New Painting, and Same Old Hair Embroidery...

Yesterday put up the tracing paper for the sketch of my new painting. Pencil taped to yardstick allows me to step back and compose from a distance.

Been working on the embroidery, trying in vain to wrap it up. I think that the cross hatching could be too coarse for the atmospheric area near the horizon.... I may have to rip it out and do stippling instead. As the mouth interior nears completion, I will have to intensify values in the lips so that they will "hold up" to the interior.

Quite a few Sep 15 deadlines.... proposal for 1708 Gallery in Richmond, the Southeastern College Art Conference Fellowship..... these I have been doing in the evenings.

This past Sunday morning, drove 4.5 hours to Myrtle Beach, where I got to play in the pool and the amusement park with Georgia, my amazing 3 year old niece. She went on one of those bobsled rides with me, the ones where they go really fast forwards, then backwards, while going over undulating hills. 3 years old and she LOVED it! Her eyes were sparkling as she squealed with delight.... that's a Kretz gene. Left at 10 pm, drove a few hours towards Atlanta, then finished the trip the next morning... picked up my painting at the Defoors Center, drove 5.5 hours back, hugged my dog, took a shower, and went to the opening at Elon University.... they were kind enough to invite me to be in the faculty show, though I am only teaching a mini-course during the month of January. It was a beautiful night, and we were looking for a place to sit outside and have a beer. We drove from one end of Burlington to another, and after exhuasting all the possibilities, we ended up on our back deck.