Fur In The Paint

Okay, so now that I have framed them up, they have really grown on me. I did them different than my other handmade papers primarily because I used a frame I had in stock since we leave today for Omaha. It’s a perfect fit, just a little larger than I would use had I framed it as the others.

We’ll be back on Monday. Wish me good weather . . . better yet great sales.

Twins - 10 1/2 x 13
Oil Pastel on handmade paper
Copyright by Mona Majorowicz

Okay, so here they are in all their revolting cuteness. They have a rather nasty gray green color in my raw scan (shown here) that doesn’t exist in real life. The painting actually has lovely pastels of yellow, pink, green and blue in the shadow areas. I swear if they got anymore Easteresque, they would have to come with their own bag of candy. At least to my credit, I stopped short by not adding clover and butterflies.

All I can say for myself is apparently I needed a little of the Too Cute, or they wouldn’t have turned out this way. I bravely posted the finished painting to remind myself what can happen when doing baby animals that are too cute by nature. So please, dear readers, when next I say something like . . . I think I’ll do some baby bunnies, little duckies or romping kittens. You’ll remind me of this moment. All you’ll have to say is “remember the lamb incident.”

Hmmm. Maybe I should make Easter cards with image? Always thinking about marketing.

Personal Note: Since I have spent soooo much time talking about marketing, I thought I should mention the content of this post is NOT how you sell a painting. Never, (ever, ever) talk like this about your own work. I pondered whether I should even write this, but it amused me to do so. Plus, I rarely take myself too seriously.

Here’s my progress thus far on my lambs. Still not liking the cute thing, but what am gonna do about it? I put down brown paper so when I color the deckled edges I don’t completely mess up my drafting table.

These lambs are from our first year crop of lambs. A few years after we moved to Iowa we decided we needed to raise some livestock and we thought sheep were the critters for us.

We bought about a dozen ewe lambs of mixed heritage and let them mature fully. We like to think of our critters health in terms of the long haul, and waiting a little longer to breed them was they way to go. So when the time finally came, we went shopping for a ram. Since we had so few ewes, and since we intended to keep the ewe lambs, we picked out an older (cheaper) ram, which we would replace the following season.

He was a handsome stately gentleman, whom we named Chester. (why? Mike liked the sound of it. And of course “He just looks like a Chester.”) Chester was gentle, and there was nothing bully-like in his behavior at all. (You know, what you actually picture a ram’s personality to be.)

Well the girls loved him. He was always surrounded by two or three ewes, nuzzling his nose and ears, leaning against him and just in general following him around like a bunch of groupies. They never gave him a moments rest.

A few short weeks later we found him dead in the paddock. No coyotes or anything noticeable as to why he died. So we just surmised it was old age. Chester had done his job though. Every ewe had at least one lamb.

The following season we got a new younger ram. The girls wanted no part of him. He was course where Chester was gentle. He harassed them while Chester just let them come to him. It was then that it dawned on us that perhaps the girls had just sexed Chester to death. I mean he was older, but they really just kept after him the whole time. Nothing rough, just always gently touching him and surrounding him, grinning and winking.

Not sure if there is a moral here. Maybe, guys be kind to the ladies and you’ll get all the nookie you can handle? Hmm. Probably not appropriate comment for my g-rated blog huh? All I know is we never got another ram who the ewes like half as well as Chester. And oddly enough in the many years that followed, we never liked any other ram half as well either.

Well I am back to working on my lambs. They are coming along well enough. The photo here is (as usual) not so great. It is missing all the subtle soft color changes that I worked so hard on, and is making the colors transitions look harsh.

They are just a little too cute for my taste. I don’t really do cute. Yet somehow I am struggling to keep them from becoming even more cute. They are just about Easter card material as it is. Not sure what my problem is, other than doing baby animals lends itself to cute. (Sigh) I suppose the good news is, that by being cute they will pretty much be sure to be popular.