Shopping For Flowers (Garden Center)

I could browse for hours at the garden center, looking at all the beautiful flowers. Another sign of Spring!

Spring! (Magnolias and Forsythia)

I just had to paint the beautiful flowers of Spring before they are gone. This is more of a color study, and more abstract, than my usual style. I guess I got carried away! Incidentally, the colors I am getting with my new digital camera are a bit off. Time to figure out why...I guess I will have to actually read the manual:)

Stone Barns at Blue Hill - 9" x 12" Pastel

My first attempt at plein air this season. The surrounding hills were absolutely beautiful-- but, my gear was so heavy, I ended up staying in the courtyard. I need to figure out how to travel lighter!

Sunday Paper - 18" x 24" Pastel

Spotted this guy relaxing with the paper; loved painting the light. Worked on it all day yesterday; have one or two things to fine tune, and then I will sign it.

Plein Air Season!

OK, my friends Jamie Grossman and Peggy Post have given me the plein air bug. I have dabbled in this before, somewhat unsuccessfully...but this year I plan to get out a lot more and (to quote Tim Gunn) "make it work". To that end I have just bought a new field easel set-up. Stay tuned.

Deep in Thought - 11" x 15" Pastel

I tried to complete but not to overwork this--now that I see them side by side, there are some things I liked better yesterday, but on the whole I am happy.

Deep in Thought - WIP

Only had an hour or so today, to block this in. To be continued...

Patch of Sun - Cat Portrait

A continuation of my post of a few days ago. I will probably continue to noodle with this, but it is for the most part done. I like it.

Orange Slices - 9" x 12" Pastel

Painting with my friend Nancy was so much fun today...we painted a simple still life with some mellow jazz playing, and then Nancy, who is an amazing cook, made homemade minestrone, bread, and flan for lunch. It really doesn't get better than this.

Patch of Sun - Cat (WIP)

A beautiful cat doing what cats do best, finding a patch of sun and enjoying it's cozy warmth. This painting is almost done; I will work on it one more day to finetune it and add some fun details (like whiskers).
The image is from the Wetcanvas reference image library, generously posted by a very talented photographer. Unless you only paint from life, you must either take great pictures, or paint enough so that what the reference lacks, you can intuitively add.

Charlie the Bichon

This was a difficult project. I actually had to do this portrait twice...the first time I used a new paper that turned out to be a disaster with soft pastels (Hannemuele velour), and a second time as shown here, on Wallis paper. I have seen great work on that velour paper, but I think it is designed for much harder pastels. I lost sleep over this one...but in the end, I am happy with it. I hope the owner likes it.

Mooshie the Cat - 16" x 18" Pastel

Older paintings of one of my cats, Mooshie. I haven't painted either cat in a while, and I am thinking about trying a few new cat paintings once some commission work is done.
In fact, I have been thinking about subjects that I have painted lately; when I am not really interested in a subject, I think it really shows. Now, my intent is to only paint things I am visually excited by. Somehow I got offtrack; hopefully adding this discipline to my choice of subject will help.

The Game - 16" x 20" Pastel

Today I began two commissions, which I cannot post on my blog at the moment. Rather than not post at all, here's an older one. A weekly basketball game, where all the guys are at that age where they take 1-2 motrin before they play:) Still, no one loves the game more than they do. This painting was done for my hubby (shooting). A follow-up painting was done as a commission for one of the guys on defense.

Trail to Pine Creek Cookhouse - 18" x 24" Pastel (WIP)

This past winter I visited Aspen Colorado; the only way to eat at the Pine Creek Cookhouse is to snowshoe, cross country ski, or take a horse drawn sleigh. The area is beautiful. Bottom image is the block in, the top image is the finish. My problem is that I sometimes lose the initial nice loose feeling and overwork things. This time was no different:(

Summer Petunias - 9" x 12" Pastel on Board (WIP)

Didn't get to finish this today...hopefully I will over the weekend. I used a photo taken on one of my many neighborhood walks, and tried out a new sanded panel made by Richeson. It takes a lot of layers, and I liked it alot. Oddly enough, I liked the panel better than the paper of the same brand.

Irises on Devoe Road - 12" x 18" Pastel

I am working on a winter landscape, which I did not post today since it still needs a lot of work. This is an older landscape; it is sentimental to me because this field of irises used to bloom in my neighborhood, but blooms no more. The land was sold, and now in its place is an ordinary suburban house. I prefer looking at this and remembering the field in all it's glory:)

Jake at the Beach - 16" x 20" Pastel

A painting of a very lucky Tibetan Terrier named Jake, whose humans bring him to their house at the beach all summer long.

This blog is a must-read for artists!

I just happened upon the blog of an artist named Jerry Lebo, and I spent hours reading it. If you are an artist and you want to learn about how to become a better one, spend the time to discover the nuggets of wisdom there. www.jerrylebo.com, or www.sixtyminuteartist.com

Autumn I and II (Aspen) - Pastel Dyptych, 8" x 12"

OK, I can never leave well enough alone, I have a tendency to noodle(overwork) a painting even after it is done. And after everything is said and done, it hardly ever looks different! Well, here is the reworked scene from yesterday,and a companion one. My dissatisfaction is that the colors are not as vibrant as I would have liked, and believe me, it is hard to get muddy colors with pastels:) I plan to try an acrylic underpainting in the future, to get more vibrancy and color saturation.

Autumn I (Aspen) - 8" x 12" Pastel

For some reason, painting the woods is a challenge for me. One issue with this (of many) is the composition, mainly the lack of a focal point. An interesting exercise, but next time I'll use a better photo:)