I should back up and relate how this blog began.  A friend invited me to a painting challenge on Facebook.   I had been in a bit of a slump for about a year, and her challenge pushed me to get up and running again.  (Note the workout metaphor!)

I had been studying the new book by Carole Marine regarding painting small and often.  I had already decided to do this and had some 6x6 pieces of pastel  paper and some reference photographs all set to go.   So when the challenge was received, I went right at it using my oh so comfortable pastels, instead of the more difficult for me to manage oils!

Here are the weeks worth of paintings in order.   By the end of the week I was dreaming in pastel strokes!  My mind was a whirl with all the scenes I wanted to paint.  Bye, Bye slump!  Hello daily painting!

Day One: Daughter Dana at the Beach:

Day two I painted my brother Ric entitled:  Joy.  We spent a weekend together at a plein air painting workshop last summer and did a lot of laughing:

Day Three I painted some college buddies on the beach, entitled:  Bathing Beauties:

Day Four I painted a few kids on the beach that I had noticed last summer.  We were in the midst of a snow storm, so it felt good to paint beach scenes!

Finally, Day Five, I painted a section of a favorite John Singer Sargent painting entitled "Repose":