Regina Calton Burchett - Drawings & Pastels

My Cherry Amour

Finally found a little time to paint today.

Whew! Now I feel better.

This was an experiment for me and a step away from my art comfort zone.  But I like it.

Fixin' to be a Good Day

I’m fairly close to done on this, I think.  I’m trying to decide if a sky painting needs land to ‘anchor’ it.

Sky - storm front

One artist who regularly posts some excellent and helpful pieces is Rose Welty.  She had a great article on doing art every day, even if for just ten minutes.  (Read post here) One of the things I like about that idea is that it reminds us, every day, that whatever else we may be doing to make a living, we are artists. 

We are artists. Period.  Say it.  It took years for me to be able to say “I am an artist” and not feel like I was being pretentious.  Okay….  I still feel that way at times.  But one of the main things that brings joy to my life is art.  Creating art, thinking about art, viewing art. And being grateful to have that passion.

And I need to be able to dedicate at least a small portion of every day to what I love.  Thanks, Rose.

I finished this one for the APS show - there sure are a lot of pretty sunsets from this hill.

Three trees at bear creek retreat

The Bear Creek Retreat allowed many of us from the Austin Pastel Society to paint at their beautiful place about a week ago, and I got a lot of great photos and a start on a pastel.  This is a pencil sketch done from a photo I took of three cool “step-down” trees on their property.

I started this one today on a 5×7 Ampersand pastel board, working on getting a second piece ready for the Austin Pastel Society’s show at the Scarbrough Building.

Seven pastel artists joined together today for coffee, a visit and a good paintout at a lovely location.  It got hot quite fast, but it was good to visit with everyone and I wish we’d had more time for that.  Just for gabbing.  But it was good to see people’s art work while in progress, too.

The other thing I’d like to say is that I hate the word “blog“.  It’s just ugly.  It kind of rolls off the tongue like a lumpy rum ball left over from year before last….  What was wrong with the word “journal“?  It sounds so elegant and industrious.  Or even “diary“?  A little juvenile maybe, but I think it could have been elevated over time to a more respectable reputation.   Or “log“.  As in “captain’s log, 2047…”  Utilitarian, but easily applicable.

Bah-log.  As in - - - web-log?  Is it too late to change this?  I want to have an art/thought/idea journal.

Such nice people at the Great Outdoors Nursery here in Austin - they held an art event and I enjoyed the weekend in a very beautiful spot, talking with friends and painting pastels. These are two works in progress I started this weekend:

Great Outdoors Pagoda - Sally Fraser, Ann Seago and I collected plants, pots and a pagoda from around the nursery and arranged a still life suitable to the space. We each painted a pastel - here is the mostly finished one I painted:

Great Outdoors Pagoda

Mustang Mesa Sunset:

Mustang Mesa Sunset

What a great idea Bill Guffey has had - he is having a virtual paintout - with Google Maps approval - in various cities around the world.  This month it was Amsterdam, and I chose this scene - Zuiderzeeweg

virtualpaintout.blogspot.com/