Spike and sam are framed and up in the members show at art works-the small pic of spike is up in the dog and cats show downstairs-I still need to work on sam and spike but I am glad it got up anyway-I am still playing with the last daffodil-not happy with the background-I have my "plein air" stuff all set up now-decided to stick with my old french easel and bought a small folding hand truck to lug it around and converted my drawer to a pastel holder-filled with an assortment of pastels and I am ready! So of course, it rained all week-oh well-fall is coming -it will be great to go out and paint! I am working on a painting from a photo I took on our nightly walk at the school with spike-the sun was setting and it illuminated the trees and the ground with gold -I did a few drawings, and a small 5x7 study and today started the larger work- I need to think a bit more about my color choices on this before I do much more! Signed up for a course at the community college-drawing and pastel-3 credits towards what I don't know .... better get my homework done!

Spike is framed and ready for the cats and dogs show-Sam and Spike at the river is done!!!yeah and I have most of the frame curtesy of Bill's trip to the beach today-they have a big art store out there so I could get the parts (except the glass) without paying shipping-going to frame it tomorrow and hopefully I will like how I am going to frame it! working on another daffodil for the series and bill got some "Plein air" frames for me try with the paintings I finished on the boards earlier this summer-My next goal is to start working on some paintings outdoors!

Sam and spike at the river - Next time I try to use gesso and pumice on watercolor paper I will know that I need to mount the paper on a hard surface before I start-I had a great deal of difficulty getting the pastel to stay on the surface (and it made a great deal of dust while I worked)due to the fact that the surface was not flat and very rough-so before I used up all my Rembrants I decided to start over. I also needed a better drawing of Sam and Spike-the last one was never correct and drove me crazy!-SO armed with all I learned from the first attempt, I started another painting on Wallis 30X 24 -Did a gouache underpainting and now I am working in Rembrandts to lay down the basic background. Had to quit early this week to pick up Connor-yes you may feel guilty Kim- so to be continued!!!