"Ford Explorer" -- plein air field study -- oil on birch panel -- Margie Guyot

A sunny day here! I hung around until mid-day, waiting for the temperature to rise up from the below zero range. What to paint, what to paint? I couldn't resist it any longer: what I wanted to paint was my red Explorer, sitting out in the driveway. I loved how it cast blue shadows onto the snowbanks and how it reflected the blue of the sky. And yes, that's a layer of snow on top, between the luggage rack bars. Remnants of snow also cling to the top of the hood and front grill.


Believe it or not, but I actually was feeling a bit hot. Had on all my full array of long underwear and hi-tech boots, etc. Even my zebra cowboy hat. Had to unzip a few things.

Then the chickadees were buzzing me. Earlier, I'd held sunflower seeds in the palm of my hand when I refilled their feeder. Some of them were sitting in my hand, eating. So when they saw me again they must have thought I had more sunflower seeds for them.

Elvis and Matisse, my cats, were outside, prowling around, airing themselves out. We'd had about 18" of snow last week and I think everybody and everything was happy to get out into the glorious sun for a change. Elvis likes to hang around me and gives me meows of approval.

"All Good Cats Go to Heaven" -- oil on canvas -- 60x36" -- Margie Guyot

I did this one last summer and just realized I hadn't posted this. It all started with finding this fluffy pink prom dress in a garage sale. It was SO pretty, with rhinestones and sequins. Size 2, so it would never fit me, but I bought it to put into a painting or two.

While take a shower a day or so later, I had the idea to paint a surreal vision of a white fairy cat, wearing the "fairy dress", wielding a magic wand, surrounded by cats enjoying catnip and playing with little glowing orbs. The cat in the lower right corner is Matisse, my longhair cat who catches and eats red squirrels. My other cat, Elvis, is the gray tuxedo cat on the left side, about midway in the painting. On my bed I have a giant black jaguar, which I painted in the background, overlooking the cat fairy.

I'm entering this one into the Scarab Club's annual "Blooms, Bugs and Beasts" show tomorrow.