The artist in me craves to start over again. But being a mother and part of a family makes this comeback daunting and neigh impossible.
But the lust for painting/creating unsettles me at times.
I miss this. Someday i hope to go back. Give me time.

Looking for some inspiration

By learning to see the objective world, we can then

     transfer our newfound visual skills to create our artwork - to see its

    "formal" values - composition, color relationships, spatial properties,

  etc. And ultimately, we use our new visual skills to see the inner 

world, the world of ideas, feelings, etc.

http://www.ndoylefineart.com/pastel.html

http://www.ndoylefineart.com/discouraged.html

'Composition' , 'Subject-matter' and 'Simplicity of the frame'. Forms/patterns which standout and yet enable to relate to the real life frame depicted on the painting make the image more realistic and yet easy to do.  All need to be there in the dynamic subject you pic if you want it to speak to the viewer in person and deceive him into thinking it is realistic while yet it lacks in details. Impressionist. Basing on previous common, popular impressions and drawing from the imagery that is familiar in form/color/simplicity/composition to invoke the remembered feelings into your image with less effort thereby avoiding painstaking detailed reproduction.
Correctly choosing all these components matters in elevating the painting to a next level.

to read up...

http://www.artshow.com/resources/pastels.html

Inspiration

http://www.ongkimseng.com/works/works.htm
Ong kim Seng Water colorist

Really liked what he had to say :

"I have to feel a place before I paint it. If I have good feelings
for a scene - just as I may have good feelings for someone
I meet - I know I'll have the will to paint it well. For me, and
for all painters, I believe, inspiration comes naturally when
there's a link between the artist and his subject."

His work i liked :

Another good site for Milind's works

http://www.milindmulick.com/gallery/figurative/

Inglorious Basterds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt_E6RjH0CY

Good refreshing simple style of oil painting to watch , bless the painter!

her blog : http://karinjurick.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3IMpdsMsBo

sample painting of hers i liked :

The below painting could have been made in this style  the subject matches with this but from indian context.

This is a scene from Jodhpur Mehrangarh fort.