Last year I started a group called “Working Creatives” for people working in the creative fields (as opposed to people pursuing their creative passion or hobby). Many creatively employed people work in vacuums with little day to day contact with the outside world! This group brings together working photographers, graphic designers, film makers, commercial artists, illustrators, etc. about once a month to see new products & ideas, network and socialize.  There are almost 100 people on the list with 10-25 coming out for the meetings. It’s a bit of extra work for me but fun and well worth the effort.Tonight is a semi-social event – a “show and tell” where members show off some new work. It’s a good opportunity to test some creative ideas, get inspired and force yourself (as I found!) to produce something new and different.In the fall I bought some fabulous new software – Corel Painter – that I want to use to produce some of my work at Chelsea Gallery. I was inspired by Claudia Salguero‘s Painter work and the work of other Corel Painter Masters. However, I have not really explored the software until tonight’s Working Creatives deadline started looming.I transformed a fond self portrait canoe photo that I shot years ago and used that as a basis for my Painter work – see the results below. I am happy with my first attempt and want to develop my Painter skills from here!