A Serenade of Frogs

Sometime in Spring

12 x 16

Pastel on Sanded Mat Board

The rain had finally stopped. Yesterday was filled with bright sunshine. Everything sparkled. Last night the stars were at their brightest, so clear, so beautiful. Lots of new frogs have emerged since the rain and it's a delight to my ears to hear their serenade. I am so lucky to live in such a beautiful place. I am so grateful to have found my passion as an artist (certainly not a writer).

I'm happy to show you my second painting of the new year. Finished yesterday, it is a transition painting that went from this

to the painting "Sometime in Spring" above. It was a 20 x 26 work in progress that sat around most of last year unfinished. I decided to do a rework on it. First, I hosed it down but the pastel did not come off (I guess because it was so well fixed with hair spray). While it was still wet I took a piece of pipe insulation and began scrubbing and moving the pastel pigments around on the board. The painting started to have an ethereal feel to it but after an hour of experimenting it didn't seem to be going anywhere until I sprayed water on it and played using my fingers to move the pigment around. That felt good. I didn't like the painting as a whole but the upper right hand  corner section intrigued me so I focused on that area playing around until it came to be "Sometime in Spring" So the 20 x 26 work in progress became a 12 x 16 work transformed. I was surprised and pleased how things  turn out. One never knows.