Happy New Year to all , and thank you for visiting my blog, I am looking forward a wonderful new year with lots of new paintings and ideas ,I hope to find more collectors of my work , don't be afraid to ask questions and don't forget ,I do commissions .
We had a wonderful family day today , we took a ride in a horse drawn sleight ride trough the woods in a small town in NH , I really wanted to paint the scene , but we were 11 people in this ride ,our kids and grand kids , but I will make a trip back to capture the woods and the snow . actually it is snowing again tonight.
My series of lonely houses, Maine has many of these houses , just waiting for people to take care of them ,for me who like architecture, I am in heaven in my Summer travel of plein air painting ,they are posing for me , my friends also looks for them and say , did you see that house ? it's a Nita house.
This is a house I have come across in my travels in Maine , loved the architecture but not the sitting , I have taking artistic licence and gave it a mood and left a lot of the landscape , just kept it simple .I did a series of these old house , and still have a few and would love to find a home for them .so please email me nlcasey@charter.net
Having my grand children home for the holidays , not much time to paint , I will use this time to post commission houses from the past , this was a lovely home to work on ,the owners were very pleased to take the memories with them to their next house.
It was a beautiful day in this part of the country today , hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I took the day off from painting today.
In this busy season , I am only able to paint miniatures in between commission work, and shoveling the snow off the roof ,baking cookies and more.....
Winter today! but we already had five storms. I am exhausted from shoveling ,one thing the landscape looks like a picture post card.
We are in deep snow right now and it keeps on coming ,it makes the town look very pretty , I am the only one who thinks this way like most artist we see beauty in everything .
I work from this table when not at my easel, my easel goes with me most of the time for on location paintings. 
My small daily paintings are all over the place ,looking for a home , Please take me home!
My dog Clancy watching for possible costumers, he is my mascot in the studio , also have a cat molly .
A typical street of New England today, today's temperature is -5 and too cold for kids to be out, 
I drive around town sometimes just to find cute snowman , I took the photo last week of this one from our last storm , Well today , we have a real storm going on all day ,we are snowed in!
I finely got in the Christmas mood , or the winter mood , because I love to paint snow . After I cleaned and shoveled the driveway , I took a ride around town just to look at the beautiful snow scenes ,decorated doors , snow men's and the natural beauty of the snow everywhere , the way it cover everything in a white blanket. I will have the chance to really paint the stuff , we are getting another storm tomorrow night.
What a day today ! snow and more snow, my poor husband who had to go in Boston , it took him four hours to get home ,of the regular one hour trip. I painted all day , it kept me at my easel , 
Christmas lunch today, for the Breakfast Club, we are a group of artists who meet every Wednesday to share art adventures, dilemmas, successes ,critique, just about anything to do with art, we have been doing it for almost 20 years .We come from all around the Nashua ,NH area , I myself live in Massachusetts only 10 miles from Nashua we meet at Borders book store every week at 10 AM , any local artist is welcome.
Christmas is just around the corner, everybody is decorating their house ,it is a pretty time of the year ,I love all the houses at night with the candles in the windows, i want to do the house across the street, but too tired tonight, maybe tomorrow. this one was fun to do also.
This is a watercolor 8x10 mated to a 11x14 $ 100.00 email me if interested, this design is original and copyrighted . nlcasey@charter.net
check my other blog http://cardsalacarte.blogspot.com
A day to stay home today! with The icy weather outside it was a perfect day to catch up on things, when you are away from the studio for a couple days things add up , now applications for shows and competitions are coming in for next year.
Just finish a a two day show in Nashua , many people came strolling to the gallery in the old mill, all in The Christmas spirit . My friend Marilene Sawaf and a team of Artisans have done a lot of work for this show , they deserve an A+.check my other blog http://cardsalacarte.blogspot.com
The busy schedule of the holidays has started, and somehow not ready yet! I have one more show this week end Saturday and Sunday at Gallery one in Nashua, if you are in the area stop by, many artists will be there , paintings, jewelery , pottery etc...
It was too icy to walk early this morning ,but I looked out the window and I had a nice sunrise in front of me , so I took the pastels and did this before the coffee was made. My dog Clancy was not too happy but we did walk later. The chickens have been coop up the last two days , so I am taking a break with them .
