Regional show next up

I decided to put a stock frame on the two entries for the upcoming regional juried show.  I used this frame before and it looks almost as nice as the real gold ones and has clean lines that catch the light nicely and its not too costly.

I decided this because of time constraints.  I'm working again today, all day, on the new web site construction.  I'm not sure its worth it in the long run as blogs and other selling sites are very nice, quick and easy to set up and maintain, but I guess I just like going through the motions--it must be the 'creation' factor that we artists enjoy.
Here are the two entries, and they do allow for three I just found out, so I'll have to look at what else I might have.  I do have that 42" wide painting that was too wide for the current show in Newburyport.

Bear Hill Road, 12x36" oil on stretched canvas

And here are the two 9x12" entries that need the above frame.

Scraggly Sunflower, 9x12" oil on stretched canvas

Red Lily, 9x12" oil on board

It's snowing here now and has been overnight and will end later on today with accumulations of 8-12" so they say.  I'm off now to shovel then compute, so I hope where you are all is toasty.

Mad Monday

The Mary's Mondays (where I teach skating in the evening) was cancelled in favor of a private party so I got to go to Mark's Mondays (Mark Hayden's evening portrait group).  He posed, so this is the second attempt to paint him.  He's the one who says I'm afraid of the dark, and I think I did better with the darks here.

I wish I could find my first version of this portrait for comparison's sake.  It was a lot different and there were aspects of that one that I liked better.
 I also worked again (pretty much all day long) on the Red Lily painting where I'm trying to catch the glow of the sunlight on these flowers in my garden.  This is probably the forth day on this painting.

I'm trying to keep it lose but the main flower is such a challenge because of all the colors, thankfully, the background is easier to interpret in a lose way.  I'm finding that the supporting flowers are really beautiful as well and I'm managing to keep them in the background although they too are gorgeous in their own right.