A special request painting and a scanning party...

This painting is a bit different for me, it was by special request. The painting is a 9x12 acrylic painting inspired by the Virgin of Guadalupe and titled Virgen de Guadalupe. Usually when I paint people, I stick to angels, fairies, and mermaids; but I found myself unable to say no to this request, so, there she is.

Also, I have some sketches below. I was a bit behind in scanning, so I had a scanning party and scanned them all in.

2_15_11/20, 21 2_17_11/22, 23

2_18_11/24, 25 2_26_11/26 2_23_11/27

2_23_11/28, 29 2_25_11/30, 31

Musings on a trip to Descanso Gardens

I took the photograph above at Descanso Gardens on Thursday. I love the majesty of trees, I am drawn to them. The light was fading and I snapped this shot thinking of my grandfather. We were visiting the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena and we went outside to the water lily pond. He said to me, art is beautiful, but it is nothing to the beauty of nature. When I saw this scene, it struck me, the very truth of his words. I strive for beauty in my art, but sometimes one single look at the arching trees above can simply floor me. I took a number of photographs on my visit, but this one feels how I was feeling.

I'd like to share a painting, but I do not have one that feels right to share right now. For now, here are my sketches. They are all imperfect and flawed, but some may have the potential with some work to possibly be something more at some point. For now, they are practice.

2_4_11/12, 13 2_8_11/14

2_8_11/15 2_9_11/16, 17

2_11_11/18, 19

Happy New Year!

This year is the year of the rabbit, I'm hoping to paint at least one rabbit this year; but, for now, here is one small bunny sketch. I've started sketching faces again, my goal is 365 in one year's time. Some days I sketch one, some days more then one, some days not at all. This is my second attempt at this and I expect I will end up stopping and starting anew this time as well, but I still think it's worth the attempt. This time my start date was January 26th.

Here are my sketches thus far:

1_26_11/1, 2, 3

1_27_11/4, 5, 6

1_31_11/7 2_1_11/8 2_2_11/9

2_3_11/10, 11