I've been working on this oil pastel of a lavender field for quite some time. It has been so much fun to do. There's something about painting landscapes that is sooo freeing. I think in part it is because I have a different mindset when painting them--I feel less constrained by the shapes and matching things exactly and I can let go. The piece is on a 15X20 inch illustration board which has been coated with clear gesso (to provide tooth so oil pastels can be layered better). Although I like it as a whole, I think the best part is the lavender and lonely tree in the bottom 2/3 of the painting, so I'm thinking about maybe cropping it as shown. What do you all think? Crop or not? Leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Today I also got my brushes wet and worked on a few watercolors for a while. It has been a long time since I've done anything with watercolor and although it was one of my main mediums for a while it is a high stress one, so I have been avoiding it. I have always loved poppies and so I painted a couple of poppy fields. The first one was a disaster because I overworked it. I spent about 1.5 hours on it and it ended up in the bin. I just spent about 30 minutes on the second one and I think it turned out a lot better, looser and more spontaneous. It is a record for me because I usually spend hours on paintings.

Lavender field - oil pastel on illustration board (15x20 inches)

Lavender field - oil pastel on illustration board - cropped

Poppy field - watercolor on watercolor paper (9 x 12 inches)