And the Winner Is........................

Arlene! (randomly selected by my 16 year old son for fairness)..........Thank you all for your comments and visiting my blog,......I think it's way more exciting to give a painting away than selling one, I always wanted to be the "winner"....I'll keep trying! Congrats to Arlene Chipman, please email me at kdukat4@yahoo.com or reply to this post with your email so I can get your address to ship you your sunflower painting! I like the giveaway so much, I think I'll do another soon!

This week has been absolutely crazy for me, notice the lack of any post in the last week! I was suprised by my wonderful boyfriend of 5 years with a new "toy", a red convertible coupe, kind of like I had in high school only so much nicer.....(I had a 1979 rusty Fiat, that I drove all over New Hampshire when I was in my teens....which I sold when I left for the Navy)....Now, with 4 "almost grown" kids later, (and vans, sedans, suv's aside), I got my dream car...The best part of it and a huge surprise for me was the marriage proposal that came with it! I have an incredible fiance who accepts me for the crazy artist that I am!

Phew! As if that wasn't enough, my two oldest boys graduated from high school this week. I am so proud of them both, but most especially for my oldest, Jake, who is autistic, and who has struggled mostly socially his entire school career. I can't thank enough the teachers along the way who knew how to get through to him, and accepted his hugs with affection in return. Good Luck to Jared also, who heads off to college in the fall....it's harder than it looks!!!

Also, after a spring of storms and rain, we had the most glorious week of sun ever, and I was able to plant all my flowers and vegatable garden....it was so nice to see all the farmers out plowing their fields and planting their corn.....it was a close call, as we live in the "bread basket" of America.....

Finally, I have almost all of my daily painting on display in various locations throughout Ohio, the latest being Coffee Amici in Findlay, who has an entire wall devoted to changing exhibits of local artists and generously takes no commissions. If you live in the area, please frequent them for their generosity to the arts. I have been very blessed this year, I'm not quite sure what I've done to deserve it, but I certainly know who to thank. I'm posting a pic of a work in progress that is destined for a show at the end of June. ( I need 5 larger paintings for a wine and art festival in Findlay, so I'm going for a garden/flower theme. This is a peony from my garden....As always, I started out with the brush, and when I became frustrated, switched over to palette knife.....why does the palette knife seem to be my solution to a dead painting....hmmmmmmm time will tell!not a great pic as I took it with my phone)