Brand yourself! An artist should be known for a particular style of painting. Even the image of the artist should be consistent in all social media. Every thing an artist says and does should build her brand. OK, I've been told this many times by Eric Rhoads, FASO, and recently on Leslie Saeta's blog spot radio show, Artists Helping Artists. I have been pondering this for over a year and cannot identify that special something that sets me apart.

My FASO web site has concentrated on my soft pastel paintings that are primarily landscape and still life. Soft pastel is absolutely my favorite medium. I love it. But even within this one medium, I am always experimenting. See what I mean?

If I were to do justice to all of my artistic endeavors, I would need at least four web sites. This is why I say I have a split personality. I'm Sue and Suzy and I think there may be a Susanna and someone else inside.

I started off in oil painting and frequently I feel the urge to spread large amounts of oil paint on a panel or canvas.

Recently a friend tried oil pastels and of course, I have some at home so I had to use them. Oil pastel is very different from soft pastel but it was fun.

Yesterday I did a gouache under painting for a pastel painting and wiped up the palette with tissue paper. Wow, what a great design! So, a non-representational mixed media collage is in my future.

A friend of mine writes (paints) icons. I was reading about the nature of icons and the way they are prayerfully created. I am fascinated and now, I want to learn how to paint icons!

Clearly, I'm a schizophrenic artist. Non-representational mixed media art and icons are about as different as it gets. Having said this, I have to admit that I have eliminated water color and colored pencil art. I am too much of a control freak for water color and I lack the patience for colored pencil.

The problem (or joy) is that I love the journey or the process of making art in all of its many forms. The destination is not as important to me as the experience. Don't get me wrong. I always try to do my best to create something interesting and beautiful, but if it doesn't work out, Oh well. The paper or canvas can probably be reused. If it can't be re-purposed, there is always the garbage can. And, I have a close relationship with many online art stores.

So, I do not have a brand and probably never will. I'm told this is not a good approach to sales. The galleries certainly do not know what to do with me. No one will confidently say that this is a Sue Flanagan pastel painting but it is.

Life is short. Art is my second career and I am going to follow wherever the Spirit leads me. I'm so fortunate that I get to do what I love to do every single day. I wish everyone could.

Yesterday, we started with quick gesture drawings in a morning figure drawing session at the Center in Palos Park, IL. Our model was my beautiful niece, Grace. She assumed some difficult poses for 1-2 min. as we quickly tried to record the essence of that pose. Grace is a life guard and athlete so she simulated the position just prior to jumping into the water for a rescue or an athletic stretch. Then I went over some basics about facial and figure proportions before two longer (45 min.) poses.

I just worked with Conte Crayons on gray Strathmore paper. Clearly, I am out of practice drawing the figure. This does not look like Grace. I have been doing too many trees and shrubs.

Speaking of nature, this is my office today, the Orland Grasslands. It is sunny, in the 70's at 7:30 a.m. with a gentle breeze and the sound of birds and insects mixed in with traffic sounds from a nearby highway. Occasionally a hiker or biker goes by on the path.

And, now I am done with my conference call with nature.

Time for a coffee break. I am done for today because the temperature is supposed to climb with the humidity.

"Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it."  Russell Baker

This is our last day in Michigan and I just had a couple of hours to paint one more scene. My goal was a farm building but as always, open to anything that inspires me. I came across this field of freshly mowed hay that was very attractive. I turned the corner to get my car out of the way and found my inspiration.

I opened the hatch back and set up my easel right next to the car. Again, something was biting my ankles!

As I was painting, Steve, the owner of the Christmas Tree nursery stopped by. As it turned out, his house was behind me and he invited me to paint on his property. He really like his nursery painting and wanted to see it when it was done. See my blog of 8/2/15 for that story. This is the final painting of the Hay Rolls.

This was done on a 9 x 12 in. piece of Colourfix pastel paper which is the red color of the main farm building. I wanted this red to show through most of the painting for exciting greens and to serve as the foundation for the buildings. What a great week this was! This is certainly "pure" Michigan. We went home with 100 lbs of fresh blueberries.

I'm back to Beeline road along the bike path. This is an intimate scene. Again, I parked along the road, close to the bike path.

I had a thick layer of insect repellent on me but something was viciously biting my ankles! In all other aspects, it was another glorious morning.

I have one more day to do a quick one. I think a barn is inspiring me but, you never know. That could change in an instant.

I decided a beach or dunes scene was in order so I went to Oval Beach on Lake Michigan. It was sunny and warm when I got there early in the morning. Unfortunately, there was 20 mph winds so the sand blasted your skin. The waves were about 3 feet in height. Except for the sea gulls, I had the beach to myself.

The only way to get out of the sand blasting was to hide behind a large dune and set up my easel under the shade of a tree. Fortunately, a small patch of grass in the sand was inspiring.

I wish I could show you a beautiful painting but I was not satisfied with the way I painted that glow on the grass and that was what made this scene beautiful. I kept the painting and maybe I will be able to do something with it in the studio. Some days are like this when you just can't capture the scene. I'm blaming the weather. Later in the day the beach became crowded with swimmers and people flying kites. They were having a great time using the wind and waves to their advantage. I took a lot of photos that day.

Not far from the Christmas trees was another field that interested me because the field had many different colors. This is Paul's field, my inspiration.

Of course, I have my Michigan Cherry coffee and make my thumbnail sketch. The only problem with the last two locations is that there is quite a bit of traffic on 65th street.

It is sunny, cool and very pleasant. I'm in a shaded spot. I stick with complimentary colors for the under painting.

Time is running out because I am getting dappled light on the easel and I am loosing the foreground shadow. Soon I will need the umbrella.

Here is the final painting.

Maybe I will head to Oval Beach on Lake Michigan. In the mood for a dunes painting?

The air was so humid that you can see the atmosphere. The forecast was for the temperature to be in the high 80's. So, I headed out on Tuesday at 8:00 a.m., the earliest I can move on vacation. It took 3 minutes to drive to this spot, 10 if you count the stop for my Michigan Cherry coffee. My inspiration was a field and nursery that I saw along the bike path in Michigan. This was before the sprinklers came on.

I found a spot right next to my car and in the shade. Here is the painting when I had to stop because the sun was beginning to come through the trees. I had enough information so that I could tweak it in the studio.

Steve, the owner of the nursery came over to see what I was doing. He told me that he planted these Christmas trees in May. We were looking at 800,000 future Christmas trees. There are many more than that if you look farther to the left. Those are 2 year old trees. Here is the final painting.

I went on another trip, not as far away as last time. We went to Michigan and I had 6 great days of painting the landscape. The scenery along a bike path that goes from Saugatuck, Michigan to Holland was my inspiration. I could park the car and unload my equipment within a few feet. I left early to enjoy the cool part of the day and the early morning light.This was my first inspiration, a field with trees dividing it and wildflowers in the foreground.

Now, what to do with all of the green at this time of year. I like to do a complimentary under painting. Red compliments green and orange compliments blue. So, this is how I start and this is my set up.

This is when people come by and say, "Oh, nice." I have manipulated the pastel with 90% rubbing alcohol so it doesn't take long for this to dry. Then I try to use cool and warm colors for as long as I can before I switch to the greens. Even though I see a lot of different greens, I try to stay with a limited number. Here is the final painting. This is "Beeline and 146th Ave."

Tomorrow I have a field in mind.