Winter activity for this artist consists of...

So early in December I headed off to sunny San Diego, CA to catch up with an artist friend of mine who had been living in Chicago and recently graduated. It was a fabulous idea - escape the cold, take in some new scenery, and hang out drinking coffee with someone who doesn't mind my midly obsessive focus on art.

Unfortunately, I tend to have spates of bad luck when I get vacations - probably why I rarely take them. This time I got a nasty, persistent cold that made me fairly bummed the most of the trip, and my Grandmother had a diabetes crisis just before I was due to leave. They say problems come threes, so I'm glad I was spared anything else going wrong.

OK, so I was probably not the funnest person to be around on my trip, but it was still a nice change of pace, and I'm really glad I got to go.

Once I got back from San Diego, I went to stay with my grandmother as she recovered from her hospital visit. Don't worry - I'm not going to bore you with the details. However, I did not want to take a vacation from artwork for that long, so I brought a travel kit and a roll of paper to practice on. I spent a fair bit of time looking through pictures to find myself some suitable models for figure studies and found some very nice ones (I really need to look them up again so I can get the names of what I was working from.) The results are as you see above and to the right.

I also did a small series of frogs and toads for fun and to stretch my range a bit. You can see them on my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/etsynozephi/?saved=1

So, why all the bathers? Well, people are more interesting to paint when they're not covered with cloth, and a hot steamy bath is always on my mind when it is this freakin cold outsied. Have you ever taken a really hot soak then stepped out into the freezing cold? It's awesome ^^ I promise to do some men, too! Don't think I'm being one-sided.

I also wanted to do something about my New Year's Resolution, but I'll wait 'til next week because I expect to have some picture by then. Betcha can't wait ;)