Red Plums in Pastel

"Red Plums" 6 x 6 Pastel on Colourfix Sanded Paper
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This was a piece I also painted in oil as a 4 x 4", but I love the looks of the plums so much I decided to do it in pastel as a slightly larger piece.

The Empty Well

I still have not recovered from being gone for several weeks due to traveling and pnuemonia.  I'm sure other artists can relate...you are all off your rhythm and nothing seems easy as it once was. (Maybe it was never easy, I'm just dreaming!) 

But I know for sure that the way out is......to just keep working (and maybe pretend like nothing's wrong.)  And really nothing IS wrong except for my mental attitude. 



"Harbor Lights" 6 x 6 Pastel on Paper
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WORK IN PROGRESS
6 x 6 Pastel on Sanded Paper

Two New Paintings and Pnuemonia

Sorry to have been gone soooo long!  I was preparing for our big spring meeting with the governing board of the Colored Pencil Society of America in Brea, CA.  The day before I was to travel I could feel a cold coming on, and by the time I returned home I had a nice big case of walking pnuemonia and a sinus infection.  Made my way the next morning to the Walgreen's Take Care Clinic (awesomeness) as my PCP is waaaaay across town.  A round of antibiotics and inhaler and I was starting to feel better.  Today, though, it feels as if I've taken a step backward....we'll see.  I still have an obnoxious cough and who wants to go out in public like that?

I was able to make it to the studio this week, played with some abstracts and then was able to finish up the apples painting, and whip out the strawberries painting.

"Apples and Crock" 6 x 6 Oil on Gessobord
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"Pot and Strawberries" 6 x 6 Oil on Gessobord
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Reworking with a Different Perspective

"Arise" 6 x 8 pastel on paper
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I took an old pastel painting that I was never crazy about (see below), and reworked it, now a year and a half later (see above.)  The original painting was actually part of my short lived 100 project.  I reworked with a focus on mark-making, color and shape rather than on a representational landscape.  I think it's an improvement.

100 Project #15 pastel on paper
NFS

Pear Up 4 x 4"...Back to Oils Yesterday

"Pear Up" 4 x 4 Oil on Gessobord
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Back in the studio yesterday after a few days off, and back to oil painting after a couple of spins around the dance floor with pastels the last couple of weeks.  It's going to be one of those years, some oils, some pastels and maybe even a colored pencil piece thrown in.

I met with a close group of artists friends last night and we were talking about rendering vs. feeling (or more precisely rendering and feeling.)  All of us are at a certain age where the fame and fortune is elusive and probably not in the cards in this lifetime.  However, we did feel that being able to have art to express ourselves beyond words is extremely more valuable anyway. 

While I've painted lots of still lifes, landscapes, and a couple of figurative works (my grandchildren), there is something for me in painting fruits and vegetables.  I'm not sure why and I don't really have to have an answer, but for me they are organically beautiful, and in a healthy way very sensual. 

One of the ideas we had last night was to write about a painting before we paint it, "what is it that we want to capture?"  I'm looking forward to taking part in this exercise and will keep you posted.