I've spent a lot of time at my easel over the last couple of days and my Rushing Stream picture is now finished.  This was very challenging for me...running water is very difficult to capture (for me at least).  I'll be looking for a somewhat easier subject for my next project.  My husband has put his stamp of approval on this one and thinks I should frame it.  I don't frame all of my work but I think I will do this time as I put so much blood sweat and tears into it.

Well, the Rocky Canyon is now framed and hanging on the wall in our hallway.  I was going to frame it without a mat, but didn't like the look, so it ended up in a different frame with a mat.

I have begun another one in the February challenge on Wet Canvas.  This is a stream running over rocks with lots of trees.  Very difficult!  So far I don't like it at all, but I'm going to persevere.  Often the mid point of a painting looks terrible and then it magically all comes together.  I hope that will happen with this one.

I spent most of the day today in my studio working on this picture.  I tried something new on this one - did a rough hard pastel sketch, just blocking in the main color areas, then washed the whole thing with alcohol.  This dried very quickly and then I did my pastel painting as usual on top of the underpainting.  I love this method, and plan to do it again.  I think I may have to be careful about the type of paper I use though, some paper might buckle. 

This was part of the February challenge that I posted about earlier.  I'm interested to see if other people have chosen this particular picture to paint and how they have interpreted it.  It was fun to do.

Well, over the weekend I downloaded the lighthouse picture onto Wet Canvas and got a variety of opinions on it's merits.  I asked for helpful criticism and got it!  The general concensus was that the cloud on the left was competing with the lighthouse and that the picture would be better without it.  So today I removed it, and played with the other two clouds a bit.  I think they were right - it does look better.  I'm not going to repost the picture though.

Now I have started another project.  I'm taking part in the February Landscape challenge in the Landscape section of Wet Canvas- so I've got all month to finish.  There were three reference photographs to choose from and I have chosen to do a rocky canyon picture.  It'll be interesting to see how my picture compares to the same picture done by other people.

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.