Happy New Year!

January has been busy;

* there was a ton of drawing to do; a half marathon, weekly portrait classes, life drawing class and then just everyday sketching and drawing...and 12 months of drawings to sort, store and photograph, followed by a trip to recycling.

*there were resolutions to make (and a whole month all ready in which to break most of them).  One that still has a chance is my determination to finish The Fifty State Plein Air Painting Project...only seven states left...flight reservations have been made for Louisiana in March...any suggestions as to specifics? things not to miss while my daughter and I are there for a week? On to Nevada, Utah, California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska later in the year.

*12 little pastel nocturnes had to be put into their fussy little shadowbox frames...which was made more complicated by the lack of adequate heat in my studio (cold fingers are not nimble).

...all to tell you I have had a productive first month of 2014...even though no blogging. I hope you are getting some things accomplished, too. 

Pen and ink, charcoal or pencil.

My weekend on the wild side with yupo

Zoe and I just finished day 2 of the 2-weekend workshop taught by Leonard Ragouzeos at the River Gallery School of Art in Brattleboro VT. Leonard is a master of very large black & white work; India ink on Yupo paper. He is a generous artist who taught us lots of his tricks. (Too bad we don't have the ten years plus experience he does with this intriguing medium or we could just do what he does! ha! looks easier than it is, as usual.) I've posted my forest piece which is about 18" x 18" on Yupo. We had fun. We got out of our comfort zone. We got creative. We got covered in ink. It was a good day. Be sure to look at what Leonard does.