In the Midst/Mist?

I thought I would get to spend the week painting, but actually only got to any painting at all yesterday. The work for yesterday was mostly preparation work - gessoing and getting ready to paint, although I did do a bit of work on a painting I started when I was in Australia . This one is the court yard of the house that we lived in in Fremantle, WA.



I had basically done only a wash on this picture and then ended up shipping it home. I started the painting in Spring and have a photo of Summer - so the plants have changed and unfortunately I seem to have taken the photo at a different time of day, because the shadows are all different. Nonetheless, I have decided to work on the painting a bit and try and give it a little bit more substance. Unfortunately i did not take a before picture - but above is where I stopped yesterday. I need to staighten some lines and have only a bare indication of the steps and plants, but at least I can demonstarte that I have been working and thinking.

For my actual class, I decided to do a couple of portraits. I've been looking at the work of Egon Schiele and Alice Neel and although I am only loosely working in their styles - I did decide that I wanted to do something a bit looser than the assignments we have been given in art class. This is my partner from a photo taken in a restaurant in Minneapolis. I got to a stopping point - here.



But then decided to do a little bit more work - so here is a second view of a slightly different painting. The table and red background are not different (but the light has caught the area differently on each photo).



I need to make the face thinner and want to work on the jacket as well as the stuff on the table - but am now going to stop and make dinner. We have gotten more than a foot of snow, so we should have a nice cozy evening - I think African Peanut and tomato soup sounds like a good meal for tonight with home made wheat berry bread.