dog are in agreement that I managed to capture the physical appearance and spirit of this beloved pet.

So now I am on to the next great thing. Watercolor. I have joined a class with a great friend of mine and am relearning technique after a ten year hiatus from the medium. It's been a great deal of fun and I'll be showing you some of the work as soon as I can. I promise! Soon!

Jay

Panda

Dear Faithful Readers,

Here is Panda, the Shih Tzu, a beloved pet of one of my dear dog friends. Panda lived a very long and happy life and was so endearing to her owner that she wanted a portrait.

This is an oil on gessoed board, 8"x10", and was done from a series of good photos supplied by the owner. The main photo I used did not have a good look at the eyes so I used one of the others for that. Can't have a portrait without eyes, can we? I liked the fact that the photo had the bouganvilla in it as that provided me an excuse to use some bright color to set off a black and white dog. And since the photo was taken in the owners garden, that lends something to the painting too.

I sure enjoy doing these animal portraits. I just like the subject matter.

Next to go on the blog, though, will be a waterscape taken from a photo in Charleston Harbor a couple of years ago. As soon as I get it photoed, it will go on the blog. Keep tuned!

Jay

Emily

Hey, y'all!

Here we have Emily, who belongs to the daughter of my friend Peggy. Emily runs her house with a strict paw and takes no nonsense from anybody. She was grandly gracious to pose for me in this beam of light so that I might appreciate just how elegant she is. Naturally, a painting followed. Emily eats well, a fact not hidden by her long flowing coat, and I did not choose to make her a bit more svelt. If she had been nicer to me, maybe--.

I really enjoyed doing this. My favorite part is the light glowing through the cat's ear. I did this pretty much entirely at the fall River Art Group show at La Villita, as a demonstration piece. You haven't seen it before because I was tied up with aforementionned surgery recovery and then troubles with the computer AND troubles with getting a photo which was in focus. I hope you like it now.

Jay

Rainbow the Bichon

Dear Patient Friends,

This is one of the long ago promised paintings of my aunt's little Bichon, Rainbow. It's one of the many projects I completed while I was away from the blog for so long.

My surgery turned out to be more of a deal to recover from than I had anticipated and while nothing really went amiss, it seems I am slow to get my brain back in real gear after anaesthesia. I sort of knew this before but didn't think this particular surgery would turn into one of those long recoveries. Right about the time I decided I was ready to return to the internet my computer decided to have it's own brain failures and I've been fighting that for a month or more. I finally had to call a computer company and even they had to make extra trips. The end result is that none of my usual settings are where I am used to them and I am still thrashing around trying to get images where they are supposed to go--in focus. Let's hope you all get this.

This was a fun painting to do. I started it while at the fall River Art Group show as a demo piece. I finished it in the studio and am pleased with how it turned out. This is a cute little dog with a lot of personality and he was easy to paint.

I have finished the horse painting I have been working on for a couple of months and will get that on the blog soon. I took pictures of that as it progressed so you can see it as it went along. I'll keep this short in hopes some of you, at least, are still with me on the blog and would prefer I not talk so much. Let me know if you are still out there in computer land. It's always good to get feedback.

Best wishes,
Jay

The Flying English Setter

Dear All,

Here is the action painting of Dove, the dog I showed in portrait yesterday. D'Lynn had a very nice photo taken at a show which showed Dove in full excited extension. I made some adjustments to enhance the feeling of movement. I changed the angle of the tail to a more upright position to give the feeling of lift. And I lowered the position of the pole to let you know how high Dove can go. She really does air her jumps.

The two portraits from yesterday were done on gessoed board and required framing. This piece is done on gallery wrapped linen canvas and does not require framing if it is not desired. The colors of the background go around the sides of the painting and make a complete image without needing to be set off by a frame.

Again, this is done with a very light oil wash for the background, to let the brush strokes help with the feeling of movement. The figure of the dog is done in opaque paint.

I love doing this sort of work. I think it brings the animal to life to show it doing what it does best. And, much as most owners think they would like a more formal portrait, I think this is the way they really remember their beloved pet. Out there happy and laughing and doing whatever it is that makes them special to the owner.

I hope you like this as much as I do.
Jay

English Setters!

Dear All,

Herewith are the promised dog portraits I've been working on the past couple of months. There is still one more painting of the top dog which is an action painting but I haven't gotten that loaded into the computer yet. Tomorrow.

