Zoe, a commissioned pet portrait

This one is not finished, but I am getting close. It is a surprise for my client's mother, a great Christmas gift she can cherish for the rest of her life. An adorable Bichon Frise and Chihuahua mix. I was able to meet her because the dog owner was not at home, so her daughter (who commissioned the painting) allowed me to sneak over and meet little Zoe. I plan to paint her name on her tag. I am excited to find out how big of a surprise Zoe's owner gets when she opens it!

I love creating portrait paintings of people's beloved pets. Please contact me from this blog if you are interested, or email me at sandrasart777@aol.com.


Blessings,
Sandra Cutrer
Fine Art

A more colorful turkey...

I hope your Thanksgiving bird was juicy, your apple pie hot and crispy, and you had such a long list of things to be thankful for, you felt forced to write it on the back of a legal-size sheet of paper!

I've painted three Peacocks lately, and sold two of the three (the pics below are a few steps to my painting the third peacock in my series). I have a Facebook friend who loves to tease me when I post my work, calling them ,"colorful turkeys"! I've never had peacock meat, and I don't plan on it( yes, some people eat peacock), but I do love the taste of the real thing- you know, the one who goes,"Gobble-Gobble"!


The peacock I am posting today, a male as we all know, is the beauty of the breed.

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I hope you've enjoyed looking at my work. If you would like a peacock painting, I'd love to create one especially for you! Please contact me from this blog, and if you  have the time, scroll through my already posted paintings- some are still for sell. Thanks so much!

Blessings,
Sandra Cutrer
Fine Art

***This one is a close-up shot. You can see the super thick impasto style paint, along with the golds added, and a tiny amount of gold glitter-glue to give him a little more "pop" to his already brilliant coloring! Oils on a 12" x 36" stretched canvas The sides are painted a light gray, and are 1.5" deep. No need to frame.

Great Blue Heron

I am posting him in an x-large pixel count, so you can see the details.

He is painted in thick oils- impasto, with thick oils on all four sides ( a light blue/gray), with a lot of stroke detail.He is painted on a 12" x 24" stretched canvas.

Great Blue Herons travel solo, except if you catch them during migration when you might see up to 10 together.Though great blue herons hunt alone, they typically nest in colonies.

Yes, I seem to be continuing on with my birds. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed painting them!



Life is so uncertain. One moment everything can (seem to) be going along all fine and dandy ( am I showing my age by using the word," dandy"?), when out of the blue your feet slip out from under you and your world is turned upside down. Whether it is something in your personal life- like with family/spouse/job/health problems, or  another "9-11", like the newest horror that has fell upon the beautiful city of Paris,France.

I had hoped to return to Paris. I was able to fly there a few years back, with our older son, celebrating his 30th birthday. We had a great time. A great time? NO, a MAGNIFICENT time! We were only able to stay about 5 days, which was way too short to be able to see all that Paris has to offer- that would take weeks, if not months, but we both fell in love with this city!

My heart breaks for anyone who loses family, especially young family members. I have mentioned before that I lost my only daughter- way too young, a mother of two babies who needed her. How can people have such hate in their souls and use it in the name of any god to murder- yes, MURDER innocent people? How did these people know there weren't family members in any of these places they bombed or shot-up? How heartless and evil of each one involved!

But, as a Christian, I am well aware of the warnings in the holy words of our GOD in the Holy Bible. The warnings of wars, hate, selfishness, on and on. Of course, there has always been war, and hate, and selfish acts. I understand there is no stopping it. In fact, we are told to look up when these things happen because our redemption draws closer than before! All of the hate has become worse with each passing year... maybe each passing month or so. If we truly loved GOD, we would know He is a GOD of love, not hate. But, He also has a plan for every person, every creature, both small and grate. I would rather die knowing I was showing love, than hate. He is a GOD of love, but He is also a GOD who will judge. There is a hell. He won't send us there. We will send ourselves because of disobedience, hate, and evil hearts. Hell has enlarged itself, the Bible tells us...


Lord, have mercy on us all. Keep us all safe under your wings. God, bless Paris, bless those who are innocent and showing love and peace. God bless the USA, for the same reasons. Bless your people Lord, Jesus.

Amen!

Blessings,
Sandra

Bird Monarch Flycatcher, fly worry free my friends

Monarch Flycatcher.

 What a beauty he is! Don't you agree he carries his brilliant blue coloring well, making a cheerful statement to the world?

 It seems my heart has been toward painting more birds these last few months. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of bird species in this world to enjoy, and a challenge to try and capture a few on canvas. I could stay busy for the next half century at the least.

I told our cat ( MaLee) today (yes, I most certainly talk to our cat. When she talks back, I'll be the first to let you all know), about how blessed she is to not have to worry about getting old, sick, hungry, bored, scared, living on a limited retiree budget, or the "D" word- dying.

Of course I know many of these things can- and one or two of them will- happen to her, but she isn't worried. She spends her moments content, just being in the moment. The same way this beautiful bird must live.
I don't think we were really created to worry. I mean, being concerned to a degree is good, but crazy with worry? No. I can tell you first hand it does no good- to the worrier, or the worrier's family and friends. I lost a child to cancer. Worrying did not add any more days to her life. Worry did not heal her body. Worry did not make her fell better.

