The finished piece from last evening.
The auction will start on July 26th. 

Wow, this was the hardest session at the market to date. A lot of interest and kind-hearted souls and some nibbles for purchases and then a lot of annoyances. The balance between them was 10 good to 2 bad and which ones did I take on the most, bad of course. I am trying to not take these things personally and I believe and hope I'd be the one missed if I didn't show up for these Thursday markets. I did get an invitation though to do another market on Saturdays so if I have the energy to do both I think a may go for it. I did a lot of chatting and trying to close a sale or two, which is, it seems nearly impossible for me. I would like though to use my Square before the end of the summer, just once.
I set my own arrangement up and my young friend brought his own setup also. The day was pretty gloomy and grey and right at the very end the sun came out a bit. The pattypans were around the market this week so for my own sunny look I put them into my setup. The Sweet Peas were the only flowers to be had but I was thrilled to get them again. This time I tried to define them a little more carefully but keep an overall impression of the bouquet. This photo does not show the final piece but showing the scumbled in stage only or my first painting stage. No sun to work on my dappled sun effect which was what I hoped to work with this week, maybe next week.

I was also working this week on a new portrait which I will start this weekend on a 12"x16". I had D sit for me for close to 2 hours. The first hour I worked on a small colour study to be sure I had the tones all correct. Then as she was willing to stay longer I spent 45 minutes on a quick study, larger this time 11"x14". I was pleased with what I managed in that time but it is only a quick study, but good to have for the larger piece.
I had a couple of young guys drop by on this same day as D was still there. They wanted to know if I charged for doing portraits and as I'm not charging right now they wanted me to paint their portraits, him and his homey right then and there. I explained to them that they could be part of my project but they wouldn't be able to have the portraits till after the show and then they could purchase them. I find the more I'm in public painting that I can see how people just have no concept of the work and effort involved. I'm going to have to start doubling my prices.

I've been working on this for two more goes since my last entry of this portrait. I am leaving it alone now and calling it finished. 
I've been having trouble seeing the tones off my computer screen lately. One of the things that I have though is my colours studies to go by and when I pick an area of flesh tone on the screen with the Digital Color Meter I'm able to match and determine what adjustments are needed based on that and my original colour studies. The meter also show something very similar to my original sampled colours from the live sittings. So Im not sure why I can't discern this on the screen also. In fact I'm able to see but I have to keep zooming in and I don't want to do this.

I spent the last 2 evenings on owl time, sketching this up. I remembered I had some quality paper around to experiment on, this is some Ingres paper and I think by using the rougher side it created a lot of extra work. I was not getting the kind of darks in the background I was hoping for to offset the owls in the foreground. It took a lot of extra crosshatching which I'm practicing at but this had gotten a bit too much so I ended in stumping it down.
I've enjoyed doing these owls and trying to capture the fondness that I saw between them.
This will go to auction tomorrow July 23.
http://www.dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/242923

I caught these Bard owls in the act of smooching. 
I've been a bit of a night owl myself lately and stayed up far too late sketching this last evening. Graphite on paper 8.5"x11.5" and this is going up for auction July 21st check it out. 

These were the biggest black berries I've ever seen and in a blue container to add more cool hues to the setup. Last evening was again very, very busy at the farmers market. The weather has been spectacular for our Thursday markets and everyone seems to be coming out to enjoy their time here.
Since I was starting a little late and had lots of conversations, at the end I was pressed for time to finish this. At a certain point I had to paint and chat at the same time which didn't work for some people as I had my back to them, an interesting tug on my attention ensued. 
I haven't been getting the direct sun till almost to the end of the market and I would like to try and have these paintings look more dappled sunlight. This will be my goal for the next couple of market still life setups, however I find it hard to invent this though.

There was a time past that I would meditate in the mornings and then have my coffee. This is my latest antique purchase, the coffee grinder. I was hoping it would be workable but I'm told I may not get espresso out of it, but french press would work for me too. The little blue cup and saucer was something I grew up with, an heirloom from my fathers family. I've always loved it's translucent blue hue. The buddha I purchased at an auction many years ago. I had thought I'd do a layout that went from front to back.