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"The Hunter" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Aquabord, 5" x 7". Copyright ©2012 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

His prey drive is off the charts. He’ll hunt relentlessly, even in knee-deep January snows, stalking small animals until he has icicles growing on his whiskers. He’s the King of the Back Yard, but indoors, he’s just our big, cuddly boy.

"Blind Side" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Aquabord, 7" x 5". Copyright ©2012 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

He’s not really blind, just blinded by blinders. Trainers put all sorts of interesting contraptions on these harness race horses so they won’t get distracted by things – real or imagined – during a race. Some setups look like they were cobbled together with baling wire.

This one is posted in the Daily Paintworks Up Close Animal Challenge created by artist Taryn Day

"Chomp, Chomp" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Gessobord, 6" x 8". Copyright ©2012 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

Artist Carol Marine says in her Daily Paintworks Horsing Around Challenge  that she and her family woke up one morning while camping in Missouri to see this horse grazing near their tent. She snapped a photo of the scene, and posted it for artists to interpret.

I’m not a relaxed camper. If I heard a “chomp, chomp, chomp” from inside a tent in the early morning hours, I’d freak out. What else could it be but the Langoliers?

"Portrait of a Parisian Waitress" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Gessobord, 14" x 18". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

I couldn’t resist painting  a portrait of this lovely waitress from a photo taken by artist/photographer/traveler/blogger Lee Brown. Lee generously lends some of his travel photos to artists in the context of his ADNW painting challenges. Participants get one month to submit their interpretations of his image.  There’s some cool stuff already posted. Go see it here.

I don’t know what I liked more – the quality of the light, or the shape of her hair and all those wispy tendrils. Both were tons of fun to paint.

"Sunflower Medley" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Aquabord, 5" x 5". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

The hubby bought me sunflowers again, so I painted them. The red ones came from an Amish woman at the farmer’s market, and the yellow ones were from Fresh Market.

In other news, Liquitex added more of my acrylic paintings to their Inspire site: Bumble Bee Bop, Rivalry, Portrait of the Chicken as a Young Cockerel, and Little Big Dog. Liquitex Inspire is a beautifully designed site featuring the work of a variety of artists who use Liquitex acrylics.

"Stanley Steamer" sketch by Lesley Spanos. Gouache and pen on kraft paper, 8" x 9". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

I’d never seen a steam-powered car fired up until I saw this one. It was in the daily parade at the Indiana State Fair, it’s shiny red paint gleaming in the sun. When I looked up Stanley Steamer Motor Carriage Company on Wikipedia, I found a photo of this car in the article. Not just this model, but this actual car with the same US flag decal on the windshield, and the same owner/driver, photographed at the Indiana State Fair. Small world, eh?

I’m posting this one in Liz Wilzen’s Value Challenge on Daily Paintworks. Liz’s challenge requires us to use only four values, so I used black marker, white gouache, and a brown gouache. The light brown paper works as the fourth value. I used to like doing sketches like this in life drawing class in school, but that was a LONG time ago!