New Start and a fond old memory

So....I was looking for something to post and found this OLD photo of both of my daughters in High School.  Grace, second from left, and Adrianne on the far right.  They were on the same 4X400 relay team in high school.  I was so proud to see both of them on the same team for once. Being two years apart that was a bit of a rarity, though it did happen in other sports as well. 

Yes the photo has little to do with my intentions in this post, but  I found it after I wrote the following....Well it seems my ship of creative output has run aground.  After a hitting a few large waves, I am attempting to right the ship and start painting again, one brush stroke at a time.  Today was the first day in weeks that I actually put brush to paper.  Unfortunately my camera battery is dead, and I can't post it today.  The good news is that I have come up with a solution to get me back up and running.  I will be doing a series of abstract watercolors on a daily basis.  These may or may not be the most effective use of my ability, but they are going to be a way to get into the habit of painting again.  As most artist know, you can spend forever thinking about painting a great work and never get one thing accomplished.  So instead of coming up with a subject that might require more time to prepare and execute, I think it is best to first learn how to get into the habit of getting SOMETHING on paper and go from there.  In fact, it's taken me longer to write this post than it did to do that first little abstract color study sitting on my desk over there.  I haven't even kept up with my  list of artists that I usually follow.  I'm thinking this will get me going on that as well.  My apologies to all of you artists who I have been following.  I haven't forgotten about you.

Is this the one?.....

I am desperately hoping this is the one that works....late for work.  More later

Sketch for Night Scene at Woodstock Park

First sketch for WNS

I started this sketch weeks ago after I posted the night scene reference photo.  I thought I should post it because I've found that action can give me a little kick start. I used my daughters Oil pastels for this.  I found them to be cumbersome to work with because I have trouble blending them.  I know I'm not using the right paper or technique, but I much prefer traditional pastels.  I plan to pick some up this weekend.  I don't know what happened to the huge stash of pastels I had years ago.I used to keep them in a little brief case.  Must have been tossed out when we moved.  That surprises me because I hate throwing out art supplies more than I hate throwing out old shoes. One might think I grew up in the depression era the way I save old crap....but I digress.

Ongoing Struggle

This has begun to resemble a self portrait.

I'm still struggling to get this current project done.  It has hampered my ability to paint freely because of the time constraints.  The timing of this project was unfortunate, because my schedule had changed and I got very busy.  Add to the fact that I haven't done a commission in a very long time and, well...  maybe the expression of angst in this attempt is a reflection of my own in getting this finished.  It was supposed to be a smile. Oh, and not to mention I thought I had it nailed down awhile ago and had to completely retool.  I keep coming back to certain images no matter how I try.

Old Cartoons from 2009

One thing I don't like about the Templates, is that I cant find a way to write above the photos I have already posted unless there is type in place, so it ends up as a caption like this comment here which ends up looking unbalanced....

   I'm still working on the commission, so here are some old caricatures from 2009.