Rascal aceo

Here's my latest painting, entitled Rascal aceo. My brother-in-law was live trapping squirrels to release else where, when he accidently caught a racoon. My mother-in-law called to tell us about it and to ask my husband if he could go to Tim's and release him since Tim wasn't home. I had been wanting to see a live racoon in person for quite a few years, so I was very excited when this opportunity presented itself. We quickly grabbed the cameras and jumped in the car. When we got there, here this cute racoon sat, stuck in a cage, so we quickly took a few pictures of him, trying not to freak him out more than he already was. Boy did he keep his eyes on my husband the whole time, following his every move.
While standing as far back as possible, Paul used a crowbar to open the cage. I was sitting safely in the car at this time. Once the cage was open, Paul quickly ran to the other side of the car to get more distance between him and the racoon. The racoon slowly came to the door of the cage, looked around, and then took off to a wood pile. It was very exciting to see him be released. Thank you Tim.
I have this painting for sale at my etsy shop, http://luvs2paint.etsy.com/

Horse Portrait aceo

Last weekend I was sitting on our newly done deck, the old one was rotting away, drawing out this guy. Well, with school starting, that means back to work for me. I work in the lunchroom at an elementary school for 2.5 hours a day. Basically I am running around like crazy washing tables. For most this would be no big deal, but I have a muscle weakness, so it takes quite a bit out of me. So yesturday, I was finally able to sit down and finish my Horse Portrait. I used Watercolor Pencils & Colored Pencils on Watercolor paper. Normally I do my shadows with alot of purple and blue, but this time I wanted to keep it a bit more realistic and have alot of gray in there. I didn't know if it was going to turn out, but I am happy with it. It feels really good to get back to my art after a very busy week. You can find this on my website at http://www.brendathour.com/ look under aceo's. It can also be found on my etsy shop at http://www.luvs2paint.etsy.com/

Baby Llama aceo

I painted this baby llama today. This is a sold aceo oil painting. Reference photo taken by Pat Otten.
I've been doing quite a few aceo's lately, and I am starting to want to go a little bigger, or alot bigger...well, bigger anyways.

This weekend we are going up to Duluth to see the big sailing ships come in. I am hoping to get some good reference photos for future paintings. Wish me luck.