Autumn Color Infusion

Autumn Chic at Heron Lake, 8 x 10, pastel on pastelbord

My easel time lately has been shortened lately because of home repairs, holidays, travel and class starting up once again. My walks around Heron Lake have shortened along with easel time but I still manage to walk around the lake a couple days a week. I couldn't help but get inspired by this year's display of autumn fireworks. Explosions were going off in my head with each turn of the path revealing yet another breathtaking scene.

I love the fresh crisp and brisk air and a carpet of leaves neath my feet. I love my studio facelift. The color is called tea green. Hope you like it.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Face Lift and An Uplift - New Beginnings

All artists need changes. We can become stagnant, stuck in a place we need to get out of. I'm out of my comfort zone now as the new paint goes on in my studio. I'm really nervous and excited much like starting a new painting. I can feel the juices flowing but can I capture on canvas what I feel inside? I must listen to the positive voice of my muse that tells me I that I can do this and do it beautifully. I have to be true to me and listen to my instinct while muting out the other negative voices that like to chime in as a chorus from time to time. Am I talking about painting my studio or starting a new painting? Once the painting is finished and I have the newly painted bare walls staring at me isn't it like looking a blank canvas? 

"It Started With Green" 16 x 20 pastel on linen mat board

"It Started With Pink", 9 x 12, pastel on sanded paper

Reconnecting With Home and Easel

Zion National Park

Recently my husband and I returned from a ten day vacation road trip to Zion National Park. I vaguely remembered the place from when we took our children there some 40 years ago. It was beautiful and inspiring. I was not a professional artist at the time. I noticed that I was seeing it now with a different pair of eyes, the artist's eyes. I was awestruck with the colors , light, shapes and patterns. I was consumed with its beauty and while still fresh in my mind, I wanted to start a large format painting which I did . It seems to me that the older I get, the harder it gets adjusting back to home life routine after being away and I came down with a bladder infection to boot, but nevertheless I did start the work.  I'm looking forward to its completion. Doesn't look like much now. Here it is.

Zion, Work in Progress

The support for this painting is a BFK Reeves white paper. I applied Golden Acrylic Ground for Pastels which I tinted with orange acrylic paint. At this stage (first layer) I'm applying mostly Dick Blick pastels. Here is the reference photo for the scene.

It's good and comforting to be home again. I'm enjoying the beauty of where I live and it feels good to reconnect with the easel and home.



The Smells of Nature and A Piece of Sand Paper.

"Summer Morning Tahoe Basin", 12 x 16, Pastel on Canson Paper

I love the wilderness. I love lands unencumbered by man made structures. I get a feeling of connectedness to my spirit within. I am at peace, I am joyful, I am exhilarated.  I love being there, the smells, the sounds of nature abound. I am at home. 

I try to paint these feelings into work ( if you call it work). In the creative process of this painting it came to me to try a technique I enjoy doing from time to time. In this case I took a small piece of sand paper and selected a pastel of a color I wanted to gently integrate into part of the painting. I stroked the pastel stick on the sand paper to get the loose fragments. Then I laid the painting on a table, took a watercolor brush and the sand paper and gently brushed these fragments onto the painting.

In this case I chose a warm peach/pink pastel to integrate into the piece. To fix it in place so the fragments wouldn't fall off when I lifted the painting, I very gently sprayed the fixative down onto it holding the spray can about a foot above it. I allowed it to dry for some minutes before putting the work back on the easel to continue on with the painting.



Wild Lands Wild Painting

"Chamisa Essence", 18 x 24, Pastel on Pastelbord

Our wild lands are free, unabashed, driven by nature. I always feel it bit intrusive when I'm in them, feel like treading where I shouldn't be but feel blessed and touched by a spiritual wand while I'm there. Wild lands have always appealed to me. When I'm there it's like going to my spiritual home. I try to capture the beauty I see there and how I feel when I express myself through my art. This painting was inspired by a scene from the Lake Tahoe Conservancy Land.

 Sierra Art Trails ttp://www.sierraarttrails.org/index.html announced that they will have a national exhibition in November called "Our Wild Lands". I hope I get accepted. This is one of two paintings I'm entering for the show.  

The Praying Mantis and Me

I had a spiritual connection with a praying mantis a couple of weeks ago. I was at our rec center pool where my husband and I go to water aerobics class. I put my towel down on a table and noticed a white/straw colored (maybe she was albino) praying mantis sitting at the edge of the table looking, staring deeply at me. She looked right into my eyes. I felt an instant communication between the two of us. What was being communicated I did not know, but I know some exchange had taken place between us. At the end of class, I went to shower off and when I walked out of the shower/bathroom I felt my head itching. I reached up to scratch when whoooops....out jumped the mantis. She landed on the cement deck then hopped away. Very strange I thought. I went up to a very wonderful and spiritual artist friend who is also in the class. I told her of my experience with the mantis. She explained that the mantis seeing my hair color as the same as her eggs( I don't have green hair, the mantis pictured here is not the one I had the encounter with) thought it to be a good place to which to plant her eggs and that it is to be taken as a good sign for she entrusted in me the  care of her precious creations and contribution to life. It is said that when one looks into the eyes of a praying mantis one feels the presence of god and this is exactly what I felt. Needless to say, she did not leave her eggs in my hair but I felt as if I had been touched by a higher essence. I felt blessed. Just remembering the incident sends chills of a good kind through me. OK so are words necessary for spiritual or divine connectivity? Does instinct that goes against all logical reason have a purpose? Does our creativity have to follow accepted/approved guide lines? What are your thoughts on this please.... ?  



Feelings, Memories and Emotion in The Painting

"Chamisa on High", 12 x 16, Pastel on Canson Mi-Tientes paper.

Recently, we had a family reunion in Lake Tahoe, California with our children and grand children to celebrate my husband's 75th birthday. During my time there I drank in the beauty and joy from being in such a beautiful place with my beautiful family. I brought these feelings home with me plus around 200 photos to spark my memory for I knew then I would paint a series of works focused on this place and time. I incorporated my feelings not only of the beauty of the land but also the joy of being with my family into these paintings. When I look at the completed ones now, I feel an over whelming sense of peace and serenity.  Stay tuned for the second in the series.