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

Saturday Class - Wasting Paint

Frustrating day at painting class. I painted and wiped out the path at least 5 times. The reference photo showed dappled light across the path and grass. I never accomplished that effect. Below is the final painting I did after I came home and worked, reworked and reworked again.... Not a good painting. I really tried to not give up and figure this out, but sometimes you just gotta stop! The version I did while at class,  is shown in the bottom photo.

Premier Exhibit for the new Ohio Pastel Artists League

I've had three pieces accepted into the Ohio Pastel Artists League Premiere show which will open on November 10th at Sunbear Studio in Alexandria Ohio. Awards will be presented on Sunday, Nov. 11 at 1pm in the second floor gallery. The show will hang until December 29th.

Make sure you take some time to see the show! The gallery is the working studio of pastelist, Meredith Martin and she has many artists selling all types of artwork. www.sunbearstudio.com

Saturday Class - Canyonlands

My sister recently camped and biked in Canyonlands National Park and she took some striking photographs. I asked for her permission to use some of these for my paintings. I started this in painting class this morning, and finished it this afternoon. This is oil on the new Arches Oil painting paper. I enjoy using this paper.

Canyonlands View, 9 x 12, Arches Oil Paper

Plein Air Saturday - Lobdell Reserve

My painting class was cancelled today because the room where we hold the class was being used for another event, so I joined my plein air group outside! It was a nippy morning at 42 degrees at 9am, but the sun quickly warmed us up. We met again at Lobdell Reserve. Some of the group was painting at the other area down in the creek bed, but I thought it was too cold to stand in the creek. I walked out in the meadow and found this view of the mowed path. I liked the deep shadows of the grasses on the path. I needed to get started before the sun moved and I lost the shadows.

I recently was lucky to find a used Soltek, Pro model for a good price. I wanted to give it a test drive before the season was over. It worked well! I like it. The Pro is about 4" taller than the standard, which works for a tall person like me.

We had some interesting visitors while we painted. There is a horseman's trail here, so several riders passed by, along with many people walking their dogs, and there was even a nice tabby cat that kept us company!

*Edited Sunday - I adjusted this painting a little bit today in the studio. Below is the final painting and was photographed indoors.

When I was done, I went over to where the others were painting and we did a quick critique. We had a small group today because of the temperature and the distance from home. This is the last scheduled paint-out for the season for us. Many of the group will now meet each Saturday morning at the MAC in Worthington to paint indoors for the winter. I usually hibernate and prefer to work in my jammies in my own studio, instead of getting up early on a weekend on a snowy day!

Plein Air - Revisited

I rarely go back and work on a painting done en plein air, but this one kept begging to be finished. This was originally done at Griggs Park in the end of August.  We are both happy now.

Late Summer, oil, 8 x 10

Saturday Class - Stone Cottage

This is the piece I started in class last Saturday and I've been working on this one several times over this week. I am to the point where it has to be finished, because I am really bored with it. It has lost its freshness.

Stone Cottage, oil, 8 x 10

Saturday Studio - pastel, Umpqua View

Umpqua View, Pastel on Wallis paper

Today was my oil painting class this morning, but I didn't get far enough along to post it here. So instead, here is my latest pastel painting which I finished this afternoon. I started with a thin oil under-painting on Wallis sanded paper. It was looking pretty sad in the middle of the process, but I kept going and I am happy how it turned out.

This was painted from a photo taken by my niece, Andrea, who recently moved to Eugene, Oregon. She gave me permission to use her photo for my reference. Looks like a beautiful place! I hope to visit there sometime.

Class Saturday - Cat Tails at Water's Edge

I decided to take another round of classes from my oil painting teacher, Jim Glover. As I drove into the parking lot, there was a 6 point buck deer grazing beside the drive watching me. I wanted to get a photo, and I'd brought my camera, but the memory card was still in the laptop at home. Oh well.... But class went great. It is a small class of four students, so there are lots of individual attention.

I've been trying out numerous paint color combinations from some of the artists I follow online. Today, I used Lori Putnam's very limited palette of Blue Ridge brand paints in ultramarine blue, cad yellow med, and pyrol red. I use Gamblin brand paints, so I substituted Gamblin Perylene red. I liked this combination of colors and was very happy with how my painting turned out!

"Cat Tails at Water's Edge", 8x10 oil on board

Studio Saturday - Pastel Underpaintings

I continue to do a lot of experimenting with my artwork. But I have to say that I think I am finally to the place where so many of the classes I have taken in the past, have finally come full circle and those skills are useful in the way I work now. I don't have it all figured out, nor at the point that it is easy, but I am more comfortable applying these skills and integrating them all in one painting.

