The last week or so I have managed to get in a little painting--despite the several large and/or slog-paced jobs piled on my desk, spurred on by the necessity of coming up with a motif 2006 for my holiday card. I'm considering using one of the --unfinished--paintings above. Last year's card (I'll post it later), even though the printer didn't get the colors quite right, is going to be hard to improve on; the motif--a tree in a dory drifting into the sunset--was just right. Have in my mind a house, at night, with one lighted window, maybe a tree strung with lights, and bare trees and snow falling. Not too ambitious! Should've started working on this before Halloween!
In the summer I took a few not so great photos--not enough light--of a simple porch in Cape May and, now, for some reason, I sem to be obsessed with turning them into something .... Anyway, I keep trying. It's the surrounding space/foliage, I think: it's a challenge, trying to make it "readable" (i.e., that's in front, that's far away ...) but working with not so much information and not wanting (or being able) to reproduce the scene in a more realistic way. Onward.
Finally finished (I think!) the painting posted below, under 10-10.... Was hoping to start another right away, but the Thanksgiving holiday is breaking my very short-lived momentum!
Finally finished this one--well, finished for the most part; still contemplating adding a little sprig of something red or orange in the lower right-hand corner--from my Tuesday . Missed Thanksgiving week, and this one, and next week there's no class, so I may have time to arrange another setup on the 12th and paint it on the 14th, hope so, before breaking for the holiday. In February it'll be a year since I joined the group, and I think there's been some progress: I'm making more complicated setups than I did on my own, and I'm using bigger and bigger pieces of paper. 
