I finished this picture today which I worked on for two days.  It was challenging for me because it is done in Pan Pastels which are a different type of pastel.  They consist of pastel which is in a cake form and contained in small round containers which lock together for storage.  They are used with special tools, reminiscent of make up sponges, but more durable. It is fun to work with Pan's but a very different technique and the resulting picture tends to have a softer appearance. (this may not be true for experts, but it's certainly true for me!)

The photo reference was taken at Cadover Bridge, which is a spot in on the edge of Dartmoor in England which we went to as a family when I was a child.  This particular snapshot was taken with the bridge itself behind me and I took it on a trip there with my sister in more recent years.

I have spent two days working on this picture.  I thought it was finished after the first day but then I went back in the changed several things.  I was trying to work in a more loose fashion, but the more I tweaked it, the more detailed it became.   It's still probably the least detailed of all the art I have done to date.  

It's a photo reference from the March Landscape challenge on Wet Canvas  - several other people have done the same picture and it's always interesting to see how others interpret the same photograph.  

Update:  I worked on this some more after receiving some constructive suggestions from people  I consider to be experts.  The feeling was that the bush in the middle got in the way and stopped the eye from moving on into the picture, so I have changed it slightly, removed the bush and suggested the continuation of the stream on to a small pond at its end.  

I have been working on this picture for the past three days.  It was a lot more difficult than I anticipated and I'm not altogether happy with it. 

The reference photo was taken by my brother in law at a place called Dockey Wood in Hertfordshire in England during bluebell season (obviously!), and it's really true that the woods are just a carpet of blue at that time of year.

That's one of the things I miss about England, the abundance of bluebells and primroses that grow wild in the woods and hedgerows during the Spring.  In this part of the United States we don't get them at all, though I have managed to keep some English primroses going through our bitterly cold winters by covering them with leaves in the Fall to protect them.  But bluebells seem to be non-existent, though I have seen them in the Northwest part of the country where the climate is similar to England.

I wish I could do portraits successfully.  I spent about four hours yesterday trying to capture the image of my very sweet four year old granddaughter from a recent photo.  I was working in charcoal which I like to do occasionally, but the end result was an image that definitely bears a passing resemblance to her, but is really more like how I imagine she will look when she's about 25 years old!  Portraiture is definitely a skill I don't possess.  This is my third attempt at getting an image of Sarah on paper and each one looks different!

I guess it's a case of "If at first you don't succeed....try, try and try again!"

There hasn't been much activity on this page for a while, mainly because I was in Florida for almost 2 weeks on vacation.  This picture was on my easel went I went away and I have just managed to get back to it to finish it and tweak it in a few places.  I'm reasonably happy with it now, but as always it's hard to know when to stop.

The photo reference is a public park near Buffalo, New York where I used to live, but as we left that area almost 20 years ago, the photo is at least that old and the park has probably changed since then.  I remember it as a very pleasant place to take a walk and have memories of going there with my now deceased parents when they came to visit once.