Featured Artist

Essex 11x14 soft pastel

 

 

12x16 soft pastel

 

I am the featured artist at the Pelham NH library for the month of August and I have 18 pastel paintings on display.  The Library staff were so friendly and helpful with the hanging, they were a pleasure to work with.  Tomorrow is their arts and blues festival from 10 to 1.

Marsh Magic

Marsh Magic #3

6x6 pastel on Pastel Premier

 

I took a workshop with Ed Chsnovitch and have been playing with color ever since.  This started out as a complementary underpainting but I was having so much fun I kept going with the warms.

 

I plan to use the same reference (this was from Small Point, Me.) and play around with different colorways.  Next I will start like this one but continue on with complementary local colors.  We will see!

 

My studio is about 3/4 of the way finished. I set up my large Dakota box as a studio box and ordered a new set of Senneliers and large paper to celebrate.

 

Peonies and Citrus

 

Peonies and Citrus

11x14 oil on panel

Catching the Light

 

Catching the Light

10x10 oil on panel

 

I love the way the light hit the side of this vase and just the edge of the hydrangeas.  I have been experimenting lately and just plain having fun.  For this I used a ground of cad red and neomeglip as a medium.  I like them both.

Peaches and Hydrangeas

6x6 oil on panel

 

I have been spending my painting time experimenting, playing around and trying something different. This study was done with neo meglip as a medium on an oil primed ground toned with cad red.

Playing with Cad Red

Wearing Red

6x6 oil on panel

 

I wanted to try something different, to experiment.  I've often toned my panel with earth orange, this time I tried Cadmium Red. I liked the way this turned out and I know I will try it again.

Demo at GSAA

On Thursday I did a demo for GSAA. I explained that my paintings proceed in three steps.  The first is planning and design and involves taking my own reference photos, creating thumbnails using three values. I use a golden section grid and rearrange objects to suit my composition, I then transfer the idea to a mounted pastel paper limiting my design to five basic shapes.  All of this was done before the demo. Next I chose hard pastels for my under painting paying attention to values with cools in the background and warmer in the foreground. This was quickly washed with alcohol to create a toned surface. I love having some of the deep red violets peek through the green. I then quickly added layers of pastel to suggest the scene without being too literal. When I start to feel the tendency to overwork I stop and take a break to observe and make some decisions. This is how the painting looked at the end of my demo.

Back on my easel I put the reference photo away and made some observations:
                                 

• Add some bright golds to the foreground field to invite the eye in. Some of these should overlap the next layer to create depth.
•  Soften the back layer of trees to break the barrier to the mountain and add variety to this edge.
• Make the right hand distance tree more dominant and minimize the left so they don't compete for attention.
• Adjust the brush to allow access to the field.
• Reshape the front and center bush and adjust the other two so they do not mimic the first.
•  Add wild flowers in the field to pull the eye in. Add blue violets in the foreground just for fun.

This is how the painting looks after this step:

Just a few more corrections needed:

• Soften the ridge line to the left of the left tree
• Break up the rows on the left
• Make the large tree even more dominant