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Last year I won honorable mention at the Great Lakes Pastel Society Members show.  Part of the prize was this
large pastel heart made by Terry Ludwig who was the judge.
 
I was charmed by the heart but not sure what to do with it.  I decided that it would make a good color for an under-painting.  I made some cross hatched strokes across white Wallis paper then dipped a brush into clean paint thinner and brushed it across the surface which resulted in a shocking pink piece of sand paper.

I thought this was the perfect backdrop to do a painting of my daughter being back lit with evening light.  This allowed me to push the values very light where the sun was hitting and then use very cool tones on the rest of the skin.  I have been surprised how easy it is to express the unique qualities of rim lighting using this technique.  I have posted the painting below.  One is the full size painting and the other is the detail.  This is not yet finished but I thought I would post it while the pink wash was still very obvious.  I will post it on my website as soon as it is completed.
    

I wanted to experiment with painting in a high key where my darkest dark was limited to a middle value of 5.  I set up a still life of white on white.   This forced me to rely on color changes to create the form rather than value extremes.  I also applied the paint thickly and used the dimension of the paint and the brushstroke to describe the various planes.

This painting is another one of the "Little Lessons" series.  All of the paintings in this series are for sale for 110.00 each.

This lesson was all about simplification. I went plein air painting with my friend, Sharon Will. I had visions of painting the elevator in Rochester thinking that I would paint large graphic shapes of a back lit building. The elevator wasn't that exciting but this alley way was! The real challenge was fitting all of that perspective onto a 5x7. I edited many of the electrical boxes out to make it a stronger painting. 

This is the first of my 5x7 challenges. Because of my teaching schedule and entering juried shows I have been getting frustrated that I did not have the time to just paint for sheer joy and learning. With a 5x7 canvas I figure I can set up whatever I like and finish in a short amount of time. I painted my favorite pot and a fading turnip to see if it could be done. It was so rewarding I am ready to start an entire series.