Pat's Pet Portraits and Wildlife Art

I've been very busy with show entries and the accounting part of my art business, also have stayed in and warm, reading up on composition, watching demonstration tapes....things that I seldom take the time to do but are very important to my artwork. I have a lot to learn : )
I still need to work on the horse's feet as well as the man's face and head but played with it a little this morning, added some highlights to the horse where the light hits him and wow, what a difference that made to the painti9ng. I am also working on dulling some of the background/edge colors....to make the focus of my painting more apparent to the eye.

I finished the hawk painting yesterday, still haven't settled on a name for it - "Birdfeeder Vigil" or "Backyard Vigil" comes to mind, but nothing really clicks....so the naming is yet to be finalized. Any ideas?
I am using this as one of my entries into a show on 'Birds and Their Habitat' that has to be mailed in before Feb. 1st, so I was very glad to have the time to finish it yesterday.
I puttered with the mural a little too - made the front horse bigger - one day I will sit myself down and get the details in the horses and sulkies done and then I might be finished with this one. I'm sure it won't be hung until the weather gets better in the late winter/spring.
Next is to finish the horse painting that is on my easel....the frame for it should be arriving on Friday so I want to have it finished and ready for framing this weekend.

A day in the studio - well, not a whole day, but a part of it. For those who view this blog and have never been to my studio, it is actually a part of my living room, with my gallery and framing studio 2 doors over in the same building. These pictures are my painting studio....
It seems the little things are the things that delight me the most - and today, after years of pastel chaos, working out of many different containers of pastels, I centralized all of them into one box, a makeshift box from an old fruit crate, but it works well, after I padded each section with foam from a sleeping bag pad, and now they are all out for me to use, next to my north-facing window (I call it my Rockwell Window, as that is the direction from where he gathered his painting light)....and to the left, my easel....behind, assorted supplies and unfinished paintings waiting for my attention. A glimpse into where I truly live!