Port Elgin Sunset

I enjoyed working on the black Art Spectrum paper more than I had expected to in the workshop I took last weekend. And in fact I've already sold the Sunrise painting that I did on the black paper. I had some black paper around that came in the sampler packs from Art Spectrum that come in various warm or cool colors. I had never liked the black so hadn't used some of the sheets I had.

But I pulled one of them out tonight and painted this picture of a sunset up in Port Elgin, New Brunswick, when I was coming home one evening from my life drawing session over in Tidnish, Nova Scotia. I think I like my sunrise painting better, but I had fun doing this one also. Sunrises and sunsets seem to be good subjects for the black paper, which was the standard 9x12 size.

Carrot Island

This is the third and final painting I did at the Richard Lundgren workshop, from a photo I took when I was out with my sister and brother-in-law in their boat last summer. This one was a bit of a quickie since I did it near the end of the day, but I still had fun. I only had the one sheet of black Art Spectrum, so this is done on the 9x12 slate blue-gray Richeson paper.

Morehead City sunrise

This is the second painting I did in the Richard Lundgren workshop on Saturday. Richard used black Art Spectrum paper for his demo. I love Art Spectrum but wasn't happy about black, but he made it look interesting so I bought a 9x12 sheet from him for my second painting.

And this is what I did on the black paper - from a reference photo I took early one morning in Morehead City, NC when I was visiting my sister Amy. The black background certainly made the foreground of the painting a lot easier to do! It was fun.

Nova Scotia barn

Today I took a one-day pastel workshop with Richard Lundgren. It was a fun day, with lots of folks I knew also attending, plus other some other folks who had never done pastels before, or had not done any in years.

It was a good day for me, as it gave me the oomph to actually do something, which I have not done much of lately. I actually finished 3 paintings today! This was the first one, done on a sheet of 9x12 Richeson paper, sort of a slatey blue-gray. A variety of pastels as usual.

An Amazement of Eggs

I was at my art guild meeting on Tuesday night and one of the other members brought in a dozen eggs that had been laid by her own small flock of free-range chickens. I just thought they were so incredibly beautiful, so different from supermarket eggs. They were all different sizes and all different colors. I just had to take a photo of them, and then decided I wanted to do a painting of them too, even though it's a rather unusual subject. But I just loved those eggs.

This is a little larger than I've mostly been working, on an 11x14 sheet of Richeson paper, sort of a mustardy color. 

Ravine Gardens

On Saturday I went to Ravine Gardens State Park with the First Coast Pastel Society. Ravine Gardens is a small gem in the state park system, noted for it's beautiful azaleas and an annual azalea festival. This was our regular bi-monthly plein air paint-out, and for the last couple years we've been pretty lucky with our weather, but not so much so on Saturday. The azaleas had only just begun to bloom, but a light splash here r there. But the main problem was that it was chilly, raw and rainy the whole morning. Oh well, as one woman said, "At least we don't have to worry about constantly shifting light and shadows". :-)

Most of us set up under a big covered picnic pavilion and were able to look out at the rain, drizzle, mist, and the foggy views. But it was fun all being together as a group, about 12 of us. The lighting was definitely flat, but it was still fun. Above is the painting I did  - on 9x12 Richeson paper, a sort of light blue-gray color.

Curious Cows

After painting the elephant and flamingos for the Jacksonville Zoo Project I still had the acrylics all over the dining room table. At the monthly art critique on Wednesday several of the women there told me I should try working in acrylics more. So I decided to give it a try, and painted this picture. It's 11x14 on canvas.

I'm still an acrylic newbie, but for fun I submitted it to the Fin, Feather and Fur competition at the Great Hang Ups Gallery.  All the paintings must be of animals, birds or fish, and some of the proceeds from the show will go to support the Safe Animal Shelter.

And if it doesn't get into the show, or does but fails to sell, I'll probably try to enter it in the Clay County Fair, whose theme this year is "Country Roots and Cowboy Boots". What could be more "country" than cows in a field? :-)