Blog, The Eyes Have it, - Jean Glaser Animal Portraits

Jean Glaser Animal Portraits

Busy, Busy, Yea!

1/26/2016

This year I have hit the ground running! In the last month and a half I have completed 8 paintings and have two currently in progress! I have one piece that has been accepted to a show and will see it hung on Friday! " World of The Wild, at the Hogle Zoo in SLC, Utah, this is the 23rd year of this show. I have a photo that was accepted last year that is currently traveling in an exhibition, around the state, to schools.

I have a good feeling about this year.

Here is the piece I just finished, "Alpacas 3"

Snow

1/20/2016

Today we received the largest snowfall we have gotten in one storm in 2 years! Yea! It's really starting to look like winter here! You know it's really funny, I get so excited when it snows almost like a little kid, I ski but not like most people around here. I have friends that ski 100 or more days a year and I get excited if I ski 10 but hey it's still fun! Just looking at the snow is great it paints the landscape so differently, it's just magical! We are surrounded by sagebrush out where we live and I can remember winters in the past where it has snowed so much it just looked like a white desert, completely covering the sage, don't think it will look like that this year but one never knows what the weather gods will bring.

Painting in a different place.

1/18/2016

It's funny how different it is to work in a space you are not used to. My studio is a small room in my basement where I have great lighting (two lights attached to my easel) and one small window. Most people would not be inspired but I think of it as the opposite of the "French Garret", mine is below ground instead of above. I took a picture and several orbs appeared so, I think maybe I even have angel helpers.

Last week I watched a friend's studio and shop while she was gone. I thought maybe a different environment would be a good change. Her space has large windows and lots of natural light, I was there for 2 hrs. each day for 4 days. The first day I drew and sketched and that went quite well. The next day I began a painting and putzed with it for the next two days. I still have work to do on it but, I think I actually felt homesick for my little underground garret. Odd really the grass, so to speak, or the light is not always greener on the other side. Our comfort zone is where we like to work.

Art is Everywhere and Anywhere.

1/11/2016

I was waiting outside an office the other day, as the door was locked. I looked down and the parking lot had been recently crack sealed. This is not necessarily a momentous thing, but as I looked and wandered, I found this to be absolutely beautiful. The crack seal had an Asian Caligraphic quality to it. Art is everywhere, really it is!

One thing I always hope to do is look at the world as if everything is new, nothing staid nothing carved in stone. It may sound trite but as if I am five and experiencing it all for the first time. Art happens all around us all the time!

Getting Organized! Yay!

1/10/2016

Okay off to a great start in the New Year! Taking on the big tasks and crossing them off the list!

Got the Hood in my kitchen degreased, excellent!
Next cleaning the fridge!
Things are moving along. I am studio sitting for a friend this week and painting there, this should be a good exercise in working in a new area.

My brother and nephew are coming out to ski next week, putting the house in order and cooking stuff, fun fun!

My Dog Quail and I are really getting into Therapy work this week, two and a half visits this week. De-stressing students at the High School, National Abilities center visit and checking out visiting at an assisted living facility in Heber.

This should be a fun and energizing week!

Why Does Pressure Make us Work Harder?

1/6/2016

Nothing like an up coming entry for a show to really push me to work. Luckily I have had some paintings kicking around in my mind for awhile and this gave me the impetus to get them done.

Not sure why pressure makes us work harder? The ideas are there, one of these pieces has been bouncing around in my brain since this time last year. Maybe I just needed the time to let the images gel in my mind in order to let them out for the world to see.

Hopefully one of these will make it into the show. I can only submit 2 works, after that we'll see where things go.

The Curious Badger

Fred, Southern Ground Hornbill

My Backyard Elk

For the Birds or not.

1/3/2016

I was filling bird feeders, it's been quite cold and the poor little things are hungry. We have one bird feeder that is continually emptied more so than I thought it should be. I have filled and refilled the feeders, this one especially. It doesn't seem to matter whether it is late afternoon or early morning when it is filled it is always empty the next morning. I had convinced myself, that it was grackles or magpies just emptying it.

Last week there were 3 deer inside the fenced area of our yard, course the fence is only 4 ft. tall so no trouble for deer to hop over. Two of the deer looked like they were younger than the 3rd one possibly fawns last spring. I kept watching and after a bit they began to chase each other around my back yard the way the dogs do. (kicking myself for not having my camera close.) They ran through the trees all 3 of them and leaped in the air straight up. they did this for a good 5-7 minutes, one of them would go over and shake it's head at the others or poke them with it's nose and then off the the two would go.

Eventually they jumped the fence and took off.

The one suspiciously emptied bird feeder is just outside the fence. About 8ish at night or so, way to late for feathered friends to be raiding the bird feeder the dogs started barking, so I grabbed a spotlight and went to investigate. Now mind you I didn't see any deer but the dogs were looking right at the bird feeder barking and there were fresh deer tracks below and around it. I know circumstantial evidence but, one of these days I may get them with my camera.

Musings, on the new year.

1/2/2016

With the new year. Comes the freshness of new beginnings and changes from the old and stale year.

We want to do better, do more, eat less, exercise more, be a better person, do more of what is expected..... or not!

Life throws many curve balls at us. Things turn out not as we expect them to. People do things we cannot imagine why. We persevere and keep pushing forward, if we are lucky we do better than we thought we would, we improve, even just a little, people around us seem to smile more.

I want not to dwell on bad, sad, evil, terrible things that I can't do anything about, but move forward and hopefully make things a bit brighter if possible.

I read somewhere on the internet, now come on everything is written somewhere on the internet, honest. ;) That the best way to look at life differently is take a large jar, no now listen not a jar for money when you cuss, uh uh, a jar that whenever something good happens to make you smile, or even cheer you write it on a piece of paper and put it in the jar. Then on New Year's Eve you read all the good things that happened over the last year making you focus on good rather than bad.

Hey it couldn't hurt, really, it couldn't hurt, and it just might make one's attitude better. What a concept to focus on the good and happy moments and not dwell on the sad and unhappy ones. So here is my jar and now I will begin to fill it with HAPPY! (Just a note, I am not a Pollyanna, but isn't light better than darkness? Mayhaps we should gallop towards the light! )