It's January...Must be Time for a Cruise

'Shell Seeker'            8x10           pastel           ©Karen Margulis
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 January was always our get-away time.  For 21 years my husband Michael and I worked together with our family childcare and petsitting businesses. January was slow for petsitting as many of our clients had already traveled over the holidays. It was the perfect time to get away to somewhere warm. We usually chose to take a Caribbean cruise.

I loved it then and love it even more now that I paint. I see the same islands with fresh eyes....the eyes of an artist. I get to spend leisurely days at sea with nothing to worry about but the next meal. I read all of the books I have been meaning to read. And I paint....lots of minis. Everyday I paint on my lounge chair...soaking up the sun and feeling the sea breeze.  I sketch. There is no better people watching and sketching opportunities than on board a ship. Best of all...people on a lounger tend to stay still!

So we are off to Florida to board our ship. We will visit islands we've never seen...Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire. I have my pastels packed and books loaded on my kindle. I have scheduled some blog posts so please keep visiting while I am away!

the gouache underpainting

This painting was the demo for my evening class. I did a gouache underpainting and the goal was to use as little pastel as possible to finish. The paper is Uart 280 grade and you can definitely see the rough texture in the paper. Compare this to yesterday's beach painting on Uart 500!

my old Pelikan gouache pan set