Still managing to keep up!

I am having fun with the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge!  It's really interesting to discover that I can paint at home.  What I have learned is that you just paint, you don't waste time thinking about painting!  The step I have fallen down on is documenting the journey here.  So here goes.

Tuesday, January 8  (Working at home)

"Three for the Road"

8x10, pastel on Wallis paper

I used my sketching set of hard pastels for this piece. What this means is that I left my 300+ piece pastel set at the studio and brought a much smaller selection home to work with. That way I made sure to put everything away when I was done, out of the cat's curiosity path. It is refreshing to me to discover that I can, indeed, paint at home even if the light is not perfect or my husband is home. Imagine what I could have done if I had only realized this! ;-)

Monday, January 7  (At the studio)

Every Monday morning I host an "open studio" session where I am joined by women who want to paint but not at home (sounds like me!)  We meet from 9:30 - noon and help each other improve.  It's a lovely structure that gets me into my studio at least once a week.  With this challenge I hope to be there more, otherwise its just an expensive storage unit!

Once again I decided to use the painting techniqes I learned with Dreama Tolle Perry.  I chose a 5x7 gesso board and laid in a transparent, dark underpainting.  I then worked with lighter opaque colors.  The reference photo was quite challenging since my cat is in an odd foreshortened position and the fake lambswool bed is really hard to paint.  All in all I was happy with the results though.

"Hanging Out"

5x7, oil on board

Sunday, January  6  (at home)

"Bend in the River"

5x7, pastel on paper

Last summer I took a pastel class with Kay Hurley (www.mkatherinehurley.com/) and had great fun exploring new ways to handle one of my favorite painting materials.  Kay showed us a method of doing black & white painting with a black pastel and an eraser to manipulate the grays.  My reference photo was a foggy twilight scene of the Ohio river with a very well known church steeple as landmark.  Folks on the east side of Cincinnati will recognize it.

Saturday, January 5  (at home)

"For Leslie"

7x5, watercolor on paper

I was inspired by a photo Leslie Saeta (http://lesliesaeta.blogspot.com/) posted on Facebook of her new puppy, Sport.  Since she inspired me to do this 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge, I thought I would paint her new baby. The challenge here was to differentiate the yellow dog from the kaki sofa...

So now I'm caught up in this saga! I am also grateful to report that I have released 10 lbs & 8 inches from my body since January 1.  I chose to weigh & measure the morning after an outrageous New Years Eve dinner, so I know that a lot of this was water weight. And I am grateful that it has gone "poof" (making me less "poofy"!)  Eliminating refined carbs and most sugars has been helpful, as has using my Vitamix to create green smoothies each day.  You can consume a lot of veggies if you blend them into a drink.  I prefer this to juicing because I consume the fiber instead of tossing it away.  I got my Vitamix on ebay.  I hear the Ninja blender sold at Costco is also excellent. 

I am grateful for the many blessings of my life as it is today. My motto for 2013 remains 

Start where you are

Love what you have

Do what you can