Duck Pond

6 x 6 oil on panel

SOLD

This is Ben. I love his little yellow socks. 

Brisk Walk

6 x 6 oil on panel

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This is a small study for a couple larger pieces I plan to start soon. The new perspective keeps things interesting I think. I took this reference photo the last time I was in Chicago. I was lucky to have a sunny day, but it was still a bit chilly.

I painted all day today. It was nice. I had so much fun  with family these last two weeks, but I'm happy to be back in  my studio now. Hopefully some of todays work is blog worthy! 

Win this painting, Morning Joe

I just want to thank Daily Paintworks for honoring me with an interview. You can visit their blog and read more than you ever wanted to know about ME! If you have purchased a painting from DPW in the last 30 days, or plan to purchase one before this coming Friday, you are eligible to win this painting of mine, Morning Joe. You just have to enter by going to the Daily Paintworks page and clicking on the link at the top of the page announcing my interview

I've been posting on Facebook about this all weekend, but I just realized I forgot to put it on my blog.

Home Guard

6 x 6 oil on panel

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It's been over a week since I've had time to paint. I finally had time yesterday so I thought I would start with a familiar subject. My son's Tibetan Mastiff. The friendliest, loving pooch I know. But definitely a guard dog. I'm happy to be one of people he allows into his home. 

Busy Time

6" x 12" oil on panel

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I have not had a chance to paint in a week! I'm really missing it. The only things that can keep me from painting these days is sickness or family visits. Thank goodness I have not been sick! I had my grandson last week and this week my sister is in town. She drove in from Montana and I'll be spending some time with her. I hope to get back to painting by mid-week. In the mean time I thought I would post one of my favorite older paintings "Underwater".

I've also been updating my Website (www.cathyengberg.com) and I thought you might be interested. I added some "Buy it Now" buttons to a few of my framed works. Please enjoy.

Golden Boy

6 x 6 oil on panel

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He looks like a friendly guy. Don't you love his expression?

This will be my last painting for this week since my grandson is coming and I'll have my hands full of 2 year old for a few days!

Beach Combing

6 x 6 oil on panel

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This little girl looks like she has a sharp eye out for.... something! 

What a busy weekend I had. We drove an hour south to Elmhurst to check out the Art In The Park that is going on this weekend. I was hoping it would be a good show to try for next year. It would be nice to have something in the Spring. We had the perfect weather too! All the threats of storms didn't pan out. We got lucky! The show was pretty good. There were a lot of empty spaces. I'm not sure if they didn't sell them all, or if a lot of people believed the forecast for rainy weather. I'm putting it on my "good possibilities" for next year list. ha!

After looking at everyone's displays at the show, I came home inspired to set mine up again. It didn't take as long this time. And I didn't have rest as often. So I see improvements there. 

I took a few photos. Here's one below. It's not complete yet and I will have a lot more paintings hanging once they are ready. I have a sign coming that will hang inside the space. But this is basically it. I did want to keep things simple because hauling this stuff is a lot for me. And simple it is! Things I still need to do are:

1) Order fabric covers for my grid walls. I thought it would be fine without them for at least the first show. But now I don't think so. I'm going to try to put a rush order in. I'm going with pearl gray.

2) The tables need work! I'll need to make table covers. I just used some old table cloths for this photo. The fabric needs to come to the ground. Wish I had some better creative ideas on that. I also need to create some height on areas of the table top. I have no ideas for that right now. The tables will be full of unframed paintings on easels. I have a quite a few. This was just a sampling.

3) I need to frame more paintings. I still have some drying and waiting to be varnished. I don't want to frame too many too early because basically this is my inventory. I'm selling these same paintings unframed on DPW. I'm using mostly floater frames and I can't just pop those on and off. This part could be a bit tricky as I get closer to the time of my shows. Ideally I would have different inventory. But that isn't the case at this time. How do other people do this?

Vino For Two

12 x 6 oil on panel

More wine as I try to go a bit larger. Love the reflections in this one. 

Topsy Turvy

6 x 6 oil on panel

SOLD

This is the mean cat Mira again... looking cute. Trying to tempt you over so she can take a bite. Don't be fooled and keep your distance. 

I've been busy varnishing and framing. I'll post photos of my booth setup as soon as it stops raining again. I need to set it up every week this month in order to build my strength. I was exhausted after the first time. I'm trying to decide which paintings I should frame. How many I should frame. So many things to think about. 

I had some exciting news last week. I was chosen by Daily Paintworks for the Spotlight Interview!! What an honor that is. 

Plein Air - Where Are The Swans?

6 x 8 oil on canvas panels

Where are the Swans? Well, they were moving too fast for this painter! They were there. Then they weren't. Then they were again! 

I entered the Schaumburg 2013 Plein Air Competition. The artists have 2 weeks to paint an area in the village of Schaumburg, IL, plein air. This was going to be the only week I could paint because I'll be babysitting my grandson next week. Yesterday was one of the few sunny, warm days we had this week, so I was out there. I wiped this twice before things started to work. If I don't come up with something better, I'll be entering this one. This was very very much out of my comfort zone. I better get out there more this year and get more comfortable!