Tuesday, February 28, 2012

I think I am finally done!

Well, after taking a few hours tonight to finish up the ground and darken the background I think I am finished. I keep messing around with the background and bushes so I will leave it alone now. It always helps me to do a final review with fresh eyes.



- Desiree

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Day 4- almost there!




I think I am finally seeing the end of the road now, the light at the end of the tunnel. I have made my way down to the shoes and bench and even some of the bark and wood chips that are laying under the bench. I really enjoyed fussing over the metal on the bench and still have more to do. Hopefully I will finish this up tomorrow or Saturday and then just look at it for awhile making tonal adjustments and maybe fusing with the one ladies face that is still bugging me. I also will be taking the background darker. The painting is actually reading much warmer than it really is due to the lights I am using when I take the picture. Once you see the real colors you may be shocked!


- Desiree

Day 3- a little more progress

Day three brought little time to work on my painting but I managed to squeeze in a minute here and there! I miss the stretches of time to concentrate on a piece but I am thankful for those stolen moments I manage to grab throughout the day.



- Desiree

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Day two-moving along

I am participating in a 9 day plein air paint out during the day and working on this at night. The plein air isn't going very well so I am feeling a bit beat up when I start this at night. Why is plein air so much tougher! I am determined to figure it out but in the mean time I am feeling better that this one is turning out ok. I am trying to get the pastel down and some more detail. The yellow overtones are just from the lighting it's not how the actual painting looks. Today I didn't paint plein air due to a doctors appt,phew, a break!



- Desiree

A new pastel

I am working on a new pastel for a show I want to enter. I took this photo in Italy during our trip. It was taken in the park around the Borghese Museum outside of Rome. The museum is amazing, housing many of the masterpieces from Italy. This group of visitors were sitting on a park bench, enjoying each others company and very engaged.

I start by creating a drawing that will serve as my guide throughout the painting. I usually work from left to right to avoid smudging the pastels but sometimes will work a bit differently if I need to work,for instance the whole bench. As I was working my way over to the mans face I got hung up on him and worked on his clothes first. I was making sure my faces come out before working the whole piece. I already broke my left to right rule, I do that a lot. I am not thrilled with the first face but will continue to work it later.

Here is the beginning of the painting






- Desiree

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Valentines Day!!

 I had a fun day today with the kids. Nathan joined us a bit late but we still had fun. The girls and I set the table and got ready for our guests. We set out our finest tea party china, with our red tea pot of course. The plates were red and we filled them with strawberries and goodies for everyone.
 The covered bowls were filled with surprise goodies that could only be opened after lunch. We made all the kids favorites today, mac and cheese, top ramen, strawberries. We enjoyed our lunch and then had some tea and Valentine cookies. The candy was saved until later.
The girls continued there project of making Valentines Cards for everyone. I think that 5$ box of heart stickers has paid for itself in spades. We ended up saving the best, most sparkliest heart stickers for our cheeks! All serious celebrators have sparkly stickers on their cheeks on Valentines Day! 



From my family to yours, we hope you are all out there having a great Valentines Day!

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Our Year started off a bit rocky but better now

Fathers hold their children's hands for
just a little while...
And their hearts forever.

I am so sorry that I have not posted in some time. Life seems to get int the way sometimes and this time it seemed to take the wind out of my sails. Right after Christmas, my father in law suddenly passed away from pneumonia. He was such a strong man and healthy as a horse, he was also caring for my MIL who has Alzheimer's. It forced all of us to rally together to figure out what we needed to do for her and to fulfill my FIL wishes. He was so blessed to have lived the life he wanted, he never cared what anyone else thought of him or how he did things. He was a big personality in our family and will be greatly missed.
I seemed to have lost my way a bit, not only with his passing but with other things that are happening with my family and friends.  It seems there is so much illness and just sadness right now and it is very close. It causes me to reflect and it made me retreat a bit, I think so I could regroup and just concentrate on those closest to me.

I am convinced that this is going to be the year of change for us, maybe a bit of bad but I am praying a whole bunch of good. I am starting to really get excited again. Looking forward to what tomorrow holds and now I need to start painting again, something I haven't done since Al died. This month I have so much planned with my sketch classes and a prayer flag class. Then there is the 9 day paint out with the Plein air group! I should get some painting done then, if I can remember how!
I have been tinkering with some artquilt designs as the deadlines are looming. I am also doing a show in May and need all new quilt patterns so I have been busy trying to design those. I submitted a small ornament for a Fons and Porter Ornament issue in the fall issue but havent painted anything. I need to just jump in again.
The girls remain a constant in my life right now, a nice diversion. We took them to the Pacific Aquarium recently and the Wild Animal Park, their excitement and curiosity is so wonderful. They are just little sponges soaking up information. I think they were more excited when the scuba diver was inside the tank cleaning the glass than they were about the fish. Some pictures of things that happened this month. Life is good.


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