Dog focus today

Remy and I took our regular walkies this afternoon.  The weather was just lovely.  The bunnies were out in force - hopping hither and yon, in some instances right in front of Remy!  He's doing really well keeping his predatory drive in check.  While he does give the bunnies a good look, he doesn't chase after them.  Of course he  gets a nice treat for being a very good boy.  And just see the face I get to look at:

<3

And from my art journal, a couple of things -

Another (!) dog:

Quick pen sketch.

And this quote that I like and illustrated for fun:

:-)

Walkies and Sketches

Remy and I went on walkies for the first time in days and days.  He sniffed so much I was tired just watching him.  It always amazes me that dogs don't pass out from all that non-stop sniffing.

My happy boy :-)

These sketches are from a couple of days ago:

Golden in Motion

Sitting

Dogs are one of my favorite subjects to draw.  I suppose coffee mugs and imaginary flowers are in the mix, too :-)

Sketching my Golden

Remy and I have changed out walkies from early evening to early morning.  I think we both prefer it; the birds are active and singing and bunnies are hopping around everywhere :-)

And speaking of Remy, I did a sketch of my boy today.   

He was laying down and something caught his attention:

Graphite

He is doing much better because no one has set off any firecrackers in a couple of days.  And as far as thunder, he appears to tolerate it a bit better.  However, lightning remains problematical.

Year of the Fairy Tale break or... scratch and stipple :-)

Year of the Fairy Tale is on a short break.  Perfect timing because Diane Culhane's online workshop, "Paint Your Garden" started on Monday.  Last year I took a class from her called "Between Speech and Silence" that I enjoyed immensely.  Understandably I was eagerly anticipating this latest offering and I have not been disappointed :-)

Monday - some quick, small studies:

Scratching an imaginary plant.

And then another one...

Next, some fun tree shapes:

A gold one....dab, dab, dab.

A red tree (my favorite)

And finally, more stippling to create the purple one :-)

Studio time is best when the work is all consuming and I lose track of time. But on the other hand, regaining a foot hold in the unfolding day is necessary.  Fortunately I have this guy -

Good dog, Remy.

who reminds me that it's time to take a break and get outdoors for walkies :-)

Talking to me without saying a word...

Remy's looking at me like this and his expression "speaks volumes".

Bored. Sad. "When can we go walkies???"

Br-r-r-r. We've been in the deep freeze for like what seems "forever"...well, okay, I exaggerate, but for many, many days the "high" daytime temp has been in the single digits. Oy, even Remy doesn't like his tootsies to be in the snow in temps like that. But he still misses "walkies". My sad little Golden.

However, today the temperature soared to 45 degrees (!) and Remy and I were able to get outdoors and enjoy the brisk temperature, slight breeze and beautiful sunshine. He had a smile on his face and his tail was waving like a flag - two signs he is really having a good time. Makes my heart happy :-)

Walkies...

is something Remy and I look forward to every day. And yesterday evening this was the beautiful sunset we enjoyed:

A beautiful evening for walkies :-)

Is this normal?

Remy and I were on walkies yesterday afternoon. We were moving along at a nice clip when this white thing caught my eye:

Huh?

We checked it out more carefully and saw that it was...

Wow, it's a meow!

a cat!
I know very little about cat behavior and I wondered, "Is this is a cat thing?"  It did look quite at ease until it saw a perky Golden Retriever giving it his full attention. I paused long enough to take a pic and then we left so that this cat could go back to its reverie...

Flowers everywhere!

Walkies are so nice - I am outdoors walking with my Remy. He is such a happy Golden - looking and sniffing and checking out anything new on "his" turf. Bunnies eyeing us and baby birds wildly chirping.
Flowers are blooming everywhere. Remy sticks his entire face into them (!) whilst my appreciation is at a more conservative distance :-)
So inspiring - I completed this Planet-ary flowers painting:

Bloomin'

Beautiful evening

for walkies. Remy was being goofy; I think he liked the flowers best when he stuck his entire head in them for a good sniff!

A charming Golden boy.

With the wet...

come the flowers. A lot of rain the past few days. Hail yesterday morning - unusual.
Remy and I were on walkies and we spied a bit of color. This:

Time to investigate:

Remy really put his nose into it:

Okay, so he probably wasn't checking out the blossoms exactly :-)

Today was a great day

for getting outside with Remy:

He's a bit impatient - he wants to get on with 'walkies'!

Checking out the pear tree blossoms:

Blossoms everywhere!

But then there's the NWS winter storm watch for tomorrow evening: snow...

Bootie time!

Walkies - yay! Bootie - boo! Paw injury that still hasn't healed makes it a necessity. Remy forgets all about it though if there is something "yummy" (you don't want to know...) to sniff.

Something has captured Remy's attention :-)