New work

It was not possible to bring a full set of pastels to France this year, so I settled for the most compact pastels that travel well - pastel pencils. These images that follow are paintings that I started in France, with the intention of finishing them on my return to Ireland with the benefit of a complete range of Rembrandt, Sennelier and Schminke.
So, what I am showing here has been done solely with hard pastel pencils. There is much more to be done.

I have always had a fondness for orchids, having grown them for a time, bit never anything as exotic as the tropical slipper orchids, such as this Paphiopedilum parishii. There is a version in oil on my Facebook page, in the paintings folder.

Every home has a collection of scent bottles, some quite exotic in their conception. They make challenging and colourful subjects for still life.

Our kitchen windowsill has a small Tiffany-style lamp sitting on white tiles, and lighting up the oil bottle. I wanted to highlight the contrast in this one.