Since I’ve been in the process of regrouping and trying to get back to normal, what ever that is, I’ve taken the opportunity, as I usually do, to study and improve my technique. This usually applies to my brushwork and color mixing in oils. Not that I don’t work on my pastel technique also, but there seems to be less need for improvement and I usually approach pastels with a more adventurous attitude and will experiment more, possibly using new products. With oil I’ve gotten in the habit of using the painting knife too much and sort of lost touch with my brush work. Therefor I’ve been restricting the use of the knife to color mixing only!

The best way to study, for me anyway, is to do small still lifes and small landscape studies. My plan is to begin posting these and try not to get too hung up on how finished they look.

Since I haven’t photographed any of these paintings yet, but will soon, I’ll just put up something here that inspires me.

This was painted on location in White City, FL.

A bit of news that I can share is that I’ve been juried in to the Women Painters of the Southeast recently and look forward to participating in that group in the future. Go check them out, I’m in great company.

http://www.womenpaintersse.blogspot.com/