M and L Hockman Ranch 1st Annual Artist Event!

I've been soooo looking forward to this day, Fellow Animal Lovers!

Today is the brainchild of the wonderful Kitty Hockman....owner/operator of M & L Hockman Ranch.  Her idea was to bring together creative, like-minded folks to make art of any sort for the benefit of animalkind.  The pieces were to be inspired by the Ranch and/or the critters that reside there.  You can read her description HERE.

Kitty wants animals to be helped so badly, that proceeds of the sales could be donated to any animal charity of the creator's choice.  The monies did not have to go to her facility! Gotta love her :)



Of course I decided I would give 100% of the sales of my piece to Kitty and her beautiful furry friends. I've gotten to know her and her brood at her blog and am just smitten by them all....

I mean look at Jax and Merlin up there with her....such handsome boys! 
...and this picture of Merlin with his mate Leona.....adorable!


I enjoyed reading through past posts and getting to know everyone better.
I saw this gorgeous guy and thought that maybe I'd paint Lucas (below) or Laverne and Shirley?

That is Shirley above.
Or maybe Pretty Meggie (whose name reminds me of my daughter Maggie).

Or Elvira, the hen with an awesome hairdo :)

 

I was taking notes and drawing quick sketches as I read each post.....and then I happened upon a photo that just instantly put me at ease.  Fi was just a kitten herself (less than 6 months old) when Kitty took her in as a feral cat.

 

 

Much to Kitty's surprise, Fi had a litter of 4 little black and white cuties not long after arriving.  I used a photo Kitty took of Fi (which I can't seem to find now) lying comfortably in her bed enjoying a ray of sunshine.

I couldn't help but think the whole concept poetic.....

A cat that once had no home, now finds a warm ray of light to bask in and a human to love her.  Kitty was her ray of light when Fi had none.....

 

 

This is a mixed media painting created on an 8 x 10 inch canvas panel.

It is entitled, "Ray of Light"

 

 

It is available in my Etsy store with 100% of the sale going to M & L Hockman Ranch. 

Also, from Sunday, January 27th to Wednesday, January 30th, I'll be donating 20% of all sales in my shop to the Ranch.  So, even if you prefer to purchase a pair of earrings rather than art, you can still help :)

 

....and, if you don't see anything in my store you like, Kitty has an Etsy store, too.

 

Hockman Girl Handcrafted

 

There are other Participants, as well, so please visit her site to see what other lovely items have been created for this event.

Well, thank you for sticking with me through this important post.  I'm so happy to use my art for a good cause...and to have Blog Friends like you to share it with!

 

Have a fantastic week....and please give your furbabies an extra cuddle from me :)

Cam

Christmas in July!

Well, more like Halloween in May!

I've been working on a Halloween trade with Richelle of Rinni's Playground.  We are supposed to sculpt something for the other....my idea, but then things got crazy around here and I was having trouble fitting in some clay time...

I finally managed to make this little Creepsake Box for her :)
This is Midnight.

Made with Paperclay, a styrofoam ball skull and paper mache box.

His eyes are filled with moonbeams in a sea of blue.

Under his box is a quick verse that says,

"The witch flies high

black cat by her side...

Spreading magic into the starry sky."

...and inside...

...the Magic Sprinkler, herself with Midnight in tow.

I hope Rinni likes him :)

In keeping with the whole Christmas in July title, I'm offering a pre-vacation Sale in my humble shop.

Just use coupon code THANKS2U for 20% off everything in the store!

We are getting ready to take our annual camping vacation.  We leave June 4th, so get your favorites now!

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

Hugs,

Cameron

Up to Speed

Hi...
Hello!
How the heck are ya?!!!

*Hugs you*
I've missed you guys!!

Let's catch up a bit, shall we?
Where to start? Hmmm.....let's see.....
Our Easter was great :)

This is Maggie with my Brother's son visiting the Easter Bunny.

The weather has been on and off rain with the most beautiful clouds!  I love clouds!

Maggie moved up from an Orange Belt to a Purple in Karate....

....and tied her own belt during her promotion.  Which is a big deal for a not-quite-6 year old  :)

Sally has been growing and doing a lot of, well, what cats do best....haha!

