Little Piggy Pink

"Little Piggy Pink"  (pastel, 7x5 inches)  $200 unframed for a limited time

One of the demos from my workshop in Paso Robles CA last weekend.

I'm feeling the pain of having not painted all week. I suppose there's never a good time for one's hard drive to die, but mine creaked out its last breaths right before I left for CA, so I ordered a new SSD drive which was waiting for me when I got back, and this week I've been mostly re-installing stuff. Funny how easy it is to forget what a pain in the @s$ that can be. I've reinstalled Windows on a computer and even reformatted a hard drive at least 3 times in my life, so I don't get anxious about it (esp now that I use Carbonite as well as a local backup) I just make sure I remember to de-activate Adobe CS3 so that I can reinstall it on the re-born desktop.  But my goodness, it's always more complicated to do the simplest things when you don't have everything right where it usually is. It took me almost an hour yesterday just to print some bios. First I had to load Adobe CS3 (since I had never saved my latest bio updates to PDF) then download my bio files from Carbonite (since Carbonite takes like a week to restore as many files as I have!)  then I had to search out my saved fonts (because the newly installed Windows didn't have a couple of the fonts in my bio - I should have anticipated that because that's why I always back up my fonts...) Then I had to load the printer driver to get my computer to see it on the network. In the midst of that I had some trouble with my home network/internet connection and had to finally switch from the wired connection to wireless in order to download the driver and connect to the printer.  Ugh.

I should have just woken up my 17-yr-old computer-geek son and had him do all of it for me (as he was the one to load me up with the new Windows -- from a flash drive no less!) but there's something innately satisfying to being able to do most of this annoying computer stuff on one's own, esp at my age! (Use it or loose it, as they say!)

Next week I'm off to Nebraska for another workshop (road trip this time!) Hopefully I'll post again before I go.

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Carmelita (and the CA Workshop!)

"Carmelita"  (pastel, 6x6 inches)  click here to bid

Carmelita is a foal at an Arabian horse ranch in central California. My friend Michele who I'm staying with drove us out there Wednesday evening and I got some great shots just before sunset! This one was my first workshop demo on Thursday morning. (I recorded video of the demo, but will need to edit and format at home before posting... keep on the lookout!)

I and my ten ladies had a fun and enriching workshop in Paso Robles. Everyone was very attentive and eager to put my methods of warm underpaintings into practice. They were a smart and talented group and I feel blessed to have been able to work (play) with them for these past three days.

One girl had to leave at the end of yesterday...

But I had two die-hard students come in an hour early this morning...

And here are the rest of us this afternoon, the girls showing off one or two of their accomplishments:

I also have the good fortune to have made a new connection with a gallery - my first out-of-state gallery contract! The Heritage Gallery West will soon be showing my work (after I can get home and paint some more stuff! Lol.) The next time I schedule a California workshop, I might just have to drive out here, so I can bring some large pieces to the gallery and save on shipping... (Ok, really I just love to drive. ;)

My flight back home is on Monday, so tomorrow (Sunday) will be a little 'vacation' day and I plan to drive to Monterrey, then back down Hwy 1 in the afternoon and evening. (Probably pulling over at every overlook to take pictures!) I hope to time it right to catch the sunset right before turning back inland to return to Paso Robles.


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Cottony

"Cottony"  (pastel, 8x8 inches)  sold

Last painting to post for a few days, until my workshop in Paso Robles begins on Thursday and I can get some demos done!
Tomorrow (Tuesday) morning I get to take a flight out of Austin at 5:55am. That means I get to wake up at 3:15. ..Oh, joy.

Good night now.

Hank

"Hank"  (pastel, 8x8 inches)  click here to bid

Sometimes I'm drawn to more non-traditional compositions. It's fun to look for the lines and value patterns that will make a strong and interesting composition, with less emphasis on showing off the subject in a traditional 'portrait-like' way..

Here are some progress shots:

 I used gold, terra cotta, and black primers for this underpainting.

Thanks for watching! Please share!

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Dalhia

"Dalhia"  (pastel, 7x5 inches)  click here to bid

Another little one from my latest batch that will be with me at my workshop in Paso Robles, CA next week (There are still a few spaces left, btw! Not too late to register!)
Today (after my daughter's violin ensemble practice) I spent my afternoon and evening priming up a new batch of underpaintings that will be demos at the workshop. Tomorrow's a full day with another ensemble practice in the morning, and dentist appt's in the afternoon (fun :) ...NOT!) followed immediately by a 6-hr drive to Texas Tech University in Lubbock with my son for a pre-college visit on Friday.
Saturday evening I have a caricature gig in San Antonio, and Monday morning 2 doctor appt's for the kids, AND quarterly sales taxes are due that day! I fly out from Austin to Fresno at 5:55am Tuesday morning (Ugh!)
Ha. So I figure I've got Sunday and half of Saturday to maybe paint some more, and pack my suitcase. Knowing me, I probably won't be painting. (Oh yea, at some point this weekend I also have to order a new hard drive for my desktop PC that just died yesterday! Thank goodness for my little 'weekend' 2-in-1 laptop, and Carbonite!)

Here are a few progress shots of Dalhia:

Thanks for watching! Please share!

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Butternut

"Butternut"  (pastel, 6x6 inches)  click here to bid 

I cropped this one from a distance, and the photo was so grainy that I almost didn't notice the tongue until I started painting!

I'll be taking this and the rest of this week's batch with me to my California workshop next week, to show them off as my little "art display", since I'll be flying and won't have room to take any framed paintings.

Here are just a few shots of the progress: