Two bird studies

Here are two more quick studies. The gold finch is in pastel and the red birds were done in colored pencils. This is the first time I enjoyed doing colored pencils, I tried a black textured paper and that worked much better for me. I may try the red birds again as the eye on the female looks off and she looks like Don King
Will load pictures later it's not letting me now.

Pastel studies

In looking back over my last year the most painting I have sold were created with pastels, so I have decided to work in them for a while to see if I can improve. There were some beautiful works at the Quick Draw by Sherry Hendrick-Kuespert. I had an opportunity to talk to her and she said she learned to use the pastel by reading and was using a pastel board. I would have loved to watch her work but alas, I had my own to work on.
I bought some sanded paper and it s working muck better than the canon paper but of course I have more of the canon paper and the sanded is so expensive. Here are two on the sanded paper 9 x12.

I had sooo much fun Sunday!!!!!

I had so much fun yesterday. I was in at the Bottling Company in Historic Downtown Hattiesburg. Sunday was the first Quick Draw auction and silent auction with the South Mississippi Art Association and the AIDS service Coalition benefit to raise funds. Each artist was allowed to put in 5 pieces for a silent auction. We had one hour to draw, paint or whatever type of art the artist chooses to perform. After the hour, we had 15 min to frame our piece and bring it to the stage give, our name and a brief description of our piece and then a real auctioneer started the bidding. The biggest thing is worrying if anyone would bid on it. I had some bids and it sold to a nice man for his wife who has a cat that looked like the one I painted. I also had three of my five paintings in the silent auction sell. YEA. I was able to meet some nice people and I would have loved to watch them work, as there were some great looking work put up for auction.

Lash

Yesterday was a sad and happy day all in one. Sad that I lost my cat of around 19 to 20 years old and happy that he now is in a better place able to see and chase butterflies and lizards. I believe in heaven and that all my animals will be there in the prime of their life. (And believe me it will be a lot) It is never easy to make the decision to have your furry friend helped to the other side but it is also hard to see them in such confusion. Lash must have had a stroke around Christmas as he could not move his right side very well and would just fall over. He lost his sight some time ago but no one would have ever known as he got around so well. He stared to quit eating and that was our clue that it was time to let him go. Lash was and is the only cat I have ever bought. He was a registered Russian Blue. For those not familiar with the bread it is an old one with a gray coat and each hair tipped with white. The eyes are the most gorgeous green that does not really show until around three years of age. They are very quite and not running all over the place, at least mine was very reserved. He did like to be up very high all over the house and would love to just sit and ride on your shoulder. Goodbye for now my sweet Alashaka. This is a picture of him on a ladder around 2 years of age.