More pastel paintings and an exhibit.

I seem to still be in winter, not a winter of discontent, it is more like apathy. The weather is right there with me even though it is April. I am still expecting that spring will make things better, that I will find some energy to care enough to do more than just hide away in my art. I am doing things but just still feel like I am slogging through mud. So blogging is still in the category of 'who cares, what does it matter anyway'. Today I read a blog post by someone else and that made me remember my own blog, and I really don't want to abandon it just because I feel like it is pointless and too much work. I know that this feeling will pass....eventually.
I have not been felting. I have been doing a lot with pastels. It has been very therapeutic, I lose myself in them because it is so new to me. There is so much to learn. I am determined to try to paint everyday....and have managed to do some most days but it is easy because it is so new. Here is what I have done since the last post.

These pieces I am done with; AKA, some I am happy with, some I am just not interested in putting anymore time into.

This painting was working on some cold press watercolor paper that I applied an acrylic pastel ground to. I did not like the texture.

This cat was done for a challenge on WetCanvas about using color to depict a black object. Here are the colors I used.

 This little painting I did to play with some of the new colors I bought on a shopping trip with my sister who I got addicted to pastels.

This painting I even framed. It is an image that I did in felt years ago. Here is that felt.

It is one that I did not do any needle felting on, leaving the lines very squiggly.

This painting I really liked but I knew something was really off about the composition. I asked for comments about cropping it on WetCanvas. One idea was to make it square.

 One suggestion was that I really have two paintings, a skyscape....

 And a seascape.

I would like to frame it but that involves a decision.
This is another piece that just does not work because of the composition. I never felt that composition was hard for me. In fact in school teachers would point out how I added this or that to make a good composition when I had no idea that that was what I was doing. The advice I get is to figure out what my painting is about. I guess it has to be more than just making a pretty picture.

Here is the piece I am working on now. I plan on finishing it today.

I also made a start on a color pencil drawing, but it has been sitting for quite a while.

I do think I will get back to it since I actually finished that Sunlit Grapes piece after it sat for years. I am very pleased to say that it got into the Academic Artists Association 64th Annual National Exhibition of Contemporary Realism. I probably would not have entered it if I knew it was a national exhibit...I am honored. I went to the opening and could not believe the works there, or that mine was hanging with them! My photos do not do them justice.

BTW, I post things on my Felt Inspiration page on Facebook much more regularly.