Pastel - Two Pears and Apple

Today with the painting group, I got my pastels out and did this small painting. It's been awhile since I used my pastels and I still enjoy them. So much easier than oils!

 

 Two Pears and Apple, 5 x 7, soft pastels on suede mat board

Oil Paintings - Mushrooms and Bananas

I did these two little 5 x 7 oils on canvas boards yesterday at the group painting session. I tried using a palette knife for the first time with the first painting. It was difficult at first, but finally I figured it out. I like this one quite a bit.

'Cobalt and Chiquita', 5 x 7, oil on canvas board

Then I did another using my brushes.

"Mushrooms", 5 x 7, oil on canvas panel

I prefer to work fairly fast, so these small canvases were perfect. I added only a few more details today.

Oil Painting - Onions

Glad to be back at our Saturday group painting at the art center. We missed last week because of the snow storms.

Here's my work from this morning and pics showing the subject and some of the people in the group. I'm fairly happy with this painting. I was having difficulty with the left front onion - painting it several times. One of the guys helped me get it to this stage.

Oh! I am using a different panel today. On one of the many artist blogs which I read, Marc Hanson said he liked using Museum board with two coats of clear shellac. This is what I used today and I really like the feel of it, Most recently, I have been using mat board coated with several coats of gesso. I like the shellac much better. I used spray shellac and didn't have to sand it. I sure hate the smell though! And with the weather being so cold, its not really the right conditions to be preparing these in the garage. Hopefully before I use up the other three prepared panels, the temperature will warm up a bit more so I can make some more.

Oil Painting - Sedona Stream

Saturday, the group met to paint together. I took along this picture from 2005 taken in Sedona - I think this is near Cathedral Rock? I started this at home with a very warm underpainting. Sometimes I really like the abstractness of my underpaintings more than the final painting!

Below is what I accomplished in 2 hours with the group.

 

And this is with the final touches, added this week:

 'Sedona Stream', 8 x 10, oil