Brande Arno Art

4 x 4 inches, Oil on Gessoboard Click to bid From Pinterest, I found the Daily Otter blog.  One of the posts was a short video of a grouping of otters trying to catch a butterfly.  The way they tracked the butterfly reminded me of cats.  After looking at a few Pinterest boards featuring all manner of otters, I got inspired to paint another.

6 x 6 inches, Oil on Gessoboard - Sold Charlie Ferguson is inspired by this morning's visit to our neighborhood auto repair shop, Ferguson's Garage.  The older Ferguson (Charlie) smokes cigars. There is usually a box of doughnuts and one or two other men sitting around. There is never any swearing and the shop is very clean.  But the best part is their honesty and reasonable prices.  All of which is a rare commodity, but not as rare as an otter smoking a cigar.  

5 x 5 inches Oil on Gessoboard -$ 75. Sold - Thank you   Very glad to be at the easel today.  So had to pick an otter pose that would say just that...happy artist, happy otter.  And why is painting a happy otter so important today?  Because I've been very sick since January 6.   Started out with just a tickle cough and usually, a couple of large doses of Vitamin C does it.  But...Not last week.    You could say I had the typical cold, but that quickly fell into a full blown bronchial infection. Antibiotics are still miracle drugs.   

River Otter Mug Shot No. 7, Oil on Gessoboard 5 x 5 inches, $ 60.00 Click to buy OK,  so now I'm having problems with my blogger account.  I can thank a certain teenage member of the family who was visiting her grandma, kidnapped my computer and signed me off google. I've been trying to fix the blogger problem, but now find I have a computer problem.  See, I don't know what I'm doing, but that doesn't stop me from pressing buttons.   Even though my screen doesn't have the same layout, I'm good because I can post today's painting.  

Otter Mug Shot No. 6, 5 x 5 inches, Oil on Gessoboard Buy with Paypal  $ 60. The last day of 2014 finds me in the studio being inspired to paint another River Otter.  Just love these adorable playful creatures.  This otter and artist wish all a very safe and happy New Year's eve celebration.  I have my wonderful granddaughter visiting and soon we'll be hitting the market to load up a cart full of junk food.  

"Sunshine Otter" 5 x 7 inches, Oil on Gessoboard - Sold This otter was a commission and a pleasure to paint.  But there was a challenge though, that being the tail as this otter is sitting with his tail between his legs.  I guess otters do that, so I decided to soften the tail and feet and make it all about the cute little otter face and whiskers.

The Floater, Finished 12 x 16 inches, collection of the artist Well, this little River Otter is finished!  In addition to finishing the eyes, I adjusted the colors of the water and tried to bring out some of the water's reflections on the fur.  And oh yeah, I put the fizz in the bubbles.

The Floater, 12 x 16 inches, Oil on Gessoboard This piece is not finished yet, but close.  Sometimes a painting at this stage can get the artist in trouble as they try to bring it to completion.  So today I stopped at a good point so that I'll have fresh eyes tomorrow.  I'll need some luck also. This is what the painting looked like 4 days ago.  Although I liked the pose, I did make some changes with the otter's back legs with today's painting session.  I also worked more detail in the front paws. 

Otter Mug Shot ll, 5 x 5 inches, Oil on Gesso Board $ 95.   Purchase on Paypal I'm so glad to have a full painting day today and I wanted to start by creating another Otter Mug Shot piece. I'm more drawn to paintings with brushwork and I find descriptive brushwork is very difficult and sometimes impossible to capture.  But I keep trying.