Flowers and vegetables and a winner: Penny Sorenson!

"Pink Tulips" / 9x12 / pastel

Congratulations to Penny Sorenson of Anchorage, Alaska, winner of the June Drawing for a Painting! She will receive a $70 credit toward purchase of my artwork. Thanks for playing, Penny! And remember, folks--you can't win if you don't play, and playing is soooo easy! All you have to do is sign up to follow this blog.

"Red and Yellow Tulips" / 9x12 / pastel

Today's featured paintings emerged from a recent studio clean-up. As I mentioned in a previous post, I like to paint but am not so fond of the steps that follow: photographing and cataloging the artwork; putting it into its protective cover; listing it in the Daily Paintworks gallery; etc. Fortunately, my darling husband helps me with all these tasks. But he can't get started until I "sign off" on the paintings and often it takes me a while to decide if they're really done or not. During my recent cleanup I ended up concluding that the tulips were great the way they were. I added a few more strokes to the artichokes and garlic and can now release them, too. Yay! Progress! Only a few dozen more to go through...

"Artichokes at the Market" / 9x11 / pastel

"Garlic at the Market" / 8x10 / pastel

Old Red Farm Bench, Hood River area

Between the Trees, 6 x 9

Last summer I had the pleasure of joining other members of Northwest Pastel Society for a few days on a plein air painting excursion in the Hood River, Oregon, area. What tremendous fun it was to work in great weather along the mighty Columbia River and Gorge where the scenery is so varied and often dramatic. Here's a painting from that trip, and another one from a visit with my daughter and her family at their farm in Shelton, Washington. 

I'd also like to encourage you to look at the galleries of some of the Northwest Pastel Society members I painted with in Hood River by clicking on their names: Janice Wall of Vashon Island, WA; Barbara Szkutnik of Battleground, WA; Christine Knowles of Hood River, OR; Brenda Boylan of Portland; and Michael Fisher of Portland. They're a great group of people and have been very supportive and encouraging to me in my artistic journey.

Old Red Farm Bench, 8 x 11