Well I finally finished my lighthouse.  I'm reasonably happy with it.  I spent about an hour this afternoon putting the finishing touches to the clouds.  Not sure where I am going to sign it, because the color at the bottom is too dark to allow a signature to show.  I have a white pastel pencil, so I might try that.

For those that are interested I will tell you that it's done on 9" x 12" Wallis pro board, using mostly Terry Ludwigs, Unisons and some Great American grays.

Went into my studio at about 11:00 am and got so lost in what I was doing that I missed lunch and didn't come down until gone 3:00 pm!  My lighthouse is almost finished - at one point I thought it was finished but then decided to redo the sky, which entailed erasing some completed work.  I have been trying to get away from blending, but couldn't get the sky to a point where I was happy with how it looked. Now I have to go back and do my clouds again!  

I'm so mad at myself because I dropped one of my new Maggie Price Values pastels, and of course it didn't land on the padded area under my easel, it hit the hardwood floor and broke into little pieces, then to add to the confusion, I knocked over the little plastic container that I keep the tiny little broken pieces in!  What a mess!

Worked some more on my lighthouse today.  I'm finding that the full spectrum light I bought a while back is a great help, now it doesn't matter if the light fades early, I hardly notice.

For some time now I have been lurking on a website called Wet Canvas and today I plucked up the courage to join in.  There is a section devoted solely to Soft Pastels which is full of great information.  They are all so talented and I have learned a lot just by hanging out there.  

This picture is from a photo taken in Cornwall, England when we were there in the summer.  This is done on Fabriano Tiziano which I bought to try.  I didn't care for it at all, though it did work well for the trees.  

Today it's snowing and will be for most of the day.  This is a picture that I did back in early December when I was thinking of winter scenes.  Since I did this I have acquired a lot more pastels, and I think I could actually do a better job now, but I thought I would post this anyway to give a flavor of what we are experiencing today!

I had fun working on my latest picture today, it's coming along nicely, but still has a way to go yet.

I've finally managed to get back to my artwork.  I felt as if I'd forgotten all I've learned over the last year, but as I get going it's all coming back to me.  I've decided to do a picture of a lighthouse near where we stayed in Maine some years ago, and I'm using some Wallis Pro Board that I received over Christmas.  My husband gave me two sample packs of all different pastel surfaces, many of which I've not used before, so it'll be interesting to see which ones I prefer.  Probably the most expensive!  That's usually the way it goes!  This picture shows my pastel set up, or at least some of it, there's also a complete set of Nupastel off to the side and some Rembrandt's that are not shown.

I did manage to get the Washington State picture framed and am very happy with the way it looks.  Very grand in it's gold frame.  I am going to Florida for a week tomorrow so today has been a bit hectic and this blog will most likely be silent for the next week.  Maybe I'll come back with photographs that will give me inspiration for my next picture.  Not sure I want to do the orchid I spoke of in an earlier post. 

Now that Halloween and Thanksgiving are over I guess it's time to take down the Pumpkin picture.  Tried to photograph this in it's frame at first but the glass reflections were just too much, so in the end I had to unframe? it, photograph it, then reframe it again.  A bit of a chore but the resulting photo is much better.  Went to the frame store and had them cut me a piece of picture glass this morning in order to frame my Washington state picture in the frame which I recently gilded.  Maybe get round to that this afternoon.

My new lamp has arrived and I think it will be great, I may combine it with a regular incandescent spotlight that I used when I did embroidery many years ago.  I have a number of pieces of art that I have yet to photograph, so now that I have the daylight lamp I'll probably get round to doing that and post them here.  I spent a good deal of time today looking through all my old photographs trying to find a subject matter for my next picture. In the end I decided to do a picture of some orchids that I had while we lived in Florida.

I finally finished my picture today.  The trees gave me so much trouble, but I think the end result is as good as I can achieve.  I putzed around with the clouds some more until I was more satisfied.  Then I took this photograph while it was still on the easel but it doesn't really do it justice.    Now I am looking around for another subject, but I don't think I want to do another landscape yet.

Spent a couple of hours working on my picture today.  As usual for me I am getting bogged down in detail.  The photo reference is from Washington State when we were driving in the mountains, but there is a pine forest involved and I am spending more time than I like trying to get a realistic representation of the trees.  I wish I could loosen up my style a bit and become a bit more impressionistic.  I like the look, but seem to be incapable of achieving it.  

I ordered a full spectrum lamp today.  It'll take about a week to get here, but will be a big help when the light begins to fade at about 4.00 pm every day.

Finally managed to get back to my easel this afternoon.  I worked for about an hour but then I lost the light and had to stop.  I really have to get some better lighting for my studio - I am looking at getting a full spectrum light because I find that I can't work with regular incandescent light, the color is all wrong.  I took a trip to our Blick store in Boston yesterday but they had almost no lights in stock.  They have several on their web site, so I think I'll have to go that route. If I get some decent light it will also help with photographing my pictures.

  

I also bought some gold paint today and spray-painted a frame I had picked up in a thrift store. It's looking quite good now.  I was also planning on framing my picture titled "What lies Within" and bought a frame for it today, but didn't get round to it.  Maybe tomorrow.

Today we decided to drive down to Plymouth, Ma to visit the art gallery of Anne Heywood a pastel artist from Maine, but unfortunately when we got there it was closed.  Anne is a very good pastelist and I've taken two weekend workshops with her which taught me a lot.  I also spent some time today sorting through my paintings that I have yet to photograph and put on this blog.  I hope to do that soon but it's easier to photograph them outdoors on a sunny day, and the weather isn't co-operating yet.

Two exciting things happened today!  

We totally finished the crown molding and are very satisfied with the result.  We figure for amateurs we did a pretty good job.

The other exciting event is that I have signed up for the International Pastel Society Convention, so John and I will be going to Albuquerque at the end of May for that.  I have always wanted to go to New Mexico and it's a plus that the IAPS is there.  I have also signed up to belong to the Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod, it's a long way from Chelmsford, but is the only one in Massachusetts.  I don't imagine I'll get to any meetings or take part in their events but by being a member I get a slightly reduced convention fee, but it will be good to belong to the society and get newsletters and information.

The crown molding is done!  It looks great and now we just have to go round and fill a thousand nail holes.  I love the way it looks.  Just spent the last hour cleaning up all the resulting sawdust from every surface in the kitchen.  We decided that using the mitre saw in the kitchen was preferable to suffering the bitterly cold temperatures out in the garage, but it did make a bit of a mess.  We had to go to Lowes and get an extra length of molding probably due to the number of practice cuts we had to do while we were figuring out how to make the joints.  Had lunch while we were out but got right back to work as soon as we got home again.  Looking forward to relaxing this evening.

Very cold today.  Here in the Boston area it was 4 degrees F when we got up this morning.  We are keeping warm though wrestling with the intracacies of installing crown molding in our family room.  We finally got the corner miters figured out but then couldn't figure out which way up to install.  A search on the internet revealed that it depends on the "rise and the run" which on our molding appears to be the same, so I guess we can put it whichever way we prefer.

My sister called from England this morning to wish us a Happy New Year, so it was nice to speak with her and catch up with all the news there.