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...

paintings2

paintings2

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paintings3

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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 :)