This picture is from a reference photo offered by Paula Ford on West Canvas.com in one of the monthly challenges. The subject being spotlighted this month was Summer trees and this is a field in Tennessee.

This is from a photo I took of a beautiful medieval village in France when John and I were there a few years ago. It was a great place and we had dinner there in a really old building which looked out over the valley. There are hills everywhere in Provence and it seems as if each one has a medieval village perched on the top.

On a different subject I learned yesterday that I had received an Honorable Mention for a picture that I entered into the July 4th Art Show. I entered two pieces and the one that I expected would win something, didn't - but the other one, which I wasn't all that thrilled with did!!!! You just can never tell what the judges are going to look for in these shows.

When we were in Tennessee I took numerous photographs as we drove around the State and this is one scene that caught my eye. I don't remember exactly where it is, but I think somewhere on the Cumberland Plateau. I have actually painted this picture twice, once on a board I prepared myself, but I hated working on that surface so I decided to do it again on a recycled piece of Pastelmat which had previously held a failed painting that I had washed off.

It's been quite a time since I posted anything here, due to visitors and other distractions, which included a visit to Fairfield Glade in Eastern Tennessee to check it out as a retirement destination. We loved it there and are working towards getting there within the next two years. One of the many appealing aspects for me was the fact that they have a thriving Art Guild which is run by the residents. They have monthly exhibits of work done by members which are held in the great facility they have there, which also includes studio space and has workshops and all sorts of interesting things going on. I'm very excited about it.

This piece is from a photo I took of the Sandhill Cranes that regularly strutted past the rear of our home when we lived in Florida, and I am going to enter it into the Annual 4th July Show here in Chelmsford this year.

I have been watching a lot of Arnold Lowrey videos lately and I was interested in the way he uses Canson paper and blends a lot, so I thought I would try it. First I had to dig out my Canson Paper from under a pile of sanded papers which I usually prefer. I don't usually work this big, but I used a full sheet which is about 20" x 26". It was an interesting experiment and I was actually quite pleased with the way the sky came out after I blended the heck out of it. It's not perfect by any means but I enjoyed myself.

I was excited to find out today that I have had two pieces of art accepted in a juried show to be held by the Chelmsford Center for the Arts in early April. This is the first time any of my work has been juried into a show. Admittedly this show is quite small, but it's thrilling nevertheless. The accepted pieces are the "Feather light, feather bright" and "White Peonie" which both appear earlier on this blog.

This is from a photo of Hay Bales in a Tennessee field taken by Paula Ford and was part of a challenge on Wet Canvas.com. The challenge being to start with an underpainting prior to putting in details. I chose some pretty vivid colors for my underpainting and mostly they were completely covered by the work I did on top, except in the trees where I allowed some of the red to show through.

We've just had our kitchen remodeled and I painted this picture of pears to go on the wall, alongside the earlier one I did of grapes in a bowl. I have just got a new camera and am still finding my way around all the various controls. I may also enter this in a juried show that is coming up soon in our town.

I painted the picture on the left about a month ago but have only just got round to taking a photograph as I had to cut it to size and mount it for framing. This is not easy when you paint in pastel because there is always the risk of smudging the finished work. It is from a photograph taken by someone on Wet Canvas and I call it Distant Sierras. It's 16 x 20.

This right hand picture is just a little one, 5" x 7" using up a scrap of sanded paper that I had lying around. I don't remember where I got the photograph.

I wanted to try something different and I came across this picture which seemed like it would be a challenge ........ and I was right. I think I'm going to enter it into a juried competition here in Chelmsford, though I don't have any great hopes of it being accepted. Watch this space!