And the beat goes on

June 30th, 2006

The last day of the month of June! Wow, half of the year has gone by already. It's been a good year so far, family and friends are well and all are busy.

My art career is both satisfying and beginning to take off in a good direction. Several works are in progress and two works are finished and waiting for buyers.

I spent time on Thursday, yesterday, with my mentor, Lori Levin. She keeps me grounded in good fundamentals of drawing and planning first, painting next. Last week I did the necessary prep work of fundamentals.

This week I started applying oil to canvas of the new still life. It was going well, until I realized that something was bothering me about the right upper quad of the canvas. I pointed out my concerns to Lori and she agreed with me. The cookie jar looked to be in a precarious position. In reality, it would never be balanced that way. It would have tumbled over.

Back to the re-drawing and reshaping of the book under the cookie jar, enlarging the book so that the jar balanced properly. It's funny, both of us didn't notice the error until color started to be applied. That only goes to show you that you have to constantly evaluate what you are doing while painting for many things. Everything makes sense now regarding that area of the painting.

I finished a 8" 2 10" still life study of a red rose, stem and leaves yesterday at home. I will put in up for sale in August with a still life study in pastel of various kitchen items.

Back to work now on a new series of still lives.

Carolyn