My painting, "Reflections of Red" , continues to bring me recognition as a pastel artist.  I received a call yesterday from Rae Smith, President of the Pastel Society of America, notifying me that the painting had won the Pastels, Etc. Award at the prestigious Pastel Society of America Show held at the National Art Club in NYC.  Pastels, Etc. is the American distributor of Girault pastels which are one of my favorites so I was very pleased!   "Reflections of Red" has now been juried into four national/international shows and won awards in two of them.  This painting has earned its keep!

Once again this year I am involved in the Sonoran Arts league Art Exhibit and Sale that is part of the annual Taste of Cave Creek event in Cave Creek, AZ.  This is a two day event that features the restaurants of the Cave Creek area and live music along with our art exhibit.  Tim and Willy, local radio personalities, are major participants in this year's event with a chili cook-off and their band being one of the bands featured.  Along with the chili cook-off a cookbook has been developed that will be available to participants.  I was tickled to learn that two of my art pieces, "All in the Family" and "Salsa Makings" are featured on the back cover!  In addition, 4 pieces of my art are part of the rotation of art on the Taste of Cave Creek website, www.tasteofcavecreek.com.  This year's event takes place on Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 17th and 18th, from 5pm to 10pm at Stagecoach Village in Cave Creek.  If you are in the area I hope you will plan to attend!

"Bougainvillea" came off the easel today.....again!  I made two revisions of this painting trying to get the flowers correct.  I found it really difficult to maintain the vibrant magenta color and put in the shadows and highlights that make them look three-dimensional and have form.  However, after revision 3 I am finally happy that I achieved my goal.  Bougainvillea come in a variety of colors, but this vibrant magenta color is definitely my favorite.  We have several of these bushes along the view fence in the rear of our backyard.  The bushes bloom year around unless we have a frost in the winter.  However....the plant is so hardy if it is damaged by frost we just cut off the branches down near the ground and the bush just comes back in all its glory!  I enjoyed painting the flowers  reflections on the swooping shaped lamp and on the table.  It is always fun to paint the color and shapes that you see....step back....and realize you captured the reflections!  Geckos are also a favorite for us since moving here to Arizona.  I seem to have a habit of picking up geckos in many forms.  I have bronze geckos as above, jewelry geckos, even copper geckos hanging on our gate to the backyard!  This fellow lives on our coffee table in the living room......and now in this painting!  I hope you enjoy "Bougainvillea"!