with the first of the spring weather upon us (thank God) I'm torn between my garden and my art. I know some artists who simply stop painting in garden season. It's so short here, that they can get away with it. I can't, I still have the need to paint, but my attention is definitely divided.

I've spent all of my painting time on 'Heather' this week, several hours, and have many layers of colour on the canvas now. I apologise for the glow that is bouncing off the canvas in the photo. It refused to edit out and subsequent photo's were no better. I still have a lot of work to do here, even so I'm starting to play with back ground ideas. The back ground will be very simple, but it still has to be 'right'.

The painting is starting to breath, which is always exciting, I find it much harder to do a portrait of some one I know/knew. I know from personal observation if I got the mouth right or the eye and am much more persnickity as a result. All in all It's a challenge, and that's why I love doing portraits.