Today, I silently gave thanks to my grandparents. Both sets of my grandparents chose to settle and raise families in one of the most beautiful parts of the world, Sonoma County. It rained all day and I was quite content to be working in my studio on top of the hill. I had empathy for the soggy sheep huddled outside at the fence.

For the month of May, I decided to commit myself to a daily small painting before working on one of my larger works. I am allowing myself 60 minutes for the warm up. The painting above is a figure study over an abstract background. Below is my red truck warm up from a photo I took down in San Luis Obispo.

I had two good art happenings this week. One was I was chosen to be Blick's Facebook Artist of the month and the other was I was selected to participate in Alameda's Plein Air Competition in July. These daily warm ups will get me in shape for the "quick draw". At the end of a competition, all the artists gather in one area and only have a couple of hours to complete a piece of work to be auctioned.