Installment number two of the current work . . .

Something's happening on the drawing board . . .

The jury results for this year's (the 9th) exhibition of the International Guild of Realism have come through and I am pleased to say that my work, Watch Your Step, will be one of the 74 works selected from over 350 international entries. The exhibition will take place this fall, November 7 through the 28th in Charleston, South Carolina at the Robert Lange Studios.

Over the last couple of days, I've had a wonderful visitor in the back yard. Discovered atop my recently installed arbor out back of the kitchen bay window, while doing something else in the kitchen and noting a movement out back . . . this immature black crowned night heron has been visiting the back yard over the last several days now. I spent a good forty five minutes with it a day or two ago and this morning, while emptying the dish washer, I noticed it outside once again and ran to get the long lens. Another half hour or so and even more wonderful reference. After a bit, I went outside and carefully and quietly was able to get some good shots from ground level, the others all taken from a second floor window. Today, the neighborhood crow family ventured into the yard as well, so for a few minutes I was distracted by the antics of the crows and got some very fine reference of them as well. Moral of the story . . . it pays to look out your windows every once in a while!

After posting yesterday, I realized I only had about another hour's worth of work to go so completed this work and got it outside to photograph before it got too dark. "Braids and Bows" is 7 1/2" x 7 3/4" and is earmarked for a special event to occur later this fall - further details on that as time gets closer.

A few hours of studio time yesterday and today has brought this work to this point . . .

A tad more work on this one . . .

Lots of overlayering today to achieve a soft texture to the coat. Laborious but worth the effort to get that wooly texture. This is the hard stuff and I want to get it out of the way before tackling the 'easier' stuff yet to come.

Something's taking shape on the drawing board.