The past few weeks I've been attempting to paint backgrounds, but then I found it difficult, because I thought I needed an idea to do background paintings for.  But I haven't thought of anything so I did some small value thumbnails instead.

Because of course, small tonal thumbnails make it easier to do colour keys, right?  So after the tonal drawings, instead of doing colour keys I just felt like painting. 

The painting didn't go very well (see above)  So I've put it aside unfinished with the hopes of finding some inspiration so I can revisit it... potentially.  The last few days I've been working with pastels.  I apologize for the blurry photos; the colour's not quite right either.

 

It''s hard to believe it's already December! This is going to be a good month, obviously with the holidays, and on the 12th it's Mieka (my dog's) 14th birthday.  It's going to be a bittersweet one.  In March Mieka was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, with only a few months life expectancy.  It's been a miracle how well she's recovered since then.  I really thought she wouldn't be with us at this time, but she is like her old self again.  She's even following me around, up and down the stairs which she hasn't done for a few years.  Anyways, I'm very thankful.

Also, I've decided that I'm going to face my fears and compete next summer with Lance.  We've known each other for 10 years since he was about 4 or 5.  I competed with him back then and we did well, until one show when we were in the ring doing our test, and he decided he didn't want to be there.  So he went ballistic, throwing a temper tantrum, bucking and then flying around out of the ring, jumping over the tiny dressage fences, and I'm pretty sure we would have attempted the 6 foot fence, but at the last minute he realized it was a lot bigger than him.  Since that day, I haven't competed with him because he was too explosive.   He's come a long way since then, and we know each other better now. So hopefully we can get him on the trailer next summer!

And lastly, I've been working on my own paintings with gouache and pastel.  I'll post some maybe next week.  It's going very slowly, and has been frustrating too,  but that's why I love painting.  It's problem solving and you can get mad but there's always a way to fix the problem--even if the solution is throwing it out and moving on!

        

    

This is a pastel painting I did in March while I was off. I wanted to try lighting it slightly differently than I usually do, by keeping the foreground lit instead of darkening it.  I wanted to still have the focus be the cottage further back. 

          

I wasn't going to paint tonight, but the sky was too spectacular not to.  I find I'm always rushing to get the colours but they keep changing so rapidly, I never get it right.

The sun came out after the rain today, I hope it stays sunny for a few days at least.  Last week Lance slipped and fell in the mud because it's been so rainy, so hopefully some sun will dry that up so he doesn't fall again.  Fingers crossed.