Ripening in the Closet.

 

 

"Sweet Memory", 15 x 19, pastel on mat board.

 

Not too long ago I retrived a painting that sat in my closet for a year or more. I put it  there because I knew it needed more work but was not in the mood to finish it. When I came across it behind a few other works in my closet I found myself in the mood to finish it off. Either it ripened or I did sometime during this time lapse.   Lesson....don't throw out or give up on uncompleted paintings.

A New Prospective

 

Twas a Good Summer, 13 x 15, pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes paper.

 

This painting was originally done on 18 x 24 paper. So what happened to the rest of it? Have you ever had a painting where it never felt done and you got so frustrated that you hid it away in the place you called "I'll finish it some day" drawer or closet. Here's a suggestion to try to finally bring it to a close. Take the painting out of the ugh pile and take a mat somewhat smaller then the painting and move it in and out and all around the surface of the canvas to see if cropping gives it the oomph it needs to call it complete. If you don't have the right size mat in your studio then take foam core strips 2,3,4 or more inches wide with the length the same as your canvas in this case 2 ea 18" and 2 ea 24" and create your own mat moving them over the painting. Try it, I'll bet you will be surprised at the results.

 

Trading Spider Solitaire for Easel Time.

 

"Fluorescent Morning", 14 x 20. pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes Touch paper.

 

Just because I haven't been blogging since January 27th doesn't mean I've been idle. My blogging time seems to of been overtaken by teaching and painting, time spent at Timberline Gallery, along with other incidentals like household duties, medical appointments, getting a new roof, traveling . ....well I could go on and on but what's the use we all have this stuff in our lives. For a 75 year old, I seem to have to devote more of my time for a daily rest period (and playing a little spider solitaire on my smart phone). Have to admit, I enjoy that. I can remember a time not so long ago when I spent up to 12 or even more hours a day at my easel enjoying both the agony and the ecstasy of it. But, for this old gal, I haven't been doing so bad. I have been creating. I lined up some of the works I've done since my last blog plus some other large paintings I will reveal at a later date.

 

 

Now about the painting Fluorescent Morning, I used masking tape in the same way as I did on my last post of Jan 27th letting the canvas show thru in some places. I like working on Touch paper. It  has a mild and softer grit then most sanded papers which allows me to blend and be more expressive.  About the painting itself. My inspiration came from the reflection of the blazing sunlight light upon the water of a nearby lake where we take our summer early morning walks.

 

That's it for now. It's my spider solitaire time calling.

Friskett And Alcohol - What does That Have To Do With pastel painting?

 

 

"Last Summer", 15 x 19, pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes Art Board.

 

 

I borrowed the concept of using frisket from my watercolor days. Before starting out on this pastel painting, The first thing I did was to cut out freehand shapes from ordinary masking tape and arranged them into what looked like an interesting placement on my canvas, one that helped to create and establish the composition and flow I wanted to achieve. In this case a loose x composition. My first layer of pastels were done in complimentary colors. I used my color wheel for this part.

 

Complimentary colors I used in this painting.

 

 

Detail of some of the places where I placed masking tape. Others not shown.

 

Once my complimentary colors loosely covered the paper, I did an alcohol wash using rubbing alcohol. I heard of one artist who used vodka ( a little for the painting, a little for her or maybe more) on second thought maybe not a bad idea. Then I proceeded on with the regular colors. Somewhere about three fourths of the way, I very gently removed the making tape as it has a tendency to pull the paper layer off with it. You want to preserve the integrity of the canvas below as it had an acid free coating on it for the preservation of the paper. Once done, I decided I liked the effect it created so I didn't apply any pastel over it. Now I proceeded to finish the painting. Btw, I felt like drinking some alcohol at times as I battled through this one.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 





New Years Resolutions and Catching Up

 

January Day Dream, 16 x 20, pastel on Pastelbord

 

