An Iowa Landscape And A Girl's Best Friend

Working on a small sketch for a painting Lisa and Mike Rossi have commissioned me to complete.  Very excited to get into the grit of this, the subject is so peaceful with bright colors and vast skies...the farmland of Iowa!  The piece is inspired by Lisa's childhood home and family farm so it is very special to them.  The canvas is extra large and has been custom made...the perfect surface and size for this piece.  We'll see how my vision comes to life...more soon! 

Meanwhile, Leila has decided that Max's ears are her new toy...but the more she tugs at them nothing seems to happen?  Literally.  Max just lies there...poor guy.

The Loyalty of Dogs

We have two dogs, a 17 lb. female beagle/terrier mix named Aida and a 75 lb. golden retriever/lab mix named Max. Aida is very much the queen of her domain and Max, he has become our big, giant protector since Leila's arrival. He is by my side, or by Leila's side, at all times. He will sit at the door and guard it with all his might, he will run to Leila when she cries and most recently I've noticed he has taken to drinking out of our upstairs toilet bowl, even when there is a full bowl of water downstairs. I find this to be quite disgusting, but the more I paid attention, the more I realized he was not NOT drinking out of his regular bowl downstairs out of laziness. He was simply drinking out of the bowl upstairs so he didn't have to leave our side.

I've always had a dog and can't imagine life without one, especially Max. He is with me at all hours of the night when I am up feeding Leila and instinctively knows that she is a precious, new part of our lives and it is our job to protect her. Truly a girl's best friend, and now Leila's.