Wishing all Happy New Year 2012

The above is a photo I took this time last year as I had to make a journey in treacherous snow conditions to the countryside. We had had a lot of snow and fortunately I was on a bus but at this time of year I am reminded of the poem I showed earlier in the blog "Stopping by woods on a snowy evening" by Robert Frost. Since I first wrote that post I have learnt the background to the poem which you can see by checking out the comments to that post. It is quite interesting. Wishing all the blog followers a Happy New Year and look forward to posting many more and exciting new paintings in 2012. Best Wishes Jim

Bear Hug -- Finished Painting of a Child with Teddy bear

This is another painting which is just finished and yet to sign, but the light was good this morning for photo's so I snapped it and uploaded it here for all to see. That's it for loose ends and I can get back to clearing commission work from off the table. I am not the most prolific of artists but seem to be improving on that score and have turned out two or more paintings a month all this year so that isn't so bad when I consider how detailed and difficult some of them have been. It's now mid-November and I look back on this year, skill-wise and feel I have made good progress. I have attempted a number of really challenging paintings and although they took a long time, I am really happy with them except for very minor parts, and feel that I have pushed onwards a good deal in ability. That said, I have new goals and paths to follow on this artistic journey, which will challenge me even more, so keep following the blog if you want to see the road ahead with me. One of my goals is to create more interesting subjects for my paintings. So I will need to improve my life-drawing and my imagination somewhat. That's all for today, as always I welcome feedback on the above. Thanks and Enjoy it! --Jim

Finished Painting -- Deer in Pine Forest

I have made some changes to improve this picture which was finished but just needed something else. So I added some deer. I really like how this painting turned out, and consider it one of the better ones of this year. I have to work on commission work this month now, so will have to finish one more, almost complete painting this week and get going on the commissions. Comments welcome on the changes to this completed painting, thanks Jim