Huntington House by Southern California Artist Marian Fortunati

Huntington House © Marian Fortunati 9" x 12" Oil on RayMar Linen Panel

ANOTHER PAINTING FOR THE SAN FERNANDO SHOW
I'm still trying to develop interesting paintings for the 100 Year Celebration of San Fernando's "birth".   The show will be called Rediscovering San Fernando.  It will open in January and run through March.

When I was wandering around the city early in my explorations, I found a really interesting upscale neighborhood.  It was a surprise to me because my earlier assumptions were that this was an old city with old homes.  I found this terrific sycamore tree that I wanted to paint in front of one of the houses.  It was twisted and bent like sycamores so often are.

The gallery director/curator had suggested creating smaller format paintings which seemed like a great idea to me.  I started with a 9"x12" and really struggled with trying to get this painting looking the way I had envisioned it when I first started painting.  I just couldn't get the tree to look like a tree.   The bark was wrong, the foliage wasn't right... The shadows didn't "read".  In frustration I emailed her that I might not have too many paintings to submit for this show.   She said, that was fine... she'd still like me to try to keep on painting.  Perhaps I could complete a few.

I finally stopped working on this painting and decided to let it sit for a while.  I painted other work.  When I went back to the "sycamore house" a few days later and after painting on other paintings, I think I was able to make it look the way I want it to.  More paintings are on the way, too!

THE NEW FASO STATS..
On another note... I have been following the new stats that my website tech people are going to be using exclusively in the new year.  I didn't like them at all at first, but since the change-over was a done deal, I decided to experiment with them.   I have managed to put the stats into a familiar and easy to read bar graph form.   I have identified my own ISP and eliminated it from the stats so I'm not counting myself.  I identified my Dad's ISP and labeled it so I know when he looks at my blog.  We had been told that we could "tag" and "name" ISPs.  I probably wouldn't be able to do that with anyone but my Dad, but it IS an interesting feature.  All in all I've come to terms with the new stats and find that with my changes, the good is at least equal to the old stats... perhaps even better.   I also realize that it really really doesn't matter, but it is fun to see how many people visit my website and what they were looking for or what the keywords were that brought them there.   Obviously only better painting will make any difference that is important... but I might as well enjoy the journey as I continue to paint and enjoy this art journey of mine.