Busy days

My days have been very busy with everything bar painting, lately. The children have had a variety of activities that have required my complete attention and the new puppy is not as restful as I would like, so adding "walk the dog" into my day has sneaked a few hours out of my painting time. But the days are warming, the sun is out, the sunsets have been spectacular and there is a lot more daylight time to play with.

This was the second warm up exercise I painted a few days ago. I have a box full of reference photos and I challenged myself to grab one, sight unseen( a bit of a lottery there!) and paint an interpretation of that photo. I am enjoying the transition from blindly following photographic reference to the detail  to using them as inspiration and using artistic license.

This was one of the sunrises at Whangamata beach, photographed by my mother ,who woke each morning at some ungodly hour to witness the dawn.

15 x 20 cm
oil on canvas board