These two dogs belong to D'Lynn, one of the folks we train with at Eurodog Training center. The top dog is Dove, her current competition agility dog. Dove is a sweetie with a great disposition and plenty of drive to be a top level competitor. In fact, twice now, she has gone to the National AKC Agility Invitationals, where only the top five dogs in each breed in the country are invited to participate. Dove is currently the top English Setter in Agility in AKC in the country!

The bottom painting is of Belle, D'Lynn's very first English Setter from several years ago. Belle has been gone now for several years, but D'Lynn holds her in a special place in her heart and wanted a portrait of that special dog. I never knew this dog, but doing the portrait made me feel a connection to her as though she'd been sitting at my feet while I was at the easel.

I hope you like these dog portraits. I think they came out rather well. They are small, on my usual 8"x10" gessoed board, and were varnished and framed in matching frames before being presented. Now stay tuned tomorrow for the action painting of Dove flying her fences!

Jay

The Andalusian

Hi everyone!

Here is one of my favorite horse paintings. It's a little one, only 8"x10", but I like the style and the color and the drawing and the subject and - and --. Well, I like it.

This horse belongs to the De La Parra family here in San Antonio. Several years ago I was with a group of trail riding women who were invited to visit their facility to see their Andalusian stallions and watch them work. It was a wonderful experience. I took a lot of photos, but this gray really struck a pose for us as we all snapped away with our cameras. I am sorry that I never learned his name but he was a fine looking animal.

One reason I like this painting is the many colors in the coat of a seemingly " white" horse. So much yellow reflected from the ground to his belly, and so much light blue in the folds of his muscle and skin.

I've had several offers to buy this piece, but I just can't make myself part with it. I use it on my business cards and as a sample piece for anyone wanting a portrait of their own horse.

I hope you like it as much as I do.

Have a great day!

Jay

The Hunter

Hi Y'all,



This is one of my very favorite animal paintings. I did it last year after a visit to Charleston SC where we did the tourist thing at Magnolia Gardens. Amidst all the beautiful Spanish Moss draped trees and lovely flower beds and gracious lawns, here was this American Egret poking about in the shallows of a swamp. He was oblivious to my presence and stayed long enough to let me do several photos of him. In fact, he was still there when I was done photographing. Obviously he was used to tourists.



I was a little dubious when I started the piece as I wasn't sure about two things--one was composition, which I felt might be too simplistic, and the other was the challenge of painting a bird, something I've avoided until now. I used to work closely with lots of birds for many years and I came away from that experience feeling that the feathering was too complicated for me to paint. I've always been somewhat intimidated by those who paint birds well.



But I don't think my worries were justified. I like the composition on this. And my rather loose style worked with this particular bird, I thought. Would love to hear your opinions on it though! By the way, this piece is 8"x10", oil on board and is framed in a wide gold plein air frame.

Let me know if you are having trouble still with postings to Jay Lauver's Art Blog. I'll see what I can do.



Have a great day!

Jay

Personal Friends

Any artist with pets sooner or later makes them subjects of their work. I am no exception. I want you to meet two of our co-habitants who held still long enough for me to get a useable photo for painting purposes. On the right is my very good friend, William. This is his puppy picture. He looked just like this when we got him at 3 months. He is an adoptee from the Animal Defense League in San Antonio. He is the guy who got us into agility way back a long time ago. He is now ten and retired from competition but remains top dog in the household and one of the sweetest dispositions in a dog I've ever met. On the left is Louise, now about seven. She and her brother Bo came to us as street urchins as kittens. She never stopped eating when she moved in. This painting is enhanced somewhat in that I made her look a little thinner than she actually is. Sort of what you hope any artist would do for you too.

My objective when I do any animal, besided just loving to do it, is to create a piece of artwork, not just a record of that animal. I want the work to stand on it's own as something anyone would appreciate, not just animal lovers. I try my best to apply all the elements of art to these sorts of work-- composition, lighting, color, edges, etc. Thus I am not aiming for a strictly photographic likeness, but more of a feel for the animal. I think this gives the painting life.

I have finally competed my photography project and will now be able to put more of the existing work on the blog. I'm looking forward to showing you more! Keep those comments coming, please!

Jay

Gentle Readers,



This rather fanciful image is of a horse I had been commissioned to portrait. After the portrait was done, I was intrigued with the wild abandon of his cavorting, and decided to try to capture that. It's a fairly large piece, done on canvas and was selected to be in a show at the airport where it was seen by thousands of people walking by. One of those people happened to be a friend of mine who was taken with it and eventually purchased it for her home. This tickled me on two fronts. One, artists always like to know that their work is appreciated. Second, I get to see it!



Today I am photographing. Maybe tomorrow I'll get some of those on the blog. Stay tuned.

Jay