This is my latest picture which I have been working on for several days now.  I found the foreground sand very difficult.  It's from a photo taken on Hatteras in the early evening.  (For British readers, Hatteras is a barrier island on the outer banks of North Carolina).  I didn't take the photo myself, it's one of the ones presented on Wet Canvas as part of the May Challenge.

I started a new picture today.  It's a Cape Hatteras beach scene taken in the early evening with the sun just starting to decline.  Not sure how I'm going to get on with the sand and the shadows created by the late-day sun, but I'll give it a go!  It's one of the photos selected for the May Pastel Strokes on Wet Canvas.  Two people have already done this one, I only hope I can do it half as well.

This is my latest painting.  I took the photo during a visit to Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.  This particular cemetery is a long time favorite with bird watchers and 90% of the people seen have binoculars slung around their necks or cameras with 2 foot long lens attachments.  It's beautiful there with lakes and blossom trees everywhere and lots of walking paths.  An oasis in the middle of suburbia, and a regular stopover for migrating birds at this time of year.

I took a little licence with the painting as I didn't want to include grave stones, so apart from the tree itself, everything else is pretty much from my imagination.

Today the weather is a bit iffy and I can't get out to work in the yard, so was able to spend some time at my easel and finish this picture which has been ongoing for about a week. 

I have really tried to amp-up the color this time, but of course a Fall picture is always going to have a lot of color anyway.  This is from a photograph taken about 24 years ago when we first arrived in America.  We lived in Buffalo, New York at the time and were excited to explore the surrounding area and took a trip out to the Finger Lakes.  This scene is a beautiful place called Letchworth State Park and I have called it "Following the Falls"

I painted for a couple of hours today and this time I'm trying to inject more color into my work.  My last picture was critiqued as having too many mid tones, and I have to say that I agree with this assessment.   It looks flat and uninteresting.  I'm liking what I have done so far on the current project, we'll see how the finished article looks!

Well I finished my bridge over the river today.  I took the photograph while we were visiting family in England but I can't remember exactly where we were at the time.  I'm sure I made a note of the place at the time but I seem to have mislaid the note!

This picture is actually 11" x 11" square which is a change for me, but I had a frame and mat that I wanted to use, so I did the picture to fit.  Because of that it was a bit difficult to photograph and shows the mat at the top and bottom but not at the sides.

Update:  I have now found the note I made, and it seems that the location of this bridge is in Bourne, Lincolnshire.

This weekend I didn't get any painting done, but we did drive down to Plymouth to go to the gallery opening of the artist that I have taken a couple of weekend workshops with.  It was a bit of a rush because we were already committed to driving some friends to Manchester airport which is 20 miles in the other direction.  However, we managed it and were glad that we did.  Her art is wonderful and I think the gallery opening was quite successful.

Today I have been working on a piece that I started last week.  It's a river scene from a photo taken during a visit to England.  I may get it finished tomorrow and post it here then.

I competed this today.  I don't like it at all, I couldn't seem to get the effect I was looking for, not sure why, though it could be because I was using a light grey Sansfix paper which is totally different from anything I have used before and I didn't care for it.   Now I guess I can be accused of being a bad worker who blames her tools!!

The scene itself is from a photo taken over 25 years ago when my husband and I were first married.  It's in Derbyshire, England which was a favorite hiking area for us at that time.  In the actual photo I am crossing the stones with our dog Ria, and I did attempt to include us in the pastel painting but I didn't like it and went back and erased us.

Well, I finished my picture of the Luhan House in Taos, New Mexico.  I didn't take this photograph myself, so I have to assume that this is the driveway leading up to the house.  I really struggled with this one, the shadows gave me so much trouble. I completely erased the driveway twice and restarted, but I'm still not happy with the result.

I have spent most of this afternoon working on a picture taken in Taos, New Mexico of an adobe building.  It's quite a way from being finished and I'm struggling with it because it has lots of shadows.  However, I am persevering. 

Today I have ordered some more art supplies from Dick Blick my preferred source, mostly sanded paper and a few more pastels.  Sanded paper is wonderful to work on, it takes so many layers of pastel.