"Apple with Leaves"

Oil on 5"x7" hardboard
I finished painting this apple yesterday. The apple is from the grocery store, and the leaves are from a crab apple tree in my backyard. I like the look of the dying leaves, together with the ripened fruit.
Thank you everyone for all of your wonderful comments, they are so greatly appreciated!!!

Autumn Hydrangea

Above: The finished painting .................. Below: Work in Progress

Oil on hard board panel
I started this painting a couple of weeks ago, and I finally got around to finishing it up this weekend. I thought I would include a picture of it in progress along with the finished image. I always think it's so interesting to look back, and see what it looked like at an earlier stage.

Self Portrait

Oil on 8"x10" canvas panel

When I saw the latest challenge on Michelle Burnett's blog, "Following the Masters", which was to do a self portrait, I dared myself to try it. And I'm glad I did. I've always wanted to try a portrait of myself, since it seems like a safe way to practice portraiture, (I'm the only one who's gotta be pleased with it). Since I've never been able to successfully draw myself in the mirror, I decided to take some pictures and use one for a reference. I used a canvas panel that I put 2 extra coats of gesso on, and sanded a bit. It smoothed out the surface, so that the canvas texture wasn't so distracting. The colors I used most were, transparent oxide brown, yellow ochre, cadmium scarlet, ultramarine blue, viridian, some burnt umber, and white.
I painted until I got to this point, and didn't quite know what I wanted to change about it, so I stopped, and decided if I wanted to change anything, I would just wait, and do another painting some other time. Changing this one, at this point would probably make it look worked over too much.

Vacation

I've been away for a week or so, in Virginia visiting my sister. Now that I'm home, I hope to get some new painting done!