Gloria J Zucaro's " Doing the Marla"

Today I am sharing with you my first three landscapes in a series that I am calling "The Marla".  The reason for the name is the demo I went to at the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS) in Albuquerque a couple of weeks ago.  One of the six demos I attended was by Marla Baggetta who talked about her 100 Variations.  Over a six month period she completed 125 color variations of the same composition.  She used them as a warm-up exercise at the beginning of her day.  She then would go on to do her other studio work.  She said when she finished her hundredth painting she felt a loss, as they were very meditative for her.  So she has actually continued to do more now and then and has done almost 300 by now.  Most of them were in pastel.   She demonstrated two during our demo. They only took her about 15 minutes from start to finish!  Well, I decided I would like to try doing my own series, with no expectations except to do it.  In my first one, the reference picture I chose was too complicated.  So it changed by the second one.  Then today when I did it again, it also changed.  I am hoping to find my favorite one, or may choose a totally different picture.  Here are the three I have done so far.  As you can see in the first one I was quite stiff and traditional.  The second one is a little more fun, and today I was really getting into it.

               Pastel.  It is 11 by 8 because I tore a piece of Canson Mi-Teintes paper in half.

Pastel.  This one I cut down to 10 x 8

This one I measured out the 10 x 8 but left plenty around the edges for a mat.

Which one do you like better?

I am posting this to Paint Party Friday, boy, I have been away a long time!  Check out their site, lots of interesting artwork there.