Day 10 - Niles

"Niles"  6x8 oil

by Renee Brennan

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Day 10 - of the 30/30 Challenge (yes I skipped 9 in case anyone is counting).

This is my friends dog Niles who we used to go on dog walks with.  

He sadly is no longer with us and funny thing when I just mentioned his owner "Ms Betsy",  my 2 dogs jumped up and were ready to go on a walk!

he was a sweet boy.

before ...I kind of wanted to keep the warmer tone background initially
because of his cool colored fir.  Then I decided  purple would be fun...but then his brown eyes didn't look so brown.  So on the final (top pic)  I added a bit more warmth to the brown in his eyes...think I got it!

Day 8 - Pig in a Blanket

"Pig in a Blanket" (Vance) 6x6 oil

by Renee Brennan
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Day 8 of the 30/30 Challenge is Vance the pig who dearly loves his blankets!

  Vance belongs to my cousins and they keep him inside like any family pet.

He was definitely fun to paint and you may see him again soon!

Day 7 - Mickey

"Mickey" 4x6 oil 

By Renee Brennan

Day 7 - of the 30/30 Challenge is Mickey.

He is an American Paint horse and is stall mate with

Slick.  I painted him yesterday and was not very happy with how it was going.

It seems to me that painting on the smaller panels are more difficult to get the details in, especially the eyes....also my tiny brush had seen better days.

So today I got a new brush, flipped the reference photo and the painting upside down and finished him...I need to remember that little trick more often!

Day 6 - "Sparta" and Buying Time

"Sparta"  6x6 oil

by Renee Brennan

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Day 6 - Is Sparta the beautiful wide eyed cat who I painted as a 

commission last year.  

I never posted him before and did so today because my painting time

was all flubbed up.  I can give you at least 10 excuses as to what happened but it would sound like blah blah blah....and besides Sparta here needs a spot on my blog so I can buy time for tomorrow's hope of a better day.

Thank you Sparta!!

Day 5 - Zoe

"Zoe" 6x6 oil

by Renee Brennan
Purchase Zoey on my Etsy shop!

Day 5 - Is sweet girl dog Zoe who belongs to my niece.  

Who doesn't love the face of a yellow lab?

Contact me if interested in having your pet painted :)

25 more days to go for this
30 Paintings in 30 Day's Challenge

Day 4 - Slick

"Slick"  4x6 Oil

by Renee Brennan

Day 4 of the 30/30 Challenge is an American Paint horse named Slick 

who belongs to my niece.  He is a beautiful animal and is 15.2 hands tall.

I think this painting needs a little bit more work in a few spots, but overall

 ok especially since it is the first horse I painted since 6th grade a hundred years ago!

Day 3 - Finn Again

" Finn Again" - 6x6 oil

by Renee Brennan
Framed and available on
My Etsy Shop

Day 3 - I painted Finnigan before on the last 30/30 challenge.

So when I cat sat for him last Fall, I snapped some more pics 

of this cool NYC city cat.  He has the prettiest green eyes!

Day 2 - "Betty the Chicken"

 "Betty the Chicken"  6x8 oil

by Renee Brennan
purchase on my Etsy Shop

Day 2 - of the 30/30 Challenge is from my sister Becky's farm, she calls this one a Welsummer hen.  I don't know very much about chickens but I liked
the feathers on this one, they were so vibrant and
her eggs are colorful too!
Just kidding...that was from Easter.

Little Cardinal - Day 1, 30/30 Challenge

"Little Cardinal"  8x6 oil 

by Renee Brennan

It's been way too long since my last post, so I'm attempting to do the 30 Paintings in 30 Day's challenge hosted by Leslie Saeta again to get back into painting mode.  Although to be honest with all that is going on around me I will be happy to do 15!  

Inspiration for cardinal was from a photo my good friend took at her heated birdbath last year when I painted Bluebird & Winter Bird.

I will probably soften up the background on this one and work on a few more things as I notice them....getting back into the groove isn't easy!

Visiting my Old Friend

Last weekend I went to visit an old friend....well at least if felt like an old friend.  

I did a post last summer of The Sketchbook Project 2014 and that my book went on a big whirlwind tour of the U.S. along with a couple thousand other sketchbooks.  Pop up library's host the traveling sketchbooks in cities from East to West coast and all the way back to it's permanent home in the Brooklyn Art Library.  

  

The library itself isn't that large but what is impressive are the walls filled to the gills with sketchbooks all of which have bar codes and can be easily checked out either by artist name, materials, themes or tags. 

It was fun sitting there reminiscing with my book and remembering I had my niece Emma (age 12 then) draw whatever she wanted in it.  As you can see she used colored pencils for her beautiful peacock, then on the next page I drew the peacock feather inspired by her piece.

My daughter and I even checked out a few other books of artists we knew including her former H.S. art teacher.  Fun eh?  So next time you are in NYC and want to do something free for almost all ages look it up!  and my sketchbook too!