Let's try this again. My thought is that we can have a challenge inspired by the Critique Club meeting each month. What I'm left with after today's meeting is a curiosity to hear more about Stephanie's dark, back, Fire Woods and the experience of making that pastel painting of them! The Challenge should you choose to accept: Post a painting to the community feed that was a profound experience to create and tell us the story.

Here are a couple drawings and subsequent painted responses. I am curious about a few things: 1. I love the directness of the drawings. There is a raw purity that gets lost when they are complicated by color and more detail. So can I pare paintings down to hold these qualities, or is it enough to allow the drawings to just be drawings? (side note, I don't usually thumbnail or sketch out anything before I paint - I was surprised by the drawings showing up as they did, and wanted to take them further - which I did in a mess of other drawings before going to the paint). 2. The doe painting seems closest to the drawings' qualities. I could probably simplify her even more, and yet I appreciate the distribution of marks across the whole surface - she has a sure-ity about her that I quite like. Perhaps this is something that requires another iteration. 3. The fawn painting might be over worked and too saccharine, but there's a certain magic she holds. I do want to try another version in a darker palette still, just to see if I can't make it a bit more foreboding. But also, after painting and drawing so many studies where fawn spots turn to moths, that idea now feels boring. The awe is gone. So another thing for me to think about is how to preserve that feeling of awe while working out the idea. 4. the first drawing on the crumpled paper is so intriguing - I am tempted to get out my oil paints and see what replicating/responding to this (including the page wrinkling and shadows) in oil might look like.

This is my first painting following a long needed break. I started with a loose red drawing and have been gradually building up the forms, allowing parts of the original marks to remain visible. I'm enjoying the process and feeling excited to paint again. I'm not feeling particularly stuck, but I'd love some fresh perspectives to inspire my continued exploration. I'm mostly curious about: - What do you notice about the relationship between the initial drawing and the painted forms? - Which passages feel most interesting or alive to you, and why? I'm less interested in figuring out how to finish the painting right now and more interested in discovering possibilities I might not have considered as I continue. Thanks!

...made some of the final decisions while completing this last painting. 1. I felt like the space heater was too dark, dragging too much attention down to it, and it's a bit awkward. I have purposely left it in even though it's a clunky shape and subject because it WAS there, and I care about that in my work. I want to solve the awkwardness in some way, even by just accepting it. A while back I invented the red and orange in the heater grates which I loved, it's playful. But it still was feeling heavy. 2. In photoshop I tested a theory that lightening its value could be helpful. 3. I went ahead and lightened it a few times. I was surprised at how light I could go because of that very light value behind it in the far room. 4. Next, I wasn't sure if the composition was too crowded on the right so I experimented by looking through my photos for something I later (than this reference) had hanging on that wall, again truth of moment has become increasingly important to me. I overlayed the two paintings I later had hung on that wall onto my wip in photoshop to see if it was better. Immediately NO! I decided to stand by the interlocking L shapes of the original composition. 5. In the end I was very tired. This is a HUGE painting and adjustments are laborious. I did not yet solve the heater to my satisfaction but I need rest. Overall the experience of making this painting was bumpy and awkward and full of the acceptance that I was making a humongous painting that I had more questions about than knowing/confidence. I started it in a very different internal space than I am in now. In 2022 was excited and wanting to make a kind of comeback after returning to SF and coming out of a block. So... this experience was like an epic journey!

I’ve been thinking about how the final stages of a drawing can be difficult for me. There’s often uncertainty about where to go next, and I wonder whether old expectations around getting things right or meeting a certain standard make it harder to slow down, stay curious and follow intuition. I’m interested in how I can approach this stage with more kindness and curiosity rather than feeling I need to control the outcome. The first drawing is a moonrise picnic with my partner and daughter. I’m finding the density of the forms distracting, the trees feel heavy. I’m curious whether there are ways to bring more lightness and to the drawing. I’ve also wondered about trying it again on sandpaper, since I feel there is more flexibility with sandpaper, sometimes reach a point with pastel on other papers where the surface won’t accept much more. The second is another moonrise drawing, set in autumn. There are a lot of different elements in this one, and I feel I lost some of the clarity in the sky as I worked. I also lost steam while working through the branches and shapes of the trees, and I’m not sure how to approach the final stages. I’d appreciate any thoughts on the drawings themselves, as well as suggestions for navigating that uncertain final stage of a piece.