I was not going to post this painting until it was 100% finished but, here it is anyways. Pretty much complete except for adding more flowers in the grass and final touches here and there.

Lately I have noticed a pretty good jump in traffic to this site so I wanted to say hello to all of my new visitors. Maybe you found me in Poets and Artists Magazine or possibly some of you have wandered over from the Distillery Open Studios site. In any case, it is always nice to have new visitors.

Since the last one was so well received, I have been working on another sunbather painting. This has been a slow and steady process because of the amount of canvas to cover but it is really starting to come together. I hope to have it all finished up in time for open studios on Sunday June 6th.

So, this is my 100th blog post on NickWardOnline. It has taken forever since I have only posted updates as new paintings develop or I manage to weasel my way into interesting events or shows but here we are at the big 100th post.

To celebrate I am going to make a new print to give away to anyone who reads my site, here or on Facebook notes.

So, it will be a multi-color hand pulled screen print but, the choice of image is yours.

1. another print based on one of the make-up girls paintings.
2. a print based on one of the sunbather girls.
3. an entirely new print, a sneak peak into the next series.

Anyone who wants can leave a comment on my site or on Facebook, or email me with your vote for image choice.

After that, anyone who reads these posts that wants a print can just send me an email letting me know that they want a copy of the print. I will give everyone a few weeks or maybe a month to respond to make sure nobody gets left out, then I will make a run of prints. Then, I will send everyone a hand pulled limited edition screen print.

I put the finishing touches on the last sunbather painting and hung it in the gallery for the Studio 11 retrospective show. It looks great hanging above the old church pew in the back of the gallery and I am pretty excited to see the entire show, once the rest of the work goes up. Should be a good mix of artists from Studio 11′s past so, be sure to come by Thursday night between 6 and 9 pm for the opening.

With the last piece finished I started another sunbather painting. I have barely even started painting it and I am already excited to see it completed. Here is a quick camera phone shot of what I have gotten done so far:

I am taking a break from all the make up paintings and portraits and starting a new series of works. I am trying to take what I have learned studying faces and apply it to the entire figure. Here is a progress shot of the first of these paintings:

And a little more detail:

While working on this painting I have taken photographs along the way and posted them to my Twitter account. So if you want to see the full development of this piece, head on over there. More too come as this painting continues towards completion.