New Ballerina

I think this one is finished now. Took me a few days to figure out the skin tones and I was working in oil, which I'm not too familiar with. I'm torn between oil and acrylic right now. Acrylic is so comfortable for me- I have my systems, my colour recipes that I lean on and I can do them pretty fast. However I love the classic buttery look of oils- I think it's the direction I want to go in my work. If I don't keep doing them, I will never get into any kind of comfort zone.
I am very happy with this painting. I just love the pose- when I saw the photo, I couldn't wait to paint it. I definitely want to paint more people. It's exciting to be doing something new.
"Before the Dance" 24 x 30" oil

Here are two of my first ever paintings of a live model. I went into the experience fully expecting to be completely lost so I was very surprised to be able to do anything that was half decent. I really like the ballerina painting. The other one has some problems but still, I learned a huge amount while doing it. I learned a lot too, from watching, Liz, Gaye, Sarah and Jean- they did some beautiful work.
I 'm hoping to do this again soon. I never considered the figure to be something that I would be interested to paint, even though most of my favourite artists are figure painters; Sargent, Sorolla and Richard Schmid. It's a whole new world to explore.

Here's a few more pictures from the Sorento trip. As you can see, Blue and Lily were quite stressed by the event. I will follow this posting with a couple of my painting efforts.

Here's my painter friend, Liz Wiltzen and I, along with Lily and Blue, just before we drove up to Sorento last Tuesday.

I spent three days with Liz, Sarah Kidner, Jean Pederson and Gaye Adams, at Gaye's beautiful home near the lake. We painted from models, ate too much, tried to figure out the truth of art and laughed- a lot. What a gift.

I have never painted from a live model before so it was a huge learning experience for me. I will post a couple of my paintings, as well as a few shots of the group, later.

"Sunset at Second Beach" 24 x 30" acrylic
After a few false starts, this is my first completed painting for 2012. It will be my invitation piece for my April show at Granville Fine Arts Gallery. It's amazing how rusty I felt after a couple of weeks of not painting.
I love the start of a new year- a chance to re-establish goals and think about what is really important in life. I am so grateful to be blessed with good health and the ability to do what I love for a living.