My Finished (?) Still Life

Still Life with Fruit, pastel, 9 x 12" by Joan Cole 2011

          Well, I think I've finished the pastel I began in Claudia Post's class on Tuesday at Maple & Main Gallery in Chester, Connecticut.  I will be eager to hear at next Tuesday's class the critique of my fellow artists and Claudia herself.  I lost track of time Thursday evening as I was working to bring this piece from the way it looked in my previous post to what it is now.  It certainly was a much warmer activity than the outdoor paintings I had been working on last weekend.


          As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I had begun two plein air paintings of the same view of our lake and the surrounding snow-covered woodlands.  Unfortunately, the snow gradually began to melt from Monday until Friday.  Luckily for me, snow began falling yesterday afternoon, and now the lake and the ground are back to white.  So I'm hoping I'll be able to finish one or both of those oil paintings this weekend.  I've got my fingers crossed....  We'll have to wait and see.

Miss Florence's Brook



Miss Florence's Brook, oil on canvas, 16 x 20

 This is the latest painting that I've completed.  I began working on it en plein air but  didn't finish it before the rain came.  Started on that raw and overcast day in springtime, I've been working on it very intermitantly ever since. 

It's hard to believe that we are in the brown version of autumn here in New England.  Most of the trees that had lots of color have dropped their leaves, and we are left with brown, brown, brown. The green in this painting is so far removed from the way the landscape looks right now.

I am working on two current paintings.  One is of the sunrise I saw two weeks ago when the world was glowing pink and gold.  Breath-taking.  I'm hoping to capture that glorious moment to share with my collectors.

The other painting I'm working on is a view of the lake from a couple days ago when the wind was wildly blowing the tresses of the willow and ruffling the water into small wavelets.  Time to set up outside & get to it!