Still painting!!

Now that the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge is over, it is time to settle back into a "normal" schedule.  At this point, I still have no idea just what "normal" is.  I did no painting at all the first day after challenge, choosing instead to sift through the pile of "stuff" that had accumulated in January.  The second day, I painted several canvases with gesso in preparation for paintings.  Then, I spent the day re-photographing all the paintings from the 30 in 30 Challenge, getting them ready for the web and re-uploading several of them.  That was a much longer project than I had anticipated.  Come Sunday morning, I was really feeling like a fish out of water.  It was so strange not to have to have a painting finished by the end of each day!

Sunday, I worked on a larger canvas - 16" x 20".  I'll be posting "in-progress" photos of that beginning tomorrow on my animal portrait blog.  

And today - I painted a small study for what I hope will be a 24" x 36" painting.  This study is done on a 4" x 6" sheet of gessoed watercolor paper.  This is a scene from our visit to Zion National Park.  There is a wonderful pathway along the river and while walking the dogs early one morning came across this scene.  It would have been a great place to return to with my paints, but we were planning on leaving early, so I returned with my camera for several photos.  

Since this was a study - rather than meant to be a "finished" piece, I tried to keep it a little looser and to do it in a shorter amount of time than any of the pieces I painted in the daily paintings challenge.  Those two goals were met, but I'm not sure I captured the feeling of the place.  And I believe that is an issue with values.  Before I try this on that 24" x 36" lcanvas, I think I will do a few more studies.  

Thanks for stopping by!

susan
www.susangarriques.com
susan@susangarriques.com