Salvage

Cleaning out my flat files, I found a couple of old, unfinished paintings that I thought I might be able to salvage despite their problems because there were passages in each that I liked.
Generally I don't like to work too hard on anything because I can't keep the " work" part from showing.
These still arent, and will never be, the best, but I'm happier with them now.

Flowers and Smilla

I painted these last summer on the deck: very pleasant painting days.
In the third, unfinished, one, I'm really having trouble getting Smilla right.
At first, she was facing me, but I messed up her face, so I painted over it, as if she were facing away from me.
But now her body's too small fo r her head.
Hoping I can fix it.

cherries and my darling

(3x5)

I can't believe I've never painted a cherry before--they're so pretty. This attempt is a bit tentative--I wanted to get/keep the reflected light at the bottoms of the cherries, but these are maybe too small (slightly smaller than lifesize) to strive for such details.

(18x24)

A page of drawings of my darling Nanda (named for a Henry James heroine); she's 20-plus pounds of pure sweetness, and hair. "That's a lot to love," the vet says. (Double click on the drawing to see it close up.) The drawing on the upper left was made with a drying out felt-tip pen; I tried to blend some of the lines with water, but, alas, the ink's not water soluble. The other two are pencil, light and blunt; again, I had a problem using what was at hand: a piece of lead shaped like a seashell--a better curio than drawing tool!

(detail)
Trying out some drawing materials in preparation for June 7--drawing day! Read about it at drawingday.org.