Months ago, I belonged to the online group of Watercolor Landscape. During the month I left, a Winslow Homer pastiche was being done. Since then, it's sat on my table. I'd look at it often and think how I "should" finish it. One night, I took it to the painting group I'm in and worked at it. I've stuck with it and am finally getting somewhere.  A pastiche is a work that imitates the style of an artist, usually one of the great masters who has passed on ages ago, and it's done for learning purposes.  I am finding that they are wonderful learning experiences!  This is my second pastiche and I'll definitely do more.  One thing I love about them is the way you study the original soooooo closely.  You notice the tiniest of brushstrokes and study them intently, gradually forming such an understanding of what the artist was trying to accomplish and why.  You kind of get into his/her head. After this one though, I'm going back to my own work. Pastiches are an awesome learning tool but to keep it real, you have to live in your own paintings rather than someone else's, or you're going to lose yourself and just not know how to paint on your own. To see the different stages of this painting, you can go to my blog

An ongoing project of mine is this very tiny book of paintings. I found this book of slides for sale on ebay and immediately wanted to paint miniatures to mount in the slide area. The slides are standard 35mm 2" x 2" slides, so you can imagine how tiny the paintings are. This is the front page.

Inside, the first two paintings are both of water. On the left is a seascape and on the right are some rocks in a waterfall.

The next page is a miniature painting of some clouds. In real life, it's much easier to see the colour. (I love photographing and painting clouds! Such swirling, constantly shape-shifting masses of visible energy!) The writing on the slide is the original photographer's notes on these very old slides. I'll add more pics as I paint more of these.  (You really have to be in the mood to paint this tiny when you're used to painting large, though.)