I think I have (finally) realized the very things that seem to creep into my mind as worry, are the very things I need to face head on. Either I need to talk about them, and get some rational advice, or think them through as to what I can do about them as concerns, and if they really are worries, breathe deeply and happily let them go. Worries are like a nasty,horrible cancer. They will eat you up, sometimes without you really knowing "it"is there until it becomes a hug "tumor" sticking out in front of you,while you wonder where it came from..

So, lighten up your load, and with a huge smile on your beautiful face, give that burden to your GOD, and fly worry free my friends. Fly like the birds! You know, the ones my indoor cat can never get to.

Blessings,
Sandra Cutrer

MaLee "cat" napping in front of her favorite window where we have two bird feeders in the yard. They are not the least scared of her. They come right up to torment her at times. as well as the squirrels and her favorite green lizard.

Peacock painting in oils Ballet de Plume

"Ballet de Plume", a full body painting of a male peacock, with added gold leafing. He is painted on a 12" x 36" stretched canvas. He is sold, but I take commissions and would love to paint one similar to this one for you!


Sometimes I wish humans were more like the birds- you know, males have to wear the pretty stuff, the bright colors, the "bling". Instead, we women wear the make-up and dress all "pretty" in the killer high heels, the dress that isn't quite comfortable, with the itchy nylons- oh, and maybe some tight fitting spandex underneath all of that ( and worry someone else might show up wearing the same outfit to that reception- and if they dare we would rather die on the spot)! I don't think it's quiet fair that women have to go to such pains when the men usually do not- most men. We girls learn early in life to "look our best" and " act like a lady", or at least I was brought up in that generation. Taking a walk inside our local mall reminds me of a different world than the one I grew up knowing. At least a lot of "ladies" have dropped the ball as far as that... I mean, jeez, I would not take out my garbage wearing what some of them wear to the mall.. or even do my grocery shopping...but getting back to the fact that most (classy?) women do take a few "pains" to make themselves look nice when going out to dinner, to a wedding, or some other special occasion. They can shave their heads- the men that is- or having thinning hair and it is no big deal. A woman will hide in her house, or at the very least wear a wig. Few men wear toupee's (oh, a few car salesmen or news anchors), or have fits over thinning hair... just throw on a baseball cap and be done with it- right? There are no worries about what jewelry/ accessories matches their "outfit", or did they wear that dress on the last cruise??? And, do those shoes really match or do I need a pair just one shade lighter??? HA! And,lord, can you imagine a man trying to select a nail polish to match his tee shirt and ton sweat pants? Dress up- most men would rather have their teeth cleaned with Bon Ami. Black suit, grey suit, brown suit, a few solid colored shirts, throw in a few normal-guy neck ties, a plain watch, and he is done- oh, a dark pair of shoes (and black socks- one or two pair suffice for at least 5 years) goes with everything... right?

Okay, after all of the ranting, I have to admit I 'm happy to have my earrings, they cheer me up on a rainy day. Or  maybe a new blouse/top/shirt. That usually makes me feel so much better when I've had a bad day... or gained a pound or two...

Still, one wonders if we all- male and female- had to go to the same amount of trouble to get all decked out to prove our beauty, or show off a little...but then on another note I could write a whole new post about how unfair it is to not awake each morning and not look like Cindy Crawford, Brooke Shields, Heidi Klum, Halle Berry, or any of the other beauties that (no matter what they call a "bad hair day") look 99% better than I do wearing all of my nicest finery!

So, life isn't fair.

 I'll just go enjoy the birds, and maybe dress up a little extra nice, go to the mall and buy a new pair of flats... I hate the pain of high heels. Who likes to suffer that much to look good?

Blessings,
Sandra Cutrer
Fie Art

Buffalo Mania and a little bit of life

"Buffalo Mania", a side profile of a fantastic beast- mighty in strength, intelligent, as well as very protective of their herd.I am trying a few new styles/ ideas to add to the way I paint. I rather like this drip method in oils. Fun, interesting, different for me- as in "out of my box"! He is painted on an 11" x 14" stretched canvas. Listed for sell on Etsy.com, under Sandra Cutrer Fine Art.

   https://www.etsy.com/shop/SandraCutrerFineArt?ref=hdr_shop_menu

THIS PAINTING HAS SOLD!


Now on to about life...

I am not being followed by many people, so if you read this, know that I have decided to use this blog as a sort of journal. I used to keep a daily journal- especially when things were not going well in my life. The last 22-23 years haven't been too bad ( well, at times- if you don't count sickness and death in the family, job insecurity, your own health issues, depression, and other not so nice things going on ... journal or not- I don't write everything!) so I have slacked off writing pretty much anything. I wrote a couple of articles for a local newspaper, got one published, then gave up. I would rather be painting than writing- well, I'd love to do both, but I barely can find the time to paint with all of the 'free' time I have- as in NOT! It seems technology has its blessed moments, but it also has caused things to take a lot longer- or so it seems to me. Maybe just more complicated? Maybe because I'm older? Who can figure it out, but it is certainly true  for myself. I just got back into my art work after taking about a half of the year on "break". I hope I'm back for good. I've decided that a few things I've been doing aren't that important, I can squeeze out some paint and create for an hour or two and get great results at times, so why not.Two hours doing what I love is better than not doing it at all.
Okay, I plan to write more positive things next time, and I'd like to start sharing a few stories. My choice of subjects. After all it is my journal!

And, thanks for reading. I mean, just in case someone is really here!

Blessings,
Sandra Cutrer
Fine Art