OK, OK.....it's true!  I confess....I do love color....especially warm, bright colors!  I bought some placemats and napkins to set up my "Margarita Makings" painting and I have been having fun with them ever since.  What warm and festive colors!  I just had to put a colorful pear in the middle.  This piece just makes me smile.....I hope it does the same for you!  "Pear Sitting Pretty" is a 9 x 12 painting.  I don't think I am done with the festive placemats and napkins yet....stay tuned. 

"Red Stripes" is the latest painting to come off the Budan easel.  This painting is the first in a group of 9 x 12 paintings I have lined up to paint.  I have been doing mostly 18" x 24" paintings with a few 12" x 16" pieces here and there.  I decided to do some smaller pieces to provide more options for collectors.  For "Red Stripes" I pulled out the red and white striped fabric I purchased for the painting "Reflections of Red".  I once again wanted to nestle the apple in multiple folds of this rich fabric.  I settled on a setup that provided dark shadows that form a slight diagonal  across the painting with the white stripes drawing to eye in to the apple itself.  Who knows....this fabric may appear again in the future as the stripes create such a great challenge to paint!

I recently received the exciting news that both of the paintings, "Red Reflections" and "Radishes", that I entered into the Pastel Society of New Mexico's National Show were juried into the show.  This is the second year in a row that all of my entries have been juried into the show.  Last year my painting "Artichokes" won 5th place in the show.  I am hoping to have similar luck with an award for one of my paintings this year!  The show will be hung in the Hispanic Arts Center in Expo new Mexico in Albuquerque, NM from November 4th through the 27th.  As we get closer to the show time I will provide a reminder including the time for the reception for any of you that live in the area and have the opportunity to visit the show.

"Cherries" is the companion piece to"Granny and Friends".  These are the same cherries rearranged without the Granny Smith apple.  I made some changes from the reference photo of my setup.  My background in the photo is a rusty orange color.  With the red of the cherries I decided to use the complementary color of green....a very warm green.  I also made the wood of the table a warmer golden tone with some olive green highlights to harmonize with the green of the background.  Some of the cherries were a very dark red and reflected highlights from the cloth.  This made for a challenge that was great fun to figure out!  I actually used a light yellowish white.....but over the dark purplish red it looks like a light lavender highlight.  "Cherries" is a 12" x 16" painting on LaCarte Pastel Card.