Pastel - Apples with Cinnamon Tea

Yesterday, I took another class at Sunbear Studio in pastels. Our work for the day was to learn about different color relationships using our color wheel. For the morning session, we were to take our reference photo and turn it upside down while we worked. This was so that we saw shapes instead of objects. I have worked this way before, and do like to work this way. The other students were skeptical, but delighted when they saw their finished work right side up.

In the pastel below, I used a split complimentary color scheme. To add to the confusion, as an underpainting, I was to use the 'complimentary' - split complimentary of the original three colors... Yikes! It made my head hurt to work this way, but it was pretty fun. Love how it turned out in the end. It really seems to give the final painting alot of life.

I'm still working on this series in preparation for the art league exhibit in September where the theme is 'applesauce'. I plan on doing one more with a slightly different setup in oils before I decide which one to enter.

"Apples with Spice Tea" , 9 x12, soft pastel on UArt sanded paper.

In the version below, we were to take the painting we created in the morning, turn that upside down and use that instead of our photo to create a new painting in a different color scheme. I decided to use a analogous color scheme on the cool side of the color wheel. Underneath, I had to use the complimentary colors of what I wanted on each shape in the end. VERY confusing...
I did end up using a few colors that were not side by side on the color wheel, but I like how it turned out. I think these techniques are very useful and will try to use these again, especially in my pastel work.

"Analogous Apples", 11 x14, soft pastel on UArt sanded paper.

Alla Prima - Fresh Fruit

Last night in class, we painted 'alla prima' from fresh fruit. We were attempting to do '40 stroke' small scale paintings. I didn't count my strokes, but I really had fun with these. Lots of thick thick paint without using any mediums or solvents.... FUN.. I'll try this again.

Oil Painting - Dragonfly Camp, in process 2

Dragonfly Day Camp - in process...

Last night I attempted to work on my current oil painting. The last two weeks in class, we have had other assignments, so I haven't had time to work on this. I scanned this and the glare from the gloss of the paint made it hard to capture correctly.

I like my distant tree line, but feel like I am blending too much on the rest of the painting. I think my main trees on the left need alot more work. Can you tell that is a path leading to a pond, or does it all look like water?

I'll get suggestions from my teacher tonight. This is the last night of class. Trying to decide whether to take another session with him. Love the class, but its pretty pricey!

Pastel - Cinnamon Apple Tea

Cinnamon Apple Tea, 8 x 8, soft pastel on gessoed matboard

Better luck this afternoon. I am trying to come up with a few paintings with a required 'apple' theme for an upcoming exhibit. This is a favorite teacup and thought about putting an apple nearby. I was playing around with composition, then it dawned on me to pop it inside the cup! Brilliant! It still needed something else..... Cinnamon sticks!!

I painted this on a piece of gessoed matboard. I didn't sand it, so it had a rough texture on it, which I liked using in the past. I prefer this over the commercial sanded pastel papers.

I'm very happy with this, but might try painting this in oils to see which I like better.

P.S. - here's a secret..... I didn't have an apple in the frig today, so used a peach. I hope I was able to fake it ok!

Plein Air Saturday - Everal Homestead

Everal Catalpa, 9" x 12", soft pastels on UArt sanded paper

Today, the plein air group met at Everal Homestead, Heritage Park in Westerville. The day started out cloudy, but soon the sun came out and it was a beautiful day.

This is a great park. You could find hundreds of compositions for paintings here. I took lots of pictures for future paintings.

Here's my painting and my views today. I used the UArt sanded paper with pastels. Still learning....

Pastel - Round Bales

"Hay Bales", 8" x 10", soft pastels on UArt sanded paper

This was the second painting started in yesterday's pastel class. I wanted to add more to it today, but the paper was full and wouldn't allow much more. This was a very quick study, done in less than 45 minutes.

Pastel - Giraffes

"Stand Up Straight!" - soft pastels on UArt sanded paper, approx. 12" x 14"

I took a beginners pastel class today, instead of meeting the group for plein air painting. Meredith Martin of Sunbear Studio, in Center Village Ohio taught the class. I had a great time, although it was super super hot in the studio. Today was a scorcher in Ohio - we've had a fairly cool summer, so today was a bit uncomfortable for me.

Even though I have worked in pastel most of the year, I felt it important to take a beginner's class so that I could learn how other artists use the medium. I did learn quite a few good tips. I hope to take her advanced class in two weeks.

I was able to almost finish two pieces today. I am posting the first here and hopefully will finish the other tomorrow.

This is painted from a calendar photograph, so I really can't claim this as original composition. But I really love how this turned out. We used UArt sanded paper. I haven't been happy using sanded paper in the past, but I hadn't used this brand before. This brand has a finer grit and I think that helped quite a bit.

Oil Painting - Dragonfly Camp, in process 1

I started a new oil painting in my Monday class. This is a view from a photo I took on Saturday at the High Banks Dragonfly Day Camp.

This is the first pass, just getting the composition laid out on the board. I started with scarlet mat board coated with clear gesso. After sanding the gesso, the scarlet became a nice terracotta color. Should be a good base color for a landscape.

Different Strokes Painting - San Francisco

Here's my entry in Karin's DSDF current challenge. I decided to try a quick watercolor. I used Blick Studio Watercolor Paper by Fabriano. I didn't have much luck when I tried this paper several months ago, but thought I'd try it again. I still don't like the texture of it and it seems to buckle even with the paper stretched.

Anyway, here is my painting.

Plein Air Saturday - High Banks Dragonfly Day Camp

The group met at High Banks in the Dragonfly Day Camp area. Nice place, but I only made it there in time to see the finished paintings and take photos for you to see. I was sleeping in after getting home well after midnight, from Day One of my high school class reunion! Last night, was the more structured reunion event that ran even later into the night, and it was a total blast!!! I haven't smiled and laughed that hard in a long time. I have no voice today after trying to talk over the band. I think everyone was really happy how well the event went and how much fun everyone had. And to think, I almost didn't go.....

Portrait In Oils - Updated

Portrait In Oils, 8 x 10, oil on gessoed mat board

Updated Tues AM:
I scanned the image and got a closer representation to the original and replaced the image above.

Last night, my teacher suggested a couple changes - just subtle things you probably wouldn't really notice but he said the piece was very well done. I am really enjoying working in the oil paints... surprise surprise....

Original post:

I finished the portrait in oils that I started a couple weeks ago. I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. To see the reference photo, scroll down a couple posts.

I found this very hard to photograph without getting glare. And after looking at this pic online with a different monitor, I notice that my photo color is way off and is too dark.

I'm looking forward to starting a new painting in class tomorrow that is NOT a portrait!

Plein Air Saturday - Big Run Pk

My plein air group went to Big Run Metro Park today. Not much there except trees, trees, and more trees.....

'Big Run Trees', 8 x 10 pastel on suede mat board