Spring time brings baby nests...

Last year I painted a whimsical painting of a tree with owls, squirrels, birds, rabbits, foxes, and raccoons for a nursery.  I've never been up close and personal with raccoons...until now.  In the fun painting that I did, I painted the baby raccoons in the knot hole in the tree, with the momma raccoon waving from behind the tree.  I think they are so cute! So I was very surprised to find some baby raccoons in the eave of my storage building in my back yard.  I heard them making noise and assumed that it was a birds nest.  But when I decided to use the ladder to check it out, I found that it was not birds, it was baby raccoons!  At first I thought that the Momma Raccoon had been blocked out of our newly repaired storage building.  So I was worried about the babies starving.  The next day when I checked on the raccoons, I stuck my head up by the eave where they were, and saw a much larger mass move!  Momma Raccoon was up there and it really surprised me and I thought that she might jump at me to protect her young!  Startled by this new discovery, I jumped down off the ladder!  (causing me to lose my balance and fall...but I'm okay...bruised, but okay. I'm sure it was very amusing to my hubby to see all of this happen, after he knew I was okay. We had a good laugh about it anyway.)  After getting over the shock of seeing the Momma, I was advised to leave the door to the storage building open over night and see if the Momma Raccoon would take her babies and leave to find a quieter spot.  I left the door open and the next morning she and her babies were not in the nest.  Hopefully they found their way out safely and another quiet space to live.

Momma Raccoon

Here is the photo that I took of Momma from the other end of the eave.  I didn't see her in the photo until AFTER I saw her up close!




The last picture is of the babies when I first discovered them. There were three babies laying up there alone.  I didn't see their Momma and they were at the other end of the building where I found them with their Momma, the next day.

Maybe I'll come across a bird's nest next.
Have a great week!

Baby Racoons without Momma

Beth  ♥    

More Textured Painting Fun!

Abstracted Flower
20"x 20" Acrylic on Canvas
Beth S. Macre  © 2013

Painting with acrylic and modeling paste to create texture is so fun to play with!  I was asked to create a painting with these colors, so I had fun coming up with this design and then painting it.  Love the color combinations so much that I may need to use these colors for a painting for my own home.

The customer loved her painting! I appreciate all of my customers who continue to help me be the work at home artist that I love!

Beth  ♥

Art Studio to Office

Before...lots of little holes patched up!

Painting walls is not my idea of fun painting, but that is what I have started doing at the Macre household...along with my usual art projects.  Its been a few years since I painted a few of the rooms in my house, so I have to paint them to freshen up the walls.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, we hope to move sometime in the near future, so before we put the house on the market, we need to freshen up things around the house.  I'm starting with the 'former art room', because it has been the longest since it was painted...mainly because there was too much stuff in there. I don't have a photo before I took all of the stuff out. Because it was an art room, there were many things on the walls over the years, so you can imagine the nail holes in the walls.  In the photo, you can see the patches for all the tiny nail holes and then the after photos that show how fresh it looks with the new coat of paint! (It looks worse than it was.)  I will definitely be going through the stuff and be more selective in what goes back in there.  It is going to be an office instead of the art studio now. I'm going to resist the urge to fill it up!  It is very nice to have a clean slate.

Painting finished.

Furniture back in place.
 The paint color is closer to the photo above this one.
It looks different in different light.

The other side of the room still needs a little organizing.  I'll post photos of that side eventually.
Now on to another room as soon as I get caught up on art commissions...and to finish my taxes!

Have a nice weekend!

Beth  ♥