Off to market - oil on canvas - 26cm x 16cm by Gerhard Ritter

What do you mean, Gerhard....not a portrait? I understand the feeling of being in a rut, but don't quite understand what you mean here. But yes, I do get the bit about the comfort zone and renewed enthusiasm...the point is, I think, that in order to leave your comfort zone for fields anew, you inevitably expose certain weaknesses.....but all painting, surely, is a learning curve, to be embraced, regardless of the viewer....I say Well done

One day, maybe I'll find my comfort zone - but I agree with you about doing different things, and one of the most important motivators for me is the use of different media. Might make more progress if I stuck to one, but - well, I wouldn't, because I probably wouldn't paint at all..... I've liked all your work that I've seen so far, you go beyond features and find character.

Thanks Ruth and Robert. I've recently been bitten by the watercolour bug and since I'm between conducting oil portrait classes I have been a little lax in doing oil portraits. I'm confident that will soon change and I'll post a few of my more recent attempts. We're in the early stages of winter here and the paint takes a little longer to dry -( I prefer to scan my images rather than photographing them) and I don't like to clean the oil paint off my scanner's platten too often. The watercolours on the other hand dry rapidly with my old hair drier and since I tend to keep them to less than A4 size I can scan those quite easily. (Also it takes a lot less time to paint a watercolour compared to an oil - 45mins to 1hour versus 2 to 3 hours).