....and yesterday just happened to be my Birthday :)

I spent it having a Garage Sale.  It was a neighborhood Garage Sale.  I spent Friday night and Early Sat getting everything ready...stayed up til 4am not even sure if it was going to rain or not...slept for 2 hours and got up at 6am to put everything out in time for the 7am start time.  It ended up being a beautiful day!  I tell ya....despite the lack of sleep....I might just have to make this a birthday tradition....cuz Momma's going shopping tomorrow...haha!

While I was outside wheeling and dealing, my Hubby put these beautiful bouquets and chocolate covered strawberries out to surprise me!  

...and a big thank you to Daniele for sending me a little special something in the mail :)

Because sweet gestures can never be overdone, I am extending a coupon code to you all for my Birthday to use in my Etsy Shop.   This will be good to the end of April. 

 Just enter BdayWishes  to enjoy a 15% discount...

...and thank you all so much for your support and friendship! 

And, as if that's not enough, I've got some new art to show you.
Really, I do!

This is, "Raindrops"
in the beginning...

...and completed...

The quote reads, "Tomorrow's flowers are the raindrops of today"

8 1/2 by 11 1/2 inches

She's in the shop waiting to brighten someone's rainy day ;)

One of the covers of an old children's book.  Here's what I did with the other.

"No Love Like Mine" in the early stages....

...and after...

"In all the world, there's no love for you like mine"

She was made with the before mentioned Daniele in mind.  Do you see the 3 kites behind the house?  She has 3 girls...and loves to sport gorgeous, bright red hair at times.  We are doing a trade....so I painted this for her.   I just love trades....heehee!

So...now that I've got you all caught up with the haps around here, I need to go make my rounds and get caught up with all of you!  I really have missed you *another hug....cuz I'm a huggy kinda girl*

I promise not to be away so long!

My best,

Cameron

Wild with an M

Hello All!
Wow, this week seemed to fly by!
Just to let you know, I will be doing lessons 4 and 5 next week for the Drawing Lab Project....just couldn't seem to fit it in this week!

Over at Butterfly Effect this week, the theme was Wild at Heart.
What a great theme to get lost in....to sling paint with abandon and get in touch with the primal soul at the core of my being....
But, alas....I wasn't able to commune with that energy this week....perhaps later...

For now, that soul is harnessed and controlled for now.  Kind of like this.

Yes, my daughter has begun to walk her cat.  Haha! I use the word "walk" very loosely.  You don't decide you are going around the block or anything with cats.  They decide where they want to go and you just have to follow :)

So far, it hasn't been out of our yard...

Hey, did you notice Maggie's shirt?!  It actually says Wild at Heart!  I just noticed it when I was editing the photos to put up here! Funny ;D

Oh, and speaking of yard....an exciting thing occurred here over the weekend.  We got grass!  May not be a big deal to some....but we've been living here over a year with nothing but weeds and dirt to greet us.
Here, let me show you what I mean...
Nov 2010 when we bought the place:

We took out the palm trees and shrubs, ripped out the bouganvillea by the walkway, repainted the shutters and porch railing and tore up the dead grass.

It's looked like this for quite some time.

But now...

Amazing what a difference it makes :D

Okay, so I didn't get to do anything wild for myself.....but I was able to make something for a wild at heart friend.  Would you ever think to put skulls on a coffee cozy?

Yeah, me neither....haha!

But here is one.

And another.

And some keychains for the heck of it!

Does that count?

If you are one of those inclined to add skulls to everything, I have one of these keychains in the shop....and I can always make more cozies for anyone interested....you Wild Things, you ;P

Hope you have a wild and wonderful weekend, My Bloggy Buds!!

Until next week,

Cameron

P.S.  For the next two Lessons of Drawing Lab.....we are supposed to draw at the zoo.  If you have a menagerie at home or are able to actually go to a zoo...fantastic!  Otherwise, other measures are, of course, necessary and just fine. I will be using footage we've taken from various zoo visits for my assignments :)

I'm having so much fun doing these with you!

Cats, But Not in Bed - Lesson #1

Helloooo Bloggy Friends!!

I had mentioned last post that I was going to try to tackle this book.

I can't tell you how thrilled I am that so many of you accepted my invitation to dive in and play along!

My intention is to have this be an ongoing project that anyone can join and link their lessons up to.

