Beginning

Seems I often have trouble beginning.

Beginning to exercise.
Beginning to write.
Beginning the yard work.

Take this art blog, for example. I've been meaning to launch it for the longest time.
I intended to begin at the very beginning, with my first experience with pastels over two years ago. The plan was to document my (hopeful!) progress and development as a pastelist. Because there are a lot of wonderful and inspiring professional artists' blogs out there, but not many amateur ones. And I was thinking that it might be fun as well as helpful to other aspiring artists to watch the progress of a fledgling one.

But two years later I suppose I've graduated from fledgling to ... well, a birdie who's left the nest but still has a lot to learn. My ultimate goal is to soar but in the meantime there is plenty of growing to do and progress to watch. So that's the plan.

And so I begin here ... today. 

Launched!

For starters, here is a sampling of some pastel paintings I've done in the past year. As you can see, I'm all over the place ... I especially love still life, portraits, a bit of landscape, and my latest interest ... figures.

My husband, Mike

My daughter in NYC

The Widower

Mom and sister walking the dog at Sea Ranch

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope that you'll sign on as a follower and also click the "follow by email" button so that you'll receive notifications of new posts. I plan to have some fun with this ... talking about pastel supplies, tips and methods I learn as I go along, mistakes and successes, and happenings at conferences and workshops (I have 2 scheduled!) And if they let me, I'll give you a glimpse into the weekly pastel sessions I have with my little pastel group called The FRUPS (I'll explain later). It's hilarious, productive and uncensored.

But that's another story.

Creatively yours,
Michelle