I can’t think of a better way to wrap up a very challenging year than with the birth of our first great grand daughter, (we have four great grand sons already). Our very first grandchild now has a daughter of his own, with this eight pound girl being born on December 27. His wife and baby are well and they are all quite happy. I would so love to be making portraits of this little one but she is not nearby as her daddy is serving our nation in the military.

I have been working on a still life for my art group meeting in January. I have wanted to paint more still life paintings but usually cannot make myself abandon my portraits. I will try to attach a photo before I post this but the painting is not quite finished.

I am working on two large paintings and a small portrait of my grandson. I still have the miniatures in progress and I should finish a landscape I began last year. I have a lot of doctor appointments lined up and my dear friends hope I will start a class soon. I am thankful I am well enough to continue my work.

We are looking forward to a visit with our AFS daughter and her daughter will be with her. This week I got up the courage to clean the portrait I did of this girl when she lived with us so many years ago. It was really dirty but I realized it had never been varnished so I was reluctant to clean it with solvents, no matter how mild. I got up my courage and used a moistened towel wrapped around my finger and I cleaned a small area at a time. The grime and dirt came off and it looked great. I definitely don’t recommend this procedure to anyone but it seems to have worked fine for me. Then I brushed the surface with polycrylic. This is the stuff that made me so ill last year. I made the room warm and then opened the windows for plenty of ventilation but that made the surface dry too fast and I had nasty brush marks that I couldn’t smooth out. I asked my husband for his finest sand paper to carefully knock off the highest parts, then varnished it again. It took four layers but the final one is perfect. I am thinking Nelly will want to take this home with her. We are really looking forward to their visit.

Well, I am going to try to add the photo of the still life. Later this week, if I can find time, I will post some of the other work I am doing. Till then, hugs and Shalom, Diana.

Everything I touch today has turned to mud, although I am pleased with my first pass on this new painting entitled SISTERS.  Even here on my blog, I opened it this evening, hoping to relax and communicate with all my friends, but instead I find that everything has changed.  I used up half an hour trying to put in a new photo and finally got it.  Then, I tried this typing and it keeps throwing up blocks or some strange information that is not helpful at all.  I will try to stumble on but even starting a new paragraph causes me headaches.   I have no idea what has messed this up but it will not let me start a new paragraph so I will just run all my sentences together. Sorry.  The summer has been full of challenges. I don’t want to list a bunch of problems here so let me just say that I have not been working continually, for many reasons, and now when I am trying to get back to work, stuff keeps getting in my way, now, even my word press blog is not responding. Anyway, today I could not seem to get into this new painting.  Hours went by with one interruption after another and finally I just decided I was going to get started with the sketch transfer, no matter what happened.  This is a job that should not be stopped in the middle.  By the time I got my work set up and ready to go, my hands were shaking badly.  They still are.  I am surprised I got the work this far. But this is the place in the process where it is important to get the likenesses.  For this painting, the photo references are very blurry but I have always loved this image.  I searched through many photos of my two youngest girls to find what would help me get good sketches as close as possible to the original.  I have worked on the sketches for weeks.  When transferring, the likenesses must be done with precision.  Having a case of tremors does not help.  Once the transfer is made, I like to use a soft sable brush to turn lines into planes.  This is where I begin to finess the skin tones. Yes, I start planning the end of the painting from this early beginning.  So, I did not complete the bottom of the painting but I can tell already that I have what I need. 

I am going to tell you now about something I have been working on for nearly two years.  I was sharing my painting process with a new acquaintance who wanted to paint his grandchildren.  He was so impressed with what he was learning that as a thank you he offered to help me film a video.  I was certain I would never be able to do my work under the scrutiny of a camera but I gave it some concideration because many of my students have asked me to provide this learning tool.  In my early years of portrait painting I too wished I could have the benifit of watching a talented artist do their most detailed work. So my friend and I began the ardous task of filming and editing.  Had we realized when we started that the videographer would move out of state in the middle of the process, we probably would never have begun. Now, as we finalize the last portions and make decisions about how to market the video, I decided it was time to give you a heads up.  I am hoping this Portrait Painting for Beginners will be ready for you to access shortly after the first of the year.  I am hoping to market it through You Tube.  I will let you know as soon as I can.