Cabin on Blue

It's been awhile since I've been able to post any new work.  We've been traveling to New York and our cabin in the Adirondacks and I'm finally settled in and able to paint.

 9x12 - $85.00

This week I gave a beginner watercolor class at The Hedges, a resort on Blue Mountain Lake.  Usually I demo before we start painting and this was the view from Blue that I chose to paint.   Before the class was over, I decided to add my pastels to the watercolor painting I had started.  It was a lot of fun to hear the student's comments once the pastel was applied.  I decided to leave the mountain and some of the trees in watercolor alone.  I liked the effect.  I hope it spurs my students to try pastel over watercolor.

Water Falls

Last summer we had Ava with us for a month.  She was six at the time and we wanted to keep her excited about places and nature and so we took her to Pottersville, NY and the Natural Stone Caverns and Caves.  It's a truly remarkable place where the moving water has carved out caverns within the rocks.  They claim that it's the oldest natural rock formations in the Northeast (we've heard that before....), but it just might be!

 12x16 - $100.00

I took lots of pictures and started this pastel before I left New York.  This week I decided to rework it.  My picture was head on and just wasn't that interesting to me so I changed the composition and now am happy with the results.  Sometimes I have to put it away and come back to it to find out what's wrong or what's right.  By-the-way, you can take a look at this place on line.  They have cross-country in the winter and diving in the summer.  Quite a place!

Quiet Water

 9x12 - $100.00

Had a peaceful afternoon at Laguna Niguel Park last Wednesday with one of my new artist friend from the United Society of Pastel Artists here in California.  I hadn't been out painting on location since last September in New York and it felt good, but also a bit intimidating.  Looking around, trying to decide what to paint - your eyes take in so much stuff - simplifying is the most difficult process for me.  It's going to take awhile for me to feel comfortable painting outdoors again, but it was a good start.