Cape Cod Mini-Vacation

I thought I'd post a few photos from our mini-vacation up to visit friends at the Cape! Our good friends, Mary and Ted invited us to spend a few days at Cazzy's Cape House! While I do have a picture of the house. Here are a few pictures we snapped on our trip. Doesn't this lighthouse look like an Edward Hopper painting? I looked up Edward Hopper's lighthouses and this is not the one he painted. Perhaps I'll give it a go. This lighthouse was located on a strip of land that is only accessible by boat or certain off-road vehicles. We passed it on our whale watch cruise from Barnstable Harbor.

The Whale Watch was fantastic. We witnessed at least ten individual humpbacks frolicking around the Stellwagen Bank (I'm not sure about the spelling here). I do believe this individual is Salt, the most famous humpback of the area. The Marine Mammal Conservancy has been tracking her since the 1970s. In the foreground is her newest calf. I have a lot more whale tail pictures! I'll probably crop some of them when I get around to playing on the desktop.
We stayed in the quaint village of Harwich Port. The Harwich Port Harbor looked golden as we passed it just before sunset. I decided to walk back with my camera to snap a few more pictures! Maybe a painting or two will come out of these photos. It is always fun to revisit places through painting them. I have more pics, but blogger seems to be "limiting" me. We visited two other friends on the way up to the Cape. My good friend Stefanie in West Milford, New Jersey and our good friend and former boss, Linda in Milford, Connecticut. This was a driving trip to visit old friends that we haven't seen in 15-25 years, but still love. It was nice to also catch a few sights along the way.

Orenda, New Painting

Well, it looks like the computer gods are cooperating today, at least as far as uploading goes. Perhaps I tried to load too many at a time? Perhaps it is the particular computer. I am using the desktop now because I cannot crop with my laptop.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to get some feedback. As many of you know, I've been in an animal mode lately. This is a painting of my sister in law's beautiful Birman cat, Orenda. Orenda recently passed on to the great sunlit cushion in the sky. She lived to the ripe age of 21.

My daughter snapped this photo a couple of years ago. I found her picture and thought I'd try painting her.

Well, this proved to be quite difficult and I am not quite "finished". First of all, I had to tackle the lush interior of my sister-in-law's house. Gail's house is quite beautiful and she has impeccable taste when it comes to furnishings, pillows, color and decorating etc.

Second of all, Orenda is a fluffy, mostly white, long-haired cat. How do I capture the fur without fussing too much?

Third of all, Orenda is backlit. While this made for a beautiful photo, I found it quite challenging to capture her delicate face when I could not see it very well. I did not have another photo. I wanted to capture that wonderful back-lighting through her fur! Anyway I've been going back to this painting for several weeks and while I know I have to make a few adjustments, I thought I would ask my wonderful blogging friends for your advice. There are spots where I keep fussing (like the color of the shadow behind the red cushion on the chair). Also the pillow has a cushion sewn on top if it. It looks like a second pillow, but it is not. The patterns change. I usually avoid a lot of patterns as I don't like to get into that "tickling" mode. Sometimes I need to stop and critique. Your thoughts please?

What is with *#*#*!!! Blogger?

I am ranting because I cannot seem to post photos anymore.

I know I've been lax in my blogging as of late but this morning I came to the compy with good intentions. It is family reunion time and I have a contribution to Sepia Saturday.

The site seems to have become very glitchy. Photos have been selected, but they fail to upload. Has something changed? Am I limited to one photo per post? I tried the new posting option but didn't like it. Am I just becoming a grumpy old woman who hates change? This is about the third time I've had this problem.

There are paintings to post, vacation photos and all sorts of goodies, but I cannot seem to do it. Arrgh!

Otakon Fun - Annual Post

Otakon 2010, Baltimore, Maryland. This was the end of our vacation and the highlight for the kids! We booked rooms through Priceline and were pleasantly surprised by Waterfront views! Here Caitlyn is being eaten by Neuro! Don't ask!
Annelise, transformed into a blonde bombshell with burns for Baccano!
Oh the fun of Otakon! A little sidestep into a David Bowie tribute!
The Baccano crowd posing. The photo ops are incredible.
Jazz Hands! Baccano takes place during the depression! We have Jazz. We have the great depression! Speakeasies and demonic immortal children! Life is good! There was an evacuation at the convention center due to some eejit pulling the fire alarm. Imagine all these costumed individuals running out and screaming! I'll post more vacations photos later!