Dog Note Cards

Set of 10 note cards with envelopes, two each of five designs. 

These adorable dogs are glossy A2 note cards, a nice gift idea for yourself or a friend.

Dog Days of Summer

©St. Hilaire Nelson 2010
Boxer in progress on portable easel in the vacation house living room

This week I am at the beach in North Carolina, the Outer Banks, with the extended Nelson family. There are 14 of us (8 adults, 6 children) and this is our 11th year coming to Buck Island to rent a big house on the beach. In the last few years I have made a point of taking art with me to work on here.

Creating art on vacation is one of my favorite things to do. I get up early in the morning and come up to my portable stick easel on the top floor of the house. From here I can see the ocean, it's peaceful and beautiful and very inspiring. Usually when I am up painting, most of the other Nelson family is asleep, at least for a little while.

My travel supplies for the beach are much like my travel supplies for the Dance Competition weekends with one exception, here I do not have to work on my lap! I can spread out and work on larger pieces. I can actually stand at the easel, like I am accustomed to at home. Similarly to dressing room projects, I do work out of gallon zip lock bags filled with hand painted paper divided by color, and I do bring my wood panels already under-painted.

This week I actually FORGOT my #8 filbert! I was in a state of panic when I unpacked my supplies to find all but the brush! Thank Goodness art runs in the blood of the Nelson family. My Mother-in-Law had a brush for me to borrow, she said she travels with them "just in case."

Do you have artists in your family? Do you think that artistic ability is hereditary? Both my husband and his mother are excellent artists. My parents were not artists, but I have an uncle who was very artistic in college. I have some of John's student work pottery in my studio.

Take the poll to the left of the Boxer art to give your opinion about Nature vs. Nurture.

Buck Island on Dwellable

Looking for a Title

©2010 St. Hilaire Nelson

This Dalmatian is the most recent in my series of dog collages. I'd have to say that in the beginning I was not to fond of creating dogs, but they are seriously growing on me. I think I really enjoyed the Dalmatian because he has the same coloring as a black and white cow. I felt I was familiar with this color pattern and how to solve the shading in the white areas.

Necessity being the mother of invention, this dog ended up with some purple and burgundy spots because my stash of black papers was pretty much non existent.

So now, I am searching for a title for this guy. Something with a little pizzaz. I open it up to you for suggestions!

Inspired Work

©2010 Kimberly Santini

Kimberly Santini was inspired by Paper Paintings and she took it and ran with it. You can see that Kimberly has adapted her own "look" and created this fantastic colorful dog. Boy do I love color!

Kimberly toasted me with her OJ this morning because she just recently won the Mutt Lunch Winery label contest with this dog! How great is that, worth an OJ toast indeed.

Kimberly told me she's been following my blog and putting links on her blog as well as her FaceBook about my work. She thanked me for my regular inspiration and said she hopes to come to a workshop soon with a girlfriend. I'd love to meet her and thanks for the good press!

Kimberly does a dog a day, can you stand it? Come this summer, 2010, she will have painted her 1000th daily painting. Wow.