So, I hinted at something different in the below post, and this is what I painted for a show at
New Morning Bakery. One of my favorite things they serve is their chocolate cream cheese cupcakes. They threw out a call for artwork to help celebrate their being in business over 25 years, so one afternoon in January, I took a stroll downtown, purchased a cupcake to go, then seeing an open booth, sat for a few minutes organizing some gallery paperwork. While there, I stealthily pulled out my new little
olympus camera and shot 2 photos of my cupcake, snug in its to go bag.
Back home, I pulled out a canvas that I'd painted a mediocre landscaped on, sprayed it with an air compressor to blow off any loose pastel, then gave it a quick wash with water. (nice test to see how tough pva spray is on pastel, on canvas!) Then I sketched on my painting. Below is that initial drawing, turned sideways so you can see the previous landscape as it's still portrayed on that washed canvas.
It's a bit hard to see the blue pastel drawing lines on the canvas, but if you right click on the photo you can enlarge it in another window or tab, and see them better.
This next photo shows the painting with the first layer of soft pastel---this time you can kind of see what I'm painting, but a lot of the background is still showing through.
After spraying with pva, I painted another layer with soft pastel, and again sprayed the surface with diluted pva size. Here's a shot of the 2nd layer.
After more layers, time studying it, more painting, more time staring at it, more fiddling, I finished! (It's often a major accomplishment to decide one is truly finished...fiddling with a painting can be an on-going process!)
Close-up of the cupcake.
I enjoyed working on this painting a lot---playing with the colors, trying to stay loose, and letting the pastels create the texture I was hoping for. All in all, I was pretty happy with this one! What do you think? Any suggestions?
Oh, it's painted on 1 1/2" thick 16x20" primed canvas with a black acrylic painted edge. It's for sale, and if you'd like more information, please leave a comment or email me!
This is what our backyard looked like during lunch on one of those sunny days we had a couple of weeks ago. I loved how the apple tree branches engulfed the whole yard like a big hug! Truly a winter or early spring view since once the leaves appear the shadow branches disappear. 
Our poor trillium, hidden under the apple tree, getting chewed up by nasty slugs I'm guessing. Once I discovered it's tattered appearance I raked all the big maple leaves away from the base, hoping to eliminate hiding places for those slimy pests...
Now I'm in the front yard, visually diving into the glory of the daffodil abundance! Note to self---plant daffodils in the back yard!
This one below has become my computer desktop.
A random plum blossom, greeting the sun!
And last, but not least (in my eyes!) is a single bloom from our Kerria Japonica bush. 
Sadly, one of my daughters hates this plant---maybe both---since when it rains it droops into the driveway, making passage difficult, especially if on a bike! Last night, my youngest, on purpose parked the car, right so I'd have to get out, under the soggy Kerria---ha, ha, ha. Too bad my oldest wasn't there to appreciate her efforts! Luckily for me, she moved the car over a bit so I didn't have to get drenched!
