Portrait of Riley

I loved this photo of my son's fiancee the moment I saw it because it captured a moment between them in a wild and beautiful place not far from here on the Bay of Fundy. This pair is all about the outdoors, enjoying nature, camping , hiking, skydiving, adventures they squeeze  into  their busy hard working lives. I wanted to help remember this special day so the pic became the inspiration to the only painting I got done before Christmas.

This started out as a watercolor on toned pastel paper then evolved through charcoal, conte, and pastel. I wanted to capture this lovely lady's adventuresome windblown spirit along with her sort of 1940's glamorous look she pulls off without even trying.

      I am having the same battle of procrastination I face every winter in getting back to painting...can't seem to focus on it when there's other things to "get out of the way first." I'm sure the only reason I finished this portrait was the looming deadline of Christmas. So since the end of the tourists in november I have been having a prolonged slate clearing exercise, cutting hundreds of mats for next summer's print sales at our shop. Tomorrow I'll clean up the studio and then I should be out of excuses.