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Love Poems and Irony

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  I confess I have become a cynic when it comes to romantic love.   I watch those Hallmark movies and want to hurl when the same formula happens.   Boy meets girl.   Boy and girl don’t hit it off, they rub each other the wrong way and somehow in the space of say, a week or ten days, they find a spark and fall in love.   Or, they have a spark, have fun times, but… one of them manage to tick the other person off, the boy or girl storms out, a month or two passes, they find their way back to each other and… oh!! They can’t be without each other forever and ever amen! So, I gather by reading this diatribe you have figured out that I have not been lucky in love.   And yet, I do have in my library, a small collection of love poems!   Interesting oxymoron I know. I collect old books and one of the books I have in my collection is a book titled The Penguin Book of Italian Verse .  It’s a beauty, a first edition published in 1958.  And did I tell you?...
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The Making of a Commission

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First things first, it is good to know the background of the person requesting the commission piece.   When I was asked to do a body of work for a couple, I did not know them and was concerned about getting paid.   I also had not met the dog, I believe he had since passed away and they wanted a painting to remember him by and a large one at that.   I was given a few photographs of the dog, not wonderful ones for me to work with.  I always like to take my own and do my own field sketches if possible.  That way, I have a good grasp of my subject.   However, that is not always possible especially if the person or pet is deceased.  The dog in question was a purebred husky named Bobby.   So, I started to work researching huskies and doing all sorts of sketches.   Below are examples of my research.   Finally, I felt I was ready to work on the finished piece and the finished product was a large painting on Masonite board in acrylic ...
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Almost Famous 😎

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  I had an experience with a commission where I can say I almost had a claim to fame.   We developed a pretty good relationship with our lawyer at the time, (he was a lawyer in a small town but was headed for some pretty big things) and he worked his way up to become our MPP for Muskoka Lakes and Georgian Bay. So, Bill asked me to do a commission on his house, paint it.   No pressure, have it done whenever I could get it done.   I was pretty nervous, but took it on.   I’m a perfectionist at heart and didn’t want to blow this.   I spent quite a bit of time there.   It’s a beautiful Cape Cod type of style surrounded with gorgeous mature gardens, lush greenery all around and on Lake Joseph.   An idyllic paradise. I painted small preliminary sketches, different views and decided which one that would be the final piece. In  the en d I chose the complete view of the house with the gardens and thankfully, they were quite pleased with it as well. ...
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Well, What are you Waiting For?

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 Well, I'm trying again with a second post.  I'm finding that this isn't very user friendly.  Sorry Google, not so wonderful.  Perhaps it's me.  Probably.  I'm more artistic.  This format is too rigid.  I like to color outside the lines. Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to write and draw.  I can't remember not doing both.  My sister and I spent hours in the crawl space as kids drawing elaborate characters and stories of people and animals sorting out problems and living fantastic lives.  It was our way of dealing with the incredible stressors we were dealing with at home.  That's another story for another time.  I had always dreamed of being published someday and writing children's stories.  Somehow, my sister was able to realize that dream and doing quite well.  My path took quite a different turn and I'm still hoping that somehow, someway, that my dream will gather momentum.   In the meantime,...
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