Early morning cruising

I was on my way to Fire Island and took the reference photo of this sailboat for this pastel painting.   You can see the background clearly but I chose to blur it out.  I loved the light hitting the boat and how it reflected in the water. 

At the market...

This pastel painting is of a woman doing some shopping at a local produce market in India.  Sue Clinker, a blogging buddy,  just got back from a trip to India and she was nice enough to give me permission to use the beautiful photo reference.  The market was mainly fruits and their local flowers.  I love how elegant she looks with her colorful and neatly pleated sari.  I think the traditional costumes are so beautiful.

Acadia National Park

Last year, I painted Jordan Pond in Bar Harbor, Maine.  I found another reference picture of another hiking trail by the Harbor, which I thought would make a nice pastel painting..I loved  looking at the water hitting the rocks creating this foam with a lot of different colors.  Unfortunately, I don't know exactly which hiking trail this one was... The view was breathtaking.. the rocks were beautiful,  and the water was so blue and so clear!  Acadia National Park has many trails but they're short in mileage....some no more than about 3 miles...however, some  trails connect from one to another making it a longer hike, if preferred.

  

Still Life - Orange

I filled this small  bowl with colorful fruits for this still life and realized that there wasn't any room left for the orange, so I put it on the outside of the bowl which looked a little better.  I haven't painted a still life for awhile so I enjoyed painting this. 

San Francisco

A few years back, we visited San Francisco.
So much to see...so little time. We went to
Chinatown, Alcatraz, visited the seals on
Fisherman's Wharf, Muir Woods and of
course, Sausalito... that afternoon, we
walked up those city streets ( or should
I say Mountains!) I felt like I was hiking..
very exhausting. We saw so many beautiful
homes with different pastel colors.. one
prettier than the other...They all seemed to
have colorful flowers on their front lawns..
a picture that I had to take for a future
pastel painting!!

For Sale

The reference picture for this
pastel painting was taken at the
Spring show in Carlyle, PA.
fairgrounds. This particular car
was for sale for $10,000.. it runs
and only has a little rust on it. LOL
I think its a Plymouth, maybe
1930-31 ? So hurry to the fairgrounds
before its sold!! For some strange
reason, I love to photograph antique
cars...and love to paint them as well!!!

Bird Watching

This is my granddaughter looking at
some birds through a telescope at the
Elizabeth A. Morton National Refuge
in Sag Harbor, NY. This is a wonderful
place to visit. They have many nesting
boxes and platforms protecting piping
plovers, roseate terns, osprey and other
shorebirds. They even close part of this
area between April 1st - August 31st in
order to minimize harm to nesting wildlife.
So if you decide to visit...don't forget your
cameras OR better yet..your paint boxes!!

New York, New York

Last week, I spent the day in Manhattan with my
grandkids. First, we went to The American
Girl Store, then the Nintendo Store. We later
went to the Central Park Zoo. We decided
to take the subway there because we were too
tired to walk (Okay! I was too tired!)
This painting, believe it or not, was pretty
complicated for me.. I almost gave up
on it , but now I'm glad that I finished it.

Huntington, New York

Coastal Designs is the name of
the landscape company that had
this antique truck based in the
front of their property. I took
my reference picture of this
truck looking through the white
arbors. Yes, I can't seem to get
enough of these old trucks ..but
this time I only had to travel
about 1/2 hour from my home...