This is the first page to a children’s book I hope to illustrate for a short poem I wrote. I think it was a first attempt at oil pastels in 2008.

I finally went to a class and painted for the first time in over a month. My life is really upside down right now, so I am not sure I will be posting much. I feel pretty overwhelmed actually. This was done in class, about 2.5 hours. It was painted on a 9×12 panel.

5×7″ oil on canvas board   (2.5 hours)   I hope to add highlights and shadow.   I went to my painting class yesterday. It had been two weeks since I attended. I was going to make it my last class, but when I got there I realized I had to pay for a new 4-session […]

11×14″ I got really discouraged today. I can’t seem to get composition right. The vase was sitting on this beautiful purple fabric, but I couldn’t squeeze it all in. I should have cut the flower stems and put them in a shorter vase. Or, I have to paint on bigger canvases. The problem with that […]

I don’t  think this is very good, but the big issue is the time that it took to complete. I would not have been able to get this far seven months ago. I felt ready to stop well before the three-hour span that defines my painting class. Though I still need to make adjustments, this is where I thought I […]

These are two studies I finished today. The shadows look stupid with the candlestick, but I was taking too long to finish it. I just had to quit. I was only supposed to spend twenty minutes. The wood pot was better. I spent about thirty minutes, which is why it looks less “finished.”  I could […]

For my homework assignment this week, my instructor gave me four little tubes of paint; red, yellow, blue and white. He told me to do a small painting using only these colors. This is what I did. I will try to take a better photo with less glare.

I was the only student in class today. My instructor knew it in advance and set up an antique glass buoy for us to paint. I panicked when I saw it. He just said to paint the reds first. I stayed longer than the normal three hours to finish this, but I am pretty happy […]

I started this a week ago. I hope I can finish it today. I am very insecure about my drawing abilities, particularly with colored pencils. My daughter is a master with colored pencil and every other medium she tries. It is a huge shadow to be in. This is how I ended up: It is a […]