Small pastel studies

 Have you ever been blocked and don't have an idea what to paint? I am sure you have- most creative people go through this from time to time. When I go through, this I either do drawings or small paintings.  I seem to have been a little blocked since the termination of my big  commission so I decided to do a few small pastels. I have not worked that much in pastels recently so I thought a few smallish ones would start the flow of ideas.
    The first one I did was " lemons". One of my students brought them in to paint and I thought they were so colorful and textured. I had a piece of rough textured paper I had prepared and wanted to try it

it was fun doing the lemons but the napkin was more challenging since it had to be smoother and that was more difficult on very textured paper.

My next small piece was an embrasure from a castle in Scotland. i did this one on wallis paper- not usually my favorite but it worked out here.
I have always loved this place and finally decided to do it. I used broad strokes when I did this one, and I was pleased with the result.