This is my first completed painting of the new year. Lets see, if I recall I started it last summer for demonstrating on at my home studio during Sierra Art Trails open studio event here in the foothills of Yosemite. After Art Trails, I lost interest and put it aside. After my class started up again a couple weeks later in October I assigned my students to paint it and they did a great job. I didn't continue on with my painting because I was turned off by it and had no interest in continuing on with it at this time in fact I turned it over and leaned it against a wall in my studio. I got minor pangs of guilt whenever I noticed it. Something in me felt like it was an uncompleted goal. I felt disappointed in myself but I didn't feel guilty enough. OK now it's the new year what with setting goals, resolutions and all that. I didn't make any, never do anymore. But I did feel that this painting's time had come. With fresh resolve I turned the canvas over and ughhh didn't like my beginning, too dark a pallet, "I know" I said to myself, I'll start over or go over this dark and unappealing beginning with a light and bright version. Since it was Pastelbord I was working on, no problem, the new layer of pastels took over. I had completely covered over the first layer and feeling better about the painting it seemed to go non stop until I finished it a few days later.

 

Here are my new works done since my last blog completed mostly from their beginnings as demonstrations for my class.

 

 

 

"Stormy Sky Over Oakhurst, 11 x 14, pastel on Pastelbord.

 

"Scintillation at Hubba Creek, 9 x 11,

pastel on Pastelbord.

 

 

"Pastel Juices Flow, 9 x 12, pastel on Wallis Museum paper.

 

 

 

"Sidebar Dance, 8 x 10, pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes Art Board.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



The Possibilites of Using two pastel sticks

"Shadow Intrigue" 8 x 11, pastel on Canson Mi-Tientes paper.
(Painting done with a limited pallet but with more than two sticks, see below for two stick paintings).

 

Yipppeeee I am able to post a blog after a frustrating time getting my images to upload so I have some catching up to do. Class is well under way. We have been studying values and gradations of pastels by limitting our pallets to two sticks in order to see how many values can be created under such limiting circumstances and how we can acheive these values by the amount of pressure we put on our pastels. I used my fingers, kneadable eraser, pipe insulation and cortillan pencil among other blending tools to acheive the various values and color blends.

 Limited pallet paintings from my demos in class 

 

 

Limited Pallet, 8 x 11, pastel on Canson Mi-Tientes paper.

For this painting I chose pink and blue.

 

 

At The Edge, 8 x 11, pastel on Canson Mi-Tientes paper.

For this complimentary themed painting, I chose a  violet and yellow stick.

 

Untuitled, 8 x 11, pastel on Canson Mi-Tientes paper. For this painting, I used black and coral.

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

That Old Excitment

 

"After The Rain", 8 x 10, pastel on Pastelbord

 

Well its a while after Sierra Art Trails open studio event. It was quite successful and enjoyable. As an artist getting on in years, I have cut back on participating in art events and traveling like I once did. I was represented in galleries throughout the west and had an active full calendar with shows, workshops and demonstrations. Nowadays I no longer show in galleries except at Timberline Gallery http://www.timberlineartgallery.com/ in the lovely town of Oakhurst some few miles outside the southern entrance to Yosemite National Park. Don't get me wrong, I love where I live and while I don't do as much as I once did, I get tremendous fulfillment living where I do. I have my home gallery and studio where I teach classes and private lessons. I enter into a few local art exhibitions every year and love that and I have Sierra Art Trails every year in October. I have to admit I get a twinge for the more active life as an artist so when Sierra Art Trails http://www.sierraarttrails.org/ comes along I feel that excitement. I love meeting the people and talking about art not to mention the motivation it gives me. It recharges my batteries and spurns me on in my creating journey. I love being and artist. I love my career. How many people can say that about what they do? My time clock runs 24/7.

 

Just a few days ago I painted "After The Rain" and posted it on Facebook when a day or so later actually it was sometime in the early morning hours I was awaken by a dream or thought that came to me ....You have already done a painting called "After The Rain". Oh well, now I have two. Here's the first one.

 

"After The Rain", 11 x 15, pastel on sanded paper.