My 9 year old grandniece Sophie, who I painted at Christmas playing her violin, is visiting for a few days and today we spent part of the afternoon painting. Sophie was a great student, working from a sketch she had made earlier of our dog Penny and creating a composition with flowerpots on our back porch. When she started this painting she commented that everything was a dark color and lightened the blue bed to make the black shape of the dog really stand out. Pretty smart, huh?
In the studio together, I looked around and decided that she was by far the most interesting thing I could paint so here’s the oil sketch- as far as I got.

Now it’s time to go make homemade pasta together and find some ripe tomatoes and basil in the garden to go with it.
Dennis and I are going to a wedding at the coast and will be gone for a few days. More when I return.