My daughter has been wanting me to paint a cat portrait for her.  The cat that I painted is one she had for several years and was a stray cat.  I think she had it since she got married but when her first daughter was born it ran away.  The cat did come back for a while and then it ran away again and never did come back.  She really liked the cat and called him Precious.   This is an original oil painting by Ruth Housley. 

She has two Siamese cats and have had them since both girls were small and they call them Kristy and Smokey.
Both of the girls are in there teenage years, thirteen and fourteen.  They don't have too much time for the cats with school and their outside activities. 

The color wheel is the best way to get familiar with the concepts of color.  Since there's a great range in the hue of many primary colors (compare Cadmium Red Light to Alizarin Crimson) you will get different results from the generic color wheels painted in books.  Use on a color wheel these colors - Grumbacher Red, Cobalt Blue, and Cadmium Yellow Light since they're closest to the spectrum colors.  Then mix equal parts of red with blue, blue with yellow, red with yellow to form purple, green and orange.  The secondary colors, place them between the primaries from which they were mixed.  You can see then that the primary color has a complimentary color that is opposite it on the color wheel.  Color temperature can also be quickly understood by looking at the color wheel.  Basically, all the oranges, yellows, reds and purples are considered warm colors, while the blues, greens, and blue violets are thought of as cool colors.  Thinking about color temperature is a good way to relate the colors to each other.  Green compared to red, cool or warm indicates on which side of the color wheel a particular hue appears. 

But they need to be used carefully so they don't threaten the prominence of the dominate hue.  The color wheel can also guide you in mixing some exciting grays.  Mix pure color with its compliment to get grays.  Mixing equal amounts of a color and its compliment will make a neutral gray but by varying the amounts, all sorts of rich and subtle grays are possible.  Reds grayed with Sap Green, as well as Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Orange aand white tones in a pleasing rhythmic pattern, and I let the lights and darks flow around the focal point.

Color adds depth, just a line drawing you have no depth.  Good color  harmony can help a poor drawing, the two must work together, a good drawing plus color; one should not overpower the other.  To obtain the illusion of depth is to overlap objects with the scene.  A vertical object placed in front of horizontal objects work wonders on the imagination of the viewer to assist in creating the illusion of depth.  Another way to create depth is to soften lines.  Hard edges catch the eye and seem to come forward in the painting.

My front yard was full of Robin's this morning and I don't know what it is this year about the Robin's but they are plentiful.  Usually I only see a few in the spring but this winter they have been seen flying all around and searching for earthworms, grubs, inspects and fruit. 

In the South the roosts are often enormous, the birds scattering during the day to feed on the fruits of sour gum, chinaberry and hackberry.   The female are slightly duller on their breast but the male is much darker on their breast area which is an orange color. 

The voice of the Robin has a variety of scolding, alarm, and call notes.  Some are loud and piercing.  The most unexpected is a thin, high-pitched hissing.  The loud caroling song is composed of 2 and 3 note phrases broken by pauses.  It has a cheerful bubbling quality, and there is a distinct change in pitch in each phrase.  The Robin's favorite song period is at daybreak, the carol often continues for minutes at a time. 

I have finished my red rose painting that I have been working on.  Someone asked me at a show if I had any red  rose paintings and I had to say no but I did do one that I will have available for another show.  I have always enjoyed flowers and especially roses for their beauty.  This is an original oil painting by Ruth Housley.

I want to do more flower paintings in the future and have had lots of compliments on my flower paintings.

·        Long’s Peak, Colorado  – (January) oil medium on linen canvas 24x20  First   painting of the New Year

 

·        Guardian Angel – (December)  oil medium on canvas 14x11

 

These are my two latest paintings since my last newsletter. 

 

December 13, 2008 – Christmas Brunch at church

 

We had ham, baked French toast, fruit salad, two rice casseroles, muffins, chocolate mousse, cake, coffee, iced tea and hot tea.

 

It was a blessing to see God at work in women’s lives with the program that was provided with the brunch.

 

December 21, 2008 – Christmas Program at church

 

They had their Christmas program on Sunday December 21, and was repeated on Christmas Eve, December 24^th by internet web cast. 

The name of the program was “Song through the Ages”.  It was very uplift and anointed.

 

I bought my granddaughter oil paints and brushes to try and get her encouraged to do some oil painting.  I have showed her and now she just needs to practice using oil after she draws her subjects.  She has taken drawing classes in Plano for several years.  My other granddaughter I gave a scrape book for Christmas so she can add her friends photos to it and also since she is a cheerleader in Plano. 

