Here's my latest. It's a view of the back garden of our apartment. Or at least a view overlooking our neighbour's back garden.
I debated about the Palm, whether to include it our not.
Initially I felt that it is out of character with the surrounds, as it is clearly not an indigenous species to western France. However it features so prominately in the garden it should be represented. In real life, I find the Palm actually becomes a focal point, due to it's more yellowy hue and shiny leaves, and I didn't necessarily desire that for my painting. So i toned it down.
Besides, the other tree foliage provided enough a challenge; one that I don't feel I handled very well.

Photo of garden:

Funny, comparing them side by side I see that my greens were very cold compared to the yellows and browns in the picture. It's a palette limitation with my Oil Pastels. While I have purchased about all the greens Sennlier manufacture, they are not a very warm variety.

Completed and uploaded my latest work. It was difficult to capture rain. I wanted to get a certain William Turner effect in the atmosphere. When I last visited the Mairie it was raining, the Place is a pedestrian thorough-fare and the rain pretty much left the Place deserted. The overhelming impression I came away with, was a feeling for the empty volume of space in front of the very beautiful building.
So when i started to draw it out I started with the wing of the building nearest to me on the left, and the architecture itself is the subject, like a very frontal view of a stately manor or something. But as I reveal the length of the building, it's prominence and features disintigrate into the fog of the atmosphere and emptiness of the square.

La Republique is no longer for sale.
My wife and I just can't part with it.

Started a new painting today, another prominent building in Rennes. The weather is moody this week, grey clouds that threaten rain and wind.

Van Gogh did numerous self-portraits.
Most of them not only demonstrate his superb ability with a brush, but are also hugely expressive works.

I thought i'd upload day's work.
I won't pretend my modest attempts are in any way comparable to the powerful portaits Van Gogh created but it's a good start.

The first one is just a sketch. I didn't want to be too hung up on proportion, I'm not too interested in an academic study right now. I wanted to work fast and free. Allowing exaggerations and to capture a certain expressiveness.

The second one is in colour using Oil Pastels on paper.
I pretty much drew my portrait out fully first, again not caring about correct proportions and allowing exaggerations. I'm not sure how I feel about the results just yet. While I recognize some positives in brush strokes and colour, the over-all portait is very exaggerated but not necessarily in a good way, it's like the sum of my exaggerations do not balance. I had trouble with basics, for example communicating the eyes. Nevertheless I learned much from this attempt.