I'VE COME UP FOR AIR!

I know it's been a VERY long time since my last post. The past 6 months have been busier than usual, and although I've not had much time to write, I've been thinking about posting! With a two month hiatus from teaching and traveling, my studio has seen more of me than my husband has. This uninterupted stretch of drawing, painting, thinking, experimenting...and rethinking has been huge for me.

With more time to develop ideas, the paintings I've produced this summer have flowed with less effort and more enjoyment. I've enjoyed spending more time developing compositions and value studies in advance of the painting part. A wonderful luxury--time!

I'm including a couple of recent paintings that I will talk about in my next posts. I've photographed stages of development for both, along with some new ways of approaching the preliminary block in for the composition. The past 2 months I've focused on producing a body of large format paintings: 24 x 30, 30 x 40, and 36 x 48 sizes. So spending more time developing the composition, more consideration of value and scale, have opened up interesting ways of playing with the idea long before I touch a pastel. I'll share this with you, too.

Another painting is beckoning from the easel, so I'll close for now. Stay tuned.