Wolf

this was my first attempt at an animal in pastel..not sure if I am going to bother finishing this one or not...

Pastel Corgi

Hi all,
finished my sister's Christmas present.  Its her Corgi that died this past year.  this is only the second animal I have tried in pastel, so I know there are some things that I could have done better (like the eyes are too close) but all in all I think it's okay,

 

holly branch

This painting is based on a photo I got last winter from an online artist friend.  The underpainting is watercolor then pastel is painted over it.  The watercolor makes up most of the forest background.

tried a couple of acrylic paintings...

I'm not really an acrylic painter but I wanted to make a couple Impressionistic style paintings for the front and back cover of a sketch pad that I made.  The sketch book wasn't one of the easiest projects I have ever done..what with sewing the pages and gluing the paper, but it was fun and it will be put to good use :)

YouTube - Joscelyn's True Vocation

My daughter, Joscelyn, entered the Poor Clare cloistered community in Barhamsville, VA on Friday.
This video was made by a dear friend at her going away party at the Church last Sunday.
My heart is bursting with Joy and breaking with sadness right now...
below is also a link to the Convent and also to her blog :)


YouTube - Joscelyn's True Vocation

http://www.poor-clares.org/
http://seekingavocation.blogspot.com/

flowers pastel

worked on a pastel today that involved under-painting with pastel and alcohol.  this was fun, although I am not crazy about the finished painting.  want to try this technique again though :)

pastel landscape

This is my latest pastel.  started it in class a couple weeks ago and finished it last night.  the picture is from a calender. 

swap painting

This was the painting I painted to send to my artist partner this month.  I was experimenting with glazing with gum arabic to make my pumpkins shinier.  I like the way it turned out on the orange ones.  couldn't seem to get the perspective right on the yellow one :( overall I though I really like this painting :)

Bubbles...

I have a lot of trouble with the whole negative painting concept (painting around shapes) I have been working on this the last couple days...not only to practice negative painting but also to practice making see through spheres with reflections and shadows.  I call this one "Bubbles...." colors around the outside are much stronger than I would have liked but that is because of all the layers it took to paint this...getting darker each layer.

apple still life

Tried my hand a pastels again since tomorrow is my class and I haven't had any time to practice this week.  Spent about 3-4 hours on this one...just kept playing.  the paper is sanded so I now have cuts on my finger tips and have no idea how I am going to get through class tomorrow!  anyway, I am not too awful happy with the cloth, and I want to throw out my black pastel so I am never tempted to use it again, hehe :)

first try at pastels

I wanted to try something new so I am taking a 9 week course in Pastels.  I have never ever tried soft pastels so I feel like a total beginner :(  Last week we mainly talked about the different kinds of pastels and paper, etc.  This week we got to jump in a try an apple...I gave it two tries...neither of which I am crazy about, but it's enough to know that I LOVE pastels.  The first is on cheaper paper and the second is on more expensive sanded paper.  I definitely like the way the pastels went on the sanded paper better, I really could probably do more to this one to consider it finished.

This project reminded me of my very first watercolor painting back in 1999...which was also an apple :)

my new studio

I converted one of our bedrooms into my new studio.  This is a great room as it has two closets and an outside door!  It also faces the South which is perfect for morning painting!  the hardest part was deciding what to do with the floor since it is wall to wall carpet.  I decided to cover it with Linoleum...couldn't afford a sub-floor though so its kinda buckling ;)

paintings2

redid this one...

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paintings

I decided to Matt many of my paintings..both old and new..to decorate the walls of my new studio with.  Many of these I am not totally happy with and some I cut down to use only the parts of the painting I liked :)  I also decided to make a few short videos of these paintings..there are three video's in all (30 seconds ea)...please click on the links to go and view them...sorry about the quality, I didnt photo these until they were already on the wall :)

paintings

my chicks and chickens

I really love these guys and spoil them ALOT!  I just boiled them up 3 dozen old eggs and gave them some too-ripe watermelon! they are SO excited :) yesterday they managed to get some overripe peaches out of me..they ate all of them down to the pits! Tomorrow they will get some acorn, butternut and yellow squash..yum!~

soon, I hope to have time to paint...I will be starting a class in Drawing this week based on "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" and a pastel class.  I am really excited as these classes are away from home and will "make" me paint! I just am not good about finding time to paint at home...too many distractions :)

turtle

I finally finished my turtle painting...  I am not totally happy with it, but at least it is done.  We found this little guy in our garage last year.  I did not intend to paint him underwater...but that kinda happened :)

abstract Rose

Here is an abstract rose I did for the artist's swap a few weeks ago.  we are partnered with another artist quarterly and send them an original painting.