Farewell, Bleak November

I'm making our Christmas cards this year, and spent this morning working through some design ideas, finding text to accompany it, playing in paint and apparently, providing lots of amusement for the dog. It's dark and cold and rainy outside, and one of those days when we all just want to huddle around the stove and the teakettle. It would be a good day for soup and grilled cheese sandwiches and bread making and other wholesome, earthy things, but I think I'll take a little trip out into the woods, and see how the wilds are faring on this bleak November day.

We always want what we have not got

underwater dreaming

These two works are from the pastel collections of Chris Augusta, an artist from Maine who I saw at a demonstration workshop a few years ago. I was amazed at the way he was able to capture fish and birds in a few colorful strokes of the pastel chalks. There is something incredibly vibrant and alive about his pieces that doesn't quite translate onto the computer screen. I've been hoping he would have an exhibition sometime soon so I can feel inspired-- I'm thinking of doing a series of paintings about a nearby bay called "above and below", where I look at the same area of the bay from both perspectives. Seems like a fun approach to take to painting in winter. PK and I always start to get re-energized about our art around this time of year--with the garden frozen over and some vacation time looming, perhaps we'll be able to get some work done inside instead...in the meantime, I'll look at http://www.chrisaugusta.com/ to keep my motivation going...