I've recently been watching some DVDs of the artists Albert Handell and Richard McKinley, who both do pastels and oils. Today I was more interesting in the pastels and how they both do underpaintings to begin their pastel paintings. Richard uses two types of paint for this depending on his location; either thin oil paints or watercolors. Both artists use Wallis sanded paper which I disliked because of the technique I was using at the time. I have now changed my mind about this paper! I like it using this technique! Generally, my favorite pastel paper is PastelMat. So today, I decided to try both papers and underpainting techniques.

I started with two similar sized papers with the Wallis paper on the left and the PastelMat on the right. I sketched my scene in pencil. I decided to use a different point of interest in each which I will point out later.

Left is Wallis, right is PastelMat

I used thin oil paint on the Wallis and watercolor on the PastelMat. As you can see, there is quite the difference in the look. 

I left these dry thoroughly, then worked with the pastels on each painting one at a time. On the Pastelmat (shown below on the top), I intended on using the area in the middle top as my center of interest, so I tried to (key word - 'try'!) put more detail and contrast in this area, while leaving the foreground a bit more unresolved.

On the bottom painting is the Wallis paper with oil underpainting. I intended the front left bottom to be my center of interest. 

Although I am pleased with both these paintings, I am surprised that I felt I couldn't leave more of the underpainting showing - instinctively, I felt I needed to cover most of it up. I think on the next one I will try to take more time penciling in the design and be more aggressive with the colors and strength of the underpainting and not cover so much of it up in the end.

When I view these paintings in my photos, I like them both. But in person, I believe the Wallis paper with the oil underpainting is a much better painting. What do you think?

PastelMat with watercolor underpainting

Wallis with oil underpainting

Pastels on Handmade Paper

Recently, I read Karen Margulis' blog and she had tried out a new pastel paper (Shizen) which is handmade in India using recycled cotton. I loved the look so searched the web to find out more about it. It is available at several of the online art supply stores in several color combinations. I was intrigued with the 'natural' color pack which I found at Cheap Joe's. It arrived today and I tore one of the medium grey pieces in half to give it a try.

These will certainly take some getting used to..it will not take many layers. I found some differences in how brands of pastels went down on the surface. If I used really buttery soft pastels too soon, it made it difficult to add anything on top. The brands that worked the best had a bit of pumice in the stick  - such as Townsend Terrages, Unison and Blicks. Some of the Terry Ludwigs worked on top layers but most were too soft. Very hard pastels would not even make a mark.

Below, is my first try on this paper. It holds promise, but will take trial and error to get a good painting.

Karen said she was going to try a coating of clear gesso, so I followed her lead and coated the rest of the half page and will try that another day.

Saturday Plein Air - Pickerington Ponds

What a beautiful day today! It was chilly to start, but I was loving the cool weather. The skies were really pretty today. We met at the Pickerington Ponds Metro Park area. There are several different areas in this park, and our group was spread out. I chose to paint with Sue and Rich over at the naturalist's office overlooking one of the marshes. I finally got to try out my retro-fitted pastel setup. It worked well!

My first painting went pretty quickly. I was using my homemade surface with the Golden Fine Pumice Gel on mat board. I chose this view across the road with the distant right tree line, and the goldenrod in the front left.

I quickly blocked in the design, then smeared it into the surface:

 Then added the final layers on the top. I am very happy with this painting. I finished this one, and it was only 9:30am! Time to do another.

"Hint of Fall", pastel, 6 x 9

I kept my easel in the same position and turned my body to the west. I liked this distant (very distant) view of the taller tree at the water line.

"The Tree Across the Pond", pastel, 5x7

The plein air season in Ohio is quickly winding down. We only plan on 3 more weeks outside. Seems like we just got started!

Saturday Plein Air - Dragonfly Day Camp

It was a blustery, rainy, cool morning! A few die-hard painters showed up to paint at Highbanks Metro Park, Dragonfly Day Camp area.

Pastel Textures - Long View

'Long View', approx 2.5" x 8", pastel

Yupo not the Answer

I attempted another pastel painting on the coated Yupo paper. This time, the texture gel popped off in spots when I was using a harder pastel. That's one slick paper! No wonder I never used it when I was using watercolors.
Back to mat board!

Pastel Textures - Golden Pastel Ground on Mat Board

Floral paintings are not my forte, but I thought I'd give it a shot with this one. This is, again Golden Pastel Ground,  but on mat board. I think I prefer the Golden Fine Pumice Gel. It gives more of that interesting texture I like.

Sunny Window, 5x7, pastel on Golden Pastel Ground on mat board

Pastel Textures - Golden Pastel Ground on Yupo

I recently received a sample of Golden's Pastel Ground. This is similar to the Golden Fine Pumice Gel which I like a lot. I have applied the Pastel Ground to a few surfaces and am giving it a try to see which one I like best. The first surface I applied the ground to may be unusual, as it generally is used for watercolors - Yupo synthetic paper of 100% polypropylene. I wanted to try this because it was very stable and flat. I'm not sure if this ground felt much different than the gel, since I used this on Yupo instead of paper or board.

Path, approx 8 x 10, pastel on prepared Yupo