Sunday in Steveston

This is what I painted on Sunday the 21st in Steveston - just outside Prickly Pear with its red door and flower pots. After my Tuesday struggle with a very small canvas (posted on Facebook) , I was smarter and also kept the subject simple. I had lots of comments and one passer-by even tweeted it.  Lots of nice people and lots of people I knew. Then Mark Glavina  awarded it a prize and I even have a buyer for it! This was part of Mark's Phoenix Art Workshop Customer Appreciation Day. It was fun to be able to pick where to paint instead of being assigned a spot like in the Grand Prix.  Now I need to think of a title for it. = something better than "Red Door"!

Sigmund and cats-

Just did this page for my sketchbook, I looked up images of Sigmund - he was definitely a collar and tie guy - and suits in those days usually came with a matching vest, I just thought it would be fun to put this in my sketchbook when I found that, yes, he actually said this!  Sigmund was the grandfather of the painter Lucien Freud who did such great portrait paintings. Gordon Smith, a former teacher of mine, felt that Lucien Freud was the greatest living painter in Britain - that was said when Lucien WAS still alive, of course. This was drawn in ink, colured with pencil crayons and a blender.

Latest Life Drawing

This was done in about two hours last night at Life Drawing

The pastel paper is a sort of smokey mauve colour - I think it is called "Twilight" or something like that. I drew lightly with a white Conte' crayon to work out proportions. This is actually the second drawing as the other - on the other side, I didn't like the results. Then I couldn't locate an eraser so  I just turned it over. Shortly after, I found *four* erasers - they had become so grubby from the pastels that they weren't recognizable. So now I have cleaned them up a bit - threw one out - and have them in their own little plastic "snack pack" to keep them cleaner. Of course, kneaded erases don't last forever anyway. Then I worked mostly with soft pastels - a little pan pastel in the lower left- and pastel pencils in a linear way- especially on the face. We do a "long pose" every two months and they are  mostly draped figures. Nice to have a longer time to get into it - and to work in colour.