Reminder - Nifty Gifts opens this weekend!

Just wanted to put in another reminder to visit High Road Gallery and the Nifty Gifts sale. I have 32 pieces of original art for sale, mostly small pastels and a few oils. The gallery is packed full of lots of interesting gifts from many artists! I hope you'll stop by and check it out!

Great pricing on original art!

Open daily all week, from Sunday the 2nd through Saturday the 8th. 

Open late on Tues/Thursday til 7pm.

Last Painting before Back to Work

I wanted to get one more painting in before my mini-vacation was over today and I go back to my full-time job. I decided to do an oil painting and painted a bit bigger than my normal size. This panel was already a wipe out from a failed painting so I thought I'd see if I could paint a keeper. My Bosc pears were on their last legs so I took several photos to get a composition I liked.

I seem to be able to only paint very realistic paintings in oil. Guess I should just go with it! Here are my process shots:

Triple Pears, 11" x 14", oil on canvas panel

Saturday Studio at the MAC

I painted with my group today in our winter painting quarters at the MAC. Because it was a holiday week, we only had 6 people show up to paint. I took my new pastel setup and it worked great!

I was using a photograph as a reference, but only for a starting point. My final paintings look nothing like the photo. I was using the textured surface, but these don't show it quite as much.

The one below, I was attempting to make it more 'blocky' and a bit more abstract. And the texture was more evident on this one.

More Texture

More texture pastel paintings. Might get the oils out later this weekend.

Studio Work - Bosc Pear and Pastels

I spent most of the morning in the studio. First, I worked on a painting of a Bosc pear. This was painted on the pumice gel surface. The texture wasn't as evident as some of the other paintings, but I am happy how this turned out.

'Bosc Pear', 8 x 10, pastel on pumice gel surface

I also spent much time organizing my pastel collection so that I could fill my new Heilman carrier. I now can see what additional colors I need to fill-in this collection. This box will never look this clean again!

As I did this, I realized I had a big pile of pastels I never used, so I set those aside to make it easier to find the sticks I preferred. (the photo below shows all my other pastels before I removed those unused pastels and it is very apparent that the whole sticks below are those!).

I also wanted to give a suggestion to pastel users. I like to get the cheap microfiber cleaning cloths from the dollar store to use while I am painting. They are great for wiping the dust from both fingers and pastel sticks. They wash up really easily in the sink with dish soap.

Studio Saturday - Textured Trees

I took the coming week off work to have extra time to play in the studio. I've been looking for a stable, lightweight, thin paper for the application of Golden fine pumice gel for my pastels. I might have found a good surface. I am experimenting using gloss photo printer paper. I have a printer at home, but rarely use it and when I do, it inevitably is either out of ink or the cartridges are clogged and dried out because it has been so long since I printed last. I had several different brands of glossy photo paper that wasn't being used, so I figured since it was meant for a wet application from the ink, it might work for the gel.

Here are a few pieces I worked on this morning, and I am pleased with the results. My texture is apparent and the surface didn't buckle from the gel.

The following are two tiny pieces which I mounted in some small frames that had some nice mats which I found at the thrift store. These were painted as companions, but they work well enough singularly. These will probably be in the Nifty Gifts under Fifty sale in a couple weeks.

Back to Texture

I'm still playing around with texture on my surface for pastels. Golden Fine Pumice Gel is still my favorite. This piece was done on Art Spectrum Colourfix paper which didn't have the tooth I liked, so I coated it with the pumice gel. You may see this composition many times, as I want to focus on color harmony and application for awhile, and will use this design for that.

New Toy!

Finally, after saving my pennies for months, my new Heilman pastel easel arrived today at work! Beautiful workmanship. It will never look this clean again! (I didn't even bother to clean off my desk before taking the pictures with my cellphone....)

Nifty Gifts Under $50

Mark your calendar to attend this sale! Lots of great artwork at great prices (including some of my pastels).

Saturday Class - Still Life, Fruit with Vessel

Today we painted a still life with a grisaille underpainting. Most of my work while at the class was taking my time with the underpainting. I need to learn to slow down.

I got the orange mostly done, and part of the apple, but my teacher helped a bit with the apple. This evening, I finished the rest at home. In my photo, there is a bit of glare on the vessel, (top middle left), but the rest is pretty true.

"Fruit with Vessel", oil, 8x10, stretched canvas