Happy new year! My life is regaining a sense of routine after the hectic (but great fun) holidays. Whew. I’m happy to be home in the beautiful Methow and back in my studio! So it’s been about a month since I last painted and I’m excited to get back to my series of Antarctic paintings. A few are already completed, but my goal is finish a number more in time for Polar Science Weekend at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle during the last weekend of February. Yesterday I sorted through my reference materials (photos and sketches) played with compositions and color. Exploring color is a particularly fun way to warm up after time away from the studio- I’m in love with mixing Daniel Smith’s Deep Scarlet (D.S.), Quinacridone Gold (Q.G.), and Indathrone blue (I.B.) and the following show some of my experimentations with warm and cool colors.