I need to figure out how to do it (Mr Linky and adding categories is new to me), but I want to have this on my sidebar so we can keep track of everyone's progress :)

So, thank you so much for the great excuse to learn a few new tricks in the real world and the Bloggy one!

Lesson one is all about drawing cats.  You're supposed to draw them while lying in bed....I didn't do that part....cuz once I get in bed, I sleep....I wouldn't be able to keep my eyes open, let alone hold a pencil....haha!

They are supposed to be out of your imagination....and the instructions say to make your lines "simple and expressive".  I told you I had trouble with letting go of details.  These were the first 3 attempts.

Then I did these.

I started looking at her examples and applying that feeling to my drawings a bit more....

Then, I realized I was supposed to be using a pen....oops...

....promptly switch utensils...aaaaand....

This page came about.

I was numbering them to keep track of how they were flowing.  Maggie wanted to write the numbers for me...and after that got boring, she did her own cats...

These just make me smile!

She even numbered hers, too :)

I finished up with one last cat....in alien superhero colors...

....just to try to loosen up and be ridiculous...

I've got a long way to go....haha!

Please link up your posts as you complete the lessons!

This will be for Lesson 1.

I'm going to shoot for a lesson a week.

I'm hoping you can still link if these are accessed from the sidebar *crossing fingers*

We shall soon see!

Can't wait to see what you do with this book!

A Green Mustache and A Feline Napkin

Wow!   Hard to believe a week has gone by already!  Thanks to everyone for your support of my Blog Post over at Butterfly Effect.  I appreciate your lovely comments, for popping over there to read it....and a hug to those of you who had the time to create something for it :)

During the week, Maggie and I started making Green Smoothies at breakfast.  I can see why so many of you swear by them!

We've been putting in a handful of spinach, and either celery or cucumbers, maybe a smattering of cherry tomatoes, a frozen banana, frozen fruits (such as mangoes, pineapple, or berries), 2 scoops NanoGreens powder, unsweetened Coconut milk from Trader Joe's, a dash of whatever 100% juice we have ( like OJ or pomegranate) and some cinnamon...

I thought the color would disuade her from drinking it....but she LOVES these things!  I love that I can give her one of these with her toast and eggs before school and she'll have a full balanced meal at the start of her day!  She goes back to school again on Monday, so we'll see how easy it is to keep up with this :)

Look at that chunky green mustache...haha!

Our kitten, Sally, is such a people cat.....always wanting to know what we're doing, where we're going, what we're eating.  She'll follow us around the house and join us on the couch for TV time.  She even sits and waits on the bathmat while Maggie bathes...

This morning, we all snuggled up on the couch,.  We just had our smoothies...and Maggie was sporting another green mustache.  Why do kids never use napkins?

Who knew cats enjoy their greens, too!

Feline Napkin from Cameron Reutzel on Vimeo.

Our Little tuxedo girl has quite a personality.   We took her to the Vet and when he inserted the thermometer to take her temperature, she bit him!  He had to ask the Nurse to hold her still....all 2 pounds of her...haha!

Have a great week ahead!  I look forward to sharing some new things with you soon!

Hugs, green mustaches, and kitten kisses to you all,

Cam

BaBy NeWs!!!

Please help us welcome the arrival of a 1 lb 4 oz bundle of furry joy!

This is Sally (named after the character from Nightmare Before Christmas) :D

As all you lovely Bloggy Friends already know, my daughter, Maggie, just adores cats!  When we taught her sign language as a baby....it was the first word she communicated with us....if I wanted to get a good picture of a real, genuine smile on her face....one of our cats just had to be in the room...

You already know about her Kitty themed Birthday party and room re-do...

She has always loved cats!

We decided this was the year to get her one of her very own...

Sally came home with us last night.

Though she is a Christmas present, we got her early so there is plenty of time to spend with her over Maggie's 3 week Winter Break starting soon.

She's staying in Maggie's room in the eves until she and our other cats grow accustomed to eachother.

I went in to check on them both....and saw this :)

Isn't that the cutest thing!  My heart just melted....

We took her to the Vet this morning where she got a clean bill of health.

She is so sweet and loves to be with people....Maggie loves to read to her.

See...Sally even looks at the pictures....haha!

Maggie is just in Kitten Heaven!

Just so exciting to have the scamper of little paws around here again!

Hope you are all having as wonderful a weekend as we are!

Can't help but smile,

Cameron