I worked on Pierre today and brought back lots of memory of him , he would go on every decoration I would put in around the yard , he loved to model , I think he knew I would come with the camera to snap a shot ., if the door was open he would come right in like he owned the place , I will post a photo , so you can see him in my studio.
Our first snow is coming down , winter is here for sure, today my chickens had their last day walking the yard , they will definitely be cooped up for a few days. I winterised the coop so they will be fine!
One more big guy , this one is from Maine where I go paint every summer . Every rooster that i paint ,I have a connection with them ,this one lived in this beautiful farm with about 25 hens , a beautiful bird he was! until a fox came during the night in the coop , poor Henry took a real beating from this fox ,but managed to save many of the hens and save himself , his owner really respected him after this ordeal , a Rooster will fight to no end to save his girls!
This was my first rooster ,I raised him from a two days old chick , not knowing he was going to be a rooster , it was supposed to be four hens, he was the cutest little thing .It was a great summer to see them matured into there own , I would paint on my picnic table and they would walk all over my paintings, they would come in the studio with the cat and the dog . By fall he had matured to a beautiful rooster and he knew it! We used to have little fights together but I still loved him as a pet. In his third winter he caught the flu and I couldn't save him , it was sad to see him go. OK , by now if you read this ,you must think I am crazy ! but i do love all animals.
I am on a roll with my series of roosters , well this is George ,I bought him a year and half ago at the farmer's market , the local science teacher was selling him , he had been hatch in the class room as a project , he is very handsome ,has developed an attitude ! the first six months I could hold him fine , but not now , he rules the yard and my dog Clancy , I have some clips on the camera I would love to put on You tube when he chases the dog. I don't have to worried he keeps watch on the house , all roosters seems to be this way, my last one Pierre was even worst.
Many roosters have been painted, in the past and I have held back my wanting to paint them because so many people do them , but right now I am surrounded by them , I have three chickens myself, of one being a rooster George , and my next door neighbors has four hens and one rooster , this summer two of the hens had baby chicks , 7 roosters and three hens , all look like this one, they walk in my yard all day by my window, along with mine , they are adorable , not fighting yet!
Yesterday we attended the most beautiful wedding at the Boston Cathedral I posted few days ago, it was my wedding present to the bride and groom, all the guests signed on the mat arround the pen & ink, it makes a nice memento for them.
Just came back from the pond , where we had a wonderful thanksgiving dinner with the family.
Will be busy with the family the next couple days, celebrating our thanksgiving in the woods of Maine where the wild turkeys run wild .
I am posting another pen & ink of the library in my home town ,only few doors down from my house,it's a beautiful architecture, it was also a fun project to work on , I do love challenges, it was given to someone who worked there for many years ,
This is the pen and ink drawing I have been working on . I used to do a lot of them in the past ,mostly black and white , this one was done with brown ink, it give it an antique look. 
We are getting close to the holidays when ,you see every town with a church craft fair ,open house , opening of shows , holiday tours etc... . I spend my day going to all of them , maybe to get myself in the holiday spirit or just to support my friends, it was a nice day!
Today they are announcing some snow for tomorrow , the winter is really around the corner !
This was a farm of my mother's house , the jardinier always in his garden ,most french house have a vegetable garden and they are very proud of them, and no weeds in there!Email nlcasey@charter.net
My mother passed away last last year at of the age of 100 years old , but she lived in this little village until a couple months before she died ,This was her view from where she sat everyday.I am posting this today because it would of been her birthday , I painted this scene a few years back in the spring just setting at the dining room table, this is a nostalgic painting that will be forever in my family. this is why I do many house portraits for people.
The last two days have been busy , 
Last week the moon was so big that I am still painting scenes from memory , 
Rainy day today, the leaves are coming down fast with the rain and wind.
This is my #300 post, a year has gone by since I started this blog! it has been a good discipline for me.The painting I am posting today is a larger work , and it is now at a Gallery show for our Breakfast club.
The last few days have been really crazy for me with not much time to paint , I first broke down with my car in Maine and had to live it there , and my husband ended up with a kidney stone surgery. Before all this I was working on a commission ,this is my studio with my dog Clancy who always sits by my feet when working.
