On Fridays our art club has a Zoom paint-along. Today I decided to add the watercolor to the sketch of the pears I did last week. These pears were sketched from my imagination so I had no real pears or a photo reference, so I did the same for my watercolor. I layered shades of yellow, orange, red and green. I used blues and purples for the shadows. I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

This afternoon I received a surprise email with the juror’s selection for the Outdoors Show at Anton Art Center. I didn’t expect the notification for another several days, but I’m happy to announce that my photograph of my son at the Detroit Riverwalk was accepted. I am fortunate to have pieces in both of the shows at Anton again this year, the Michigan Annual is in the first floor exhibit and the Outdoors show is in the upstairs gallery.

If this wasn’t enough good news I received a second notification that my watercolor, Changing Fronts, was accepted into the Today’s Weather show at the Grosse Pointe Artist Association. I made this piece specially for this show so I’m happy it was chosen. The only bittersweet thing in all of this good news is that the openings for the Michigan Annual and the Today’s Weather shows are at the same time on the same date. I like to make the openings if I can, but overall its not the worst problem to have.

What things have you been up to these first couple weeks of 2024?