I'm alive and well, and starting a new commission...

Start of commissioned portrait- Robin.

July was the last time I posted, for heaven's sake. Thank you to those of you who wrote to check on me.  Between my daughter, the gallery and commissions and traveling, some things had to wait, and my sweet blog was one of them. I'm so glad you came by!

Yesterday I got to start a new commission- a lovely woman named Robin.  I decided to broadcast live as I painted so I could have some company through the process. Several friends popped into the chat room to watch and talk with me- always wonderful. This image above is a work-in-progress image just two and a half hours into the 16 x 20 oil. It's fairly thinly painted so far, as my objective was just to map out my values and work toward her likeness, and get the white of the canvas covered.

If you'd like to watch the broadcast of the beginning of this portrait, it's in two parts:
part 1 (about 45 minutes)
part 2 (about 57 minutes)

I'll try to post the image of the completed portrait when I've finished.

Over these first 14 months we've owned the gallery, Ugur and I offered each of the gallery artists a show- a chance to showcase their work by showing more pieces than we are usually able to show, and we've had a reception to kick off each exhibition. Right after Thanksgiving, it'll be OUR turn.  Wait!!!  That means we need new work.  (She panics.)  Between now and the end of Thanksgiving, I actually want to experiment with new subject matter and new painting processes, and right now I only have sketchy ideas for those new paintings. It's kind of exciting, actually. Only part of the excitement is panic.  (Ok, a big part.)  But I'm actually very interested to see what will happen when I step out some of my patterns of limited thinking.  I'll let you know how it goes!