Playing Dirty Ball!

I had so much fun painting these dirty old baseballs my dog found at the dog park next to the batting cage at Albany High School. It felt like fun and play, not work while I was painting it and I’m really happy with the results. I’d been struggling to find my way with oil painting the past couple months, so it feels good to get my confidence back. Playing Dirty Ball is available on my DailyPaintworks site here.

The first baseball Millie found and tore apart had a computer chip, wires and a tag with different speeds on it deep inside. Is that normal for baseballs? She loved shredding that ball, gradually tearing off the leather,  then unwinding the yards of tightly wrapped black twine until she finally got down to the wonderfully bouncy little black ball inside that she played with for weeks. At one point it rolled under the gate so she started digging a hold trying to get to it. I was surprised by the hole, worried she was trying to escape, until I found the ball on the other side of the gate.

Now that I’ve painted these dirty balls I can give them to Miss Millie for her shredding pleasure.