Quickly, Quietly goes the Quail

I'm sure Q is not the most difficult letter in the alphabet to theme a painting around, but it doesn't make for much choice.  Quilt, quill, quail.  I'm sure there's more but a quick glance through the google search for 'nouns starting with Q' didn't leave me too excited.

Quail it is.  Another google image search for a Quail, some mustard coloured pastel paper that ties in nicely with some of the feathers, random pastel pencils and pastel chalks and down to work. 

And here is the colourful little guy.  That was fun!  I haven't used my pastels for a long time and had forgotten how quick (and messy) they can be. I'm slightly tempted to pack a few in my bag to take on my European Vacation.  I'm imagining Tuscany scenes and buildings done with pastels. Nine days to go. Hope I can fit everything in my port.

Au revoir!

P....ortraits

Well better late than never.  H & I are off to Europe and the UK in 2 weeks time (OMG!!!!) for 9 weeks so I have been a bit distracted with flights, research on what not to miss and organising the house and bills etc etc.  It will SO be worth it.  I'm thinking that by the time I get to V we'll be in Venice and I will post a watercolour of the Grand Canal or a gondola or the old buildings or maybe a photo of us sipping cappuccino's in the main square. 

We're travelling light as we are training it around Europe so our clothes are minimal and bags are small, but am hoping to pack a small painting/sketch pack. 

Here's my portrait for the week - a simple sketch.  In an earlier post stamping with vegetables I played around with stamping with celery and have added a cut out of this to the portrait.  

Gives my lady a Spanish feel I reckon.  What do you think?

Adios!

Oooooooo.....

Onions!

I've had a busy week. Had a lovely visit from my Sister, my Niece and my Grand Nephew. Wow don't I sound old - Grand Nephew.  Boy, wasn't he a cutie!  Happy, contented and gorgeous to boot. Took some lovely photos. My family all groan when I bring out the camera, but seriously, there would be no record of family get togethers and special moments if I wasn't so snap happy. So I let them groan all they like and just snap away. I don't end up with many photos of me though, so I asked H to take a photo of me and my Grand Nephew.

So, what about my onions?  Well, I cheated this week. My studio doubles as a guest room and it was occupied for 5 nights and even though I bought some red onions to paint, they are still sitting in the vegetable drawer.

So I present my onions, painted in watercolour some years earlier. 

A portrait I did of a family friend last year has found a new home as of today.  His wife has bought the painting for his birthday. I called it 'Guitar Man' and painted it from a photo I took at a party at our place. I hope he likes it when he opens it on his birthday.

I have my studio back. Back to A to Z.