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

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