Winding Up the Year

Ah, Blogger is working again so I can get this post going!
I finished my first color study, at least as far as I plan to take it at this point. Here it is:

Again, I am having challenges getting a good digital picture with the correct color balance. I am not surprised when I realized that my camera is now 8 plus years old. My poor camera only has 3.2 mp and is literally falling apart bit by bit ( I have had to resort to glue a couple of times). It has been a good camera but I think I will need to replace it soon. I did do a little playing around with the lights and darks in Photoshop to get the photo to read more like the actual set up but I didn't tinker with any color correction although I probably should have. You get the general idea of the painting from here and, at this point, that is all that is needed. I would like to add that the paint that has white mixed into it reflects weirdly, and not true to color.
While I am saving up for a decent camera, I will use my husband's. He says it is "ours" but I found that only one person at a time can take pictures during those wonderful photo moments! We also have different photography needs, not to mention that we look at the world in different ways...
I have a couple of more oil sketches and my first plein air attempt which I will be sharing next week as well as a fun little side project.
As we are coming to the end of the year I, like many of you, will be taking a bit of time to reflect on the past year and think about what I want to accomplish in the next. I am putting together a personal challenge. I will be posting the details soon in a special post but here is a bit of the background for the challenge:  In 2012 I will have my 50th birthday (if the world does decide to end that year it will be extremely ironic!). I decided that I wanted to create a personal challenge for my 50th and have it benefit one or more of my favorite causes as well. I did the math and realized that starting this January, I will only have 15 months to complete said challenge! I will have to get busy!
That is all I am going to say on that now as I want to carefully think over the details before I put them out there publicly. I am hoping to get input and encouragement from all my friends as I think I am going to need it. Sometimes your friends have a way of taking things to a wonderful new level.
I had a wonderful morning at my local life drawing session. It is always a pleasure to spend time drawing with other artists. I want to finish up by mentioning a couple of new links in the "artists who inspire" section of my blog. First is Karen Martin Sampson who is from Vancouver Island, B.C. Her work is beautiful and inspiring. If you click on the Links on her web site you can find her blog. She is generous with her knowledge as well. Thank you Karen! A second link I would like to mention is for another artist I admire, Terry Strickland. Her blog posts often include video clips of her process. I hope to do that one day myself. I also have two other links that are important to me, Women Drawing Women, and Women Painting Women. I probably don't have to tell you that women artists are very much under-represented in our galleries and museums, not to mention history. I love to see how women interpret the female body and person. I find it is very different from the male perspective (anyone surprised?). I will be sharing more artists on my blog now and then in future posts.
Finally, a couple more changes I made to my blog. I have been on FaceBook for a while now and have just joined Twitter. If you use these social media platforms, please do look me up. Mention Art=Life in the message line of FaceBook to let me know who you are and I will be happy to add you as a friend.There are links to both FaceBook and Twitter in the side bar.
I would love to read your comments if you wish to use the comment link at the bottom of this post and you can also share the post on FaceBook and Twitter using the links below.
We have been having very wet and stormy weather here lately which will continue for the week. Perfect for working in the studio.
-Renee