There are a lot of elk wandering around in the foothills now. I think they are coming down from higher elevations looking for food. Although there is a ton of snow down here too.
On a side note, we had 3 snow days in a row last week and now church has been cancelled. I’m told that people are just using an abundance of caution but it freaks me out. If I could have installed a fireplace and brick oven in my house today, I would have. But I did the next best thing, I bought a lot of batteries and flashlights, and food, and candles. We will be cold when the end of the world comes, but we will be able to see.
This is a quick little 4×5″ study that I did today. I’m getting ready to paint a new ballet painting that has 6 or so dancer and their teacher in their dance studio.
One of today’s little paintings.
If you read my post yesterday you would have heard about the kids having 2 consecutive snow days on the heels of Christmas break. Well, they made the call and we will have tomorrow off too. 3 snow day in a row. And you know the first thing my oldest son said? ?? “What are we going to do tomorrow.” 😳😫🤣😜. We’re totally out of things to do.
We had a snow day today here in Boise Idaho. School was cancelled on what was supposed to be the first day back after Christmas break. And they have announced that tomorrow will be a snow day too. My kids are over the moon about it. But I’ll be honest, I’m about to reach my breaking point. If one more kids says to me “what are we going to do today” I might unravel altogether. I feel like we have covered it all, ice skating, skiing, Star Wars, the Nutcracker X 6, cinnamon rolls, shopping, decorating, movie nights, movie days, sledding, visiting friends, piano concerts, band concerts, and on and on… I’m ready for Christmas vacation to end. I had a dream last night that all the snow had melted and it was summer and I was so happy. Today while I was walking the dog in a foot (felt like it) of new snow I thought about that dream. Then a car got stuck in the snow in the middle of the road. Then I went home and made more cinnamon rolls and put my kids to work when they said they were bored at 7:00 am. How can you be bored at 7:00 am? An hour of practicing the piano, Khan academy, room cleaning, dog walking, shoveling snow, and general housework solved the boredom problem. I also told them to make something, and they did.
This guy was a commission from my show. And I’m happy to report that my client likes it.
The park by my house was full of geese. This is what Boise looks like in the winter. 4X5″ oil on canvas
Rabbit and Rocks 5×5″ oil on canvas
Another late night critterscape. I wait until everyone is in bed to paint. My kids don’t mind me painting while they are home from school over Christmas vacation, but I’ve found that I can’t concentrate on painting while they are all going different directions. And then I feel frustrated. So my solution is to paint at night. All these critterscapes are 4×4″ so they don’t take too long. I’m not sure why but I enjoy painting rabbits, so I’ll probably put a little more time into painting a bigger one.
Jill Millward Artwork 