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My resolution for the year 2017 was to create at least one work in traditional media, for example soft pastel, charcoal, pen and ink, for each week. My goal was to increase the amount of work in my portfolio as well as enhancing my skills through regular practice. I am happy to report that I was able to meet this goal and keep my resolution.

I also found time to work in the mediums of photography and vector design during 2017. An interesting project for me was the raising of black swallowtail butterflies found as caterpillars in my garden and the capturing of their stages of development through a series of photos.

In October I participated in an online challenge called “Inktober” and this led me to begin working with pen and ink for the first time in many years. Creating with India ink allowed me to flex my drawing muscles, so to speak. The black and white images are some of my favorites produced in 2017.

All in all, the year was a productive one for me and I hope to keep the same resolution for 2018. I’ve made a good start already with three new works.

I have recently started working on a series of farm animal pastels. This Highland Cow is inspired my sister's love of Scotland and animals. I think she would love to live on a farm and keep this pretty, long haired breed of cattle. Unfortunately, we live in a city but we do have a small backyard flock of chickens. There are works featuring the chickens in the Birds - Traditional Media gallery on my mmandersonart.com website. I also need to thank my fellow FAA artist, Janice Drew, for providing me with a wonderful reference photograph of a Highland cow.
The next work in this series is of a sweet little goat. You can see it in my gallery of creatures created in traditional media. I am still pondering what to work on next, perhaps a lamb. My goal for 2016 is to finish one traditional media artwork per week in addition to all of my photography and computer graphic work. So far, I have made a good start.

Just last week I had the opportunity to visit Little Pee Dee State Park in Dillon County, SC. Our fall colors may be more subtle than some that you might see in the mountains, but still they are still lovely, especially when illuminated by the evening sun and reflected in the calm lake waters. I've placed several photos in my gallery from that visit. See them here: MM Anderson - Photographs of Little Pee Dee State Park.

I've been on Fine Art America for a couple of weeks now and I'm so happy that I joined. I haven't sold anything yet but the atmosphere at the site is so stimulating between the discussion forums and groups that I feel inspired to work even harder on my art. It is also wonderful to be able to see what other artists are doing. I'm pretty isolated from any "art scene" where I live so this is a good experience for me.

I'm looking forward to a long and happy membership. And hopefully I'll be able to sell something too.