Misty Morning Pond with Heron

This painting has been sitting on my easel for over a month now. I kept thinking it needed something else. I finally got it into my head that what it needed was a heron standing on the edge of the pond near the tree, so this was what did this evening. Now I see that the heron appears to be close to dead center. Oh well, now it's sitting on my easel again to stare at and thing about - 11x14 Richeson paper and various pastels, mostly my Mount Vision "thunderstorm grays" set.

I'm a Little Teapot

Today was the day to turn in our painted boxes to the Jacksonville Artists Guild  for their "Cat's Meow" show, to raise money for First Coast No More Homeless Pets. The panels will be on display at the Reddi-Arts "Gallery 1037" In January, and of course for sale there.

Since the paintings were due today I finally sat down and painted mine yesterday - a little different since I did a cat teapot rather than an actual cat! But I figured there would be plenty of variety. I didn't get to see all of them since I didn't stay for the holiday party but just dropped off my painting and ran, but here's a sample of some of the other cat art that had already been delivered.

Julbock

Yesterday we had out third annual holiday brunch of the First Coast Pastel Society. As has become our custom we enjoy a nice meal together, and then spend a couple hours working on still lifes that have been set up. At the link above to our group blog you can see what other members worked on. The painting above is the one I did. 

It's a painting of a traditional Scandinavian "julbock" or Christmas Goat. As one of our members, of Scandinavian descent, put it: "up in Scandinavia there are more reindeer than we know what to do with, but instead we have a Christmas goat." :-)

Anyway, this was my take on the still life I chose to work on, as I decided a Goat was more fun than just one more vase of flowers. I had a fun time with my other pastelists, and look forward to an exciting 2015 with them.