"P is for Peanut Racer" is the latest painting to be completed in my Alphabet Block Series.   Like the other paintings in this series this is a 6" x 6" oil painting on panel.  I have known what the subject for the letter P painting was going to be from the time I started the series.   The star of this painting, the peanut racer, was a gift from my daughter-in-law.    My daughter-in-law lives in the same house that she grew up in.  While doing some work in the yard one day she unearthed this delightful little car, obviously abandoned by one of her brothers many years ago.  Knowing how much I enjoy painting older toys, she sent the peanut racer to me.......and it has been patiently waiting ever since for it's moment in the limelight!   As the star of the painting was a peanut racer I knew there would be shelled peanuts in the composition....but it wasn't until I started playing with the peanuts, racer and alphabet block that the idea came for the peanuts to be a cheering audience for the peanut racer.  Using markers I added the faces giggling the whole time.  I did not stop giggling the whole time I painted the painting!  I hope it makes you giggle as well!

Last week while on vacation in California I received an exciting e-mail notifying me that "Marbles IV" had been juried into the National Oil and Acrylic Painters' Society's (NOAPS) 24th Annual "Best of America" Exhibition and Sale.  I have entered NOAPS online competitions in the last year, but this is the first time I entered the annual show.  This show is different in that it is hung in two different venues one after the other.  The first venue is the Dunnegan Gallery of Fine Art in Bolivar, MO from October 12th to the 26th.   The second venue is The Vine Wine Bar and Gallery  in Osage Beach, MO from November 1st to the 22nd.