I have finished a painting that I started back in September or October of 2008.  It is a landscape painting done in oil medium on linen canvas 24x20.  The location is Long's Peak, Colorado in the Rocky Mountain National Park area.  We had so much fun while we were there and still love the mountains of Colorado.
The mountains are so beautiful and you can see them from quite a distance and with the snow on the mountains and being so close to the clouds, you might think they were the clouds. 

Hope you enjoy as much as I enjoyed painting this scene.  This is an original oil painting by Ruth Housley.  

A friend gave me a copy of the story of the painting of "The Last Supper".  I wanted to share it and it is very interesting.  This is a Leonardo Da Vinci reproduction copy by Ruth Housley.

The story of the painting of "The Last Supper" is extremely interesting and instructive, and two incidents connected with it affords a most convincing lesson of the effects of right thinking or wrong thinking in the life of a boy or girl; or of a  man or woman.
 
The Last Supper was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, a noted Italian artist; and the time engaged for its completion was seven years.  The figures representing the twelve Apostles and Christ, Himself, were painted from living persons.  The life-model for the painting of the figure of Christ was chosen first.

When it was decided that Da Vinci would paint this great picture, hundreds and hundreds of young men were carefully viewed in a endeavor to find a face and personality exhibiting innocence and beauty, free from the scars and signs of dissapation caused by sin.

Finally, after weeks of laborious search, a young man, nineteen years of age was selected as a model for the portrayal of Christ.  For six months, Da Vinci worked on the production of this leading character of his famous painting. 

During the next six years, Da Vinci continued his labors on this sublime work of art.  One by one fitting persons were chosen to represent each of the eleven Apostles.  A space being left for the painting of the figure representing Judas Iscariot as the final task of this masterpiece.  This was the Apostle, you remember, who betrayed his Lord for thirty pieces of silver, worth $16.96 in our present day currency.

For weeks, Da Vinci searched for a man with a hard, callous face, with a countenance marked by scars of avarice, deceit, hypocrisy, and crime; a face that would delineate a character who would betray his best friend.

After many discouraging experiences in searching for the type of person required to represent Judas, word came to Da Vinci that a man whose appearance fully met his requirements has been found in a dungeon in Rome, sentenced to die for a life of crime and murder.

Da Vinci made the trip to Rome at once, and this man was brought out from his imprisonment in the dungeon and led out into the light of the sun.  There Da Vinci saw before him a dark, swarthy man.  His long shaggy and unkempt hair sprawled over his face which betrayed a character of viciousness and complete ruin.  At last the famous painter had found the person he wanted to represent the character of Judas in his painting.

By special permission form the king, this prisoner was carried to Milan where the picture was being painted; and for months he sat before Da Vinci at appointed hours each day as the gifted artist diligently continued his task of transmitting to his painting the base character in the  picture representing the traitor and betrayer of our Savior.  As he finished his last stroke, he turned to the guards and said, "I have finished.  You may take the prisoner away."

As the guards were leading their prisoner  away, he suddenly broke loose from their control and rushed up to Da Vinci, crying as he did so, "Oh, Da Vinci,  look at me!  Do you not know who I am?"

Da Vinci, with the trained eyes of a great character student, carefully scrutinized the man whose  face he had constantly gazed for six months and replied, "No, I have never seen you in my life until you were brought before me out of this dungeon in Rome."

Then, lifting his eyes toward  heaven, the prisoner said, "Oh God, have I fallen so low?"  Then turning his face to the painter he cried, "Leonard Da Vinci, look at  me again for I am the same man you painted just seven years ago as the figure of Christ!"

This is the true story of the painting that teaches so strongly the lesson of the effects of right or wrong thinking on the life of an individual.  Here was a young man whose character was so pure, unspoiled by the sins of the world, that he presented a countenance of and beauty fit to be used for the painting of a representation of Christ.  But, within seven years, following the thoughts of sin and a life of crime, he was changed into a perfect picture of the most traitorous character.

 

Yesterday we had freezing drizzle and rain and the trees all had ice on them.  The ice did not stick on the roads or sidewalks but in the grass and trees. 

Our back yard was full of birds; robins, blue jays, and black birds and another kind of bird but I did not know what kind of bird it was.  The bird's feathers had some yellow orange.  I have not seen so many robins all in one place at a time.   I usually only see robins in the spring.   

I took  photos of the trees with the ice as well as the birds.