2 summer paintings + 1

The first two paintings here are 14" x 20". Both were done to enter into the Berkeley Arts Council show "Summer Bloom". I like the challenge of an assignment, so here was an opportunity to see what I could come up with on a summer theme. 

They started out quite differently ~ huge swipes of very bright yellows, golds, reds. There were critters hidden in the branches. But I just wasn't happy with how they were going and I ended up toning them down, making them more subtle, and just about the trees.  

                                                 
These paintings gave me a hard time coming into being. There are MANY layers from all the changes. I thought the last painting I did had a delicious surface, but now it looks plain compared to these.

This one is 20" X 26". It may look as though the photo is blurry, but it is the illusion the texture creates. There are a lot of layers in this painting, too, and I might have gone further with it, but I just wanted to stop at this point. There is something spontaneous and raw that I like and didn't want to cover up. I thought I'd just let it be what it is. Definitely not a "summer" painting, though.

I used acrylic, charcoal and pastel on all 3 of these paintings and the addition of ink on the last one.