For the first time on a trip to visit family-in-law in the Netherlands, I was able to get some painting done! Yay! I also visited the Mauritshuis in the Hague and viewed the Girl with the Pearl Earring among other wonderful paintings.

Here are two sketches from the trip.

Night Study, 8 x 10 inches, pastel

Allow me to present one of the two paintings that I entered into the Auction show at the Carmel Art Festival. We painters had a great time painting in the sun and each other's company. To See a few more paintings done during the festival, please visit my Web site's landscape page.

Yellow Barn, 18x24 inches, pastel, sold.

Study, 5x5 inches, oil, nfs.

This rather comic-book style small painting is just made up by me. I start with a backbone and then treat the painting as if it were a sculpture, adding and scraping paint off until the painting looks fairly "right". I can tell though, that I was not looking at a real person... it just does not have the veracity of true observation.

Green-eyed Blonde, 5x5 inches, oil, nfs.

I have been finishing up each day's painting with a small quick sketch done on a five by five panel. A square format always seems to lead me to an unusual composition. After a year and a half of only pastels painting, painting in oil is a challenge--I went to the art store and bought new brushes today, so I must be serious.

(I am not self-fixated, I am just the cheapest model I know--really. I work for cookies).

Rose Worship, 11 x 13 inches, pastel, available.

I was done painting for the day, and this scene caught my eye so strongly that I unpacked my kit and did a quick study. The pastel strokes here are put on the paper almost like sumi-e brush painting. Each stroke tries to convey the gesture or gestalt of what it is describing.

Riotous Spring, 11 x 14 inches, pastel, available.

This composition is a strange one, I was pleased with its success. I had to crouch down on the pathway in order to see the painting I wanted to paint. I like the right inside the flower garden result.

Just One tree, 10x8 inches, pastel.
Blossoms are springing out everywhere in California, and the days are warm and long already. This is a painting I did at the Saratoga Library at the peak of the orchard bloom. I tried to do this painting as fast as I could. You will notice that the strokes are spontaneous, which gives the painting a sense of the freshness of spring. I put down so many strokes that the pastel was falling off the paper.

Woodland Barn, 14x14 inches, pastel.
This painting was just awarded first place at the IAPS 10th annual juried show!

Copy of Monet's Water Lilies, 1907, 12x12 inches, pastel.

Here is a painting where I literally copied a Monet water lily painting from a calendar. I like it, but it is just a bit of silliness. I certainly had the opportunity to reach for color combinations that I do not usually use--I think that therein lies the appeal of such an exercise.