Saturday Plein Air - Alum Creek Old Park Office Pond

Today dawned COLD and grey, in the forties. Expecting the weather to improve, I didn't dress warm enough! Even the swallows looked puffed up trying to keep warm. There was also a bald eagle circling the pond while we worked!

Even so, a good number of artists met at the old park office at Alum Creek. There is a nice little pond there with a path all the way around. With the grey overcast sky, there wasn't a subject matter that really appealed to me, but tried to settle in and paint.

I worked about an hour and a half and finally had to stop - too cold! It could use some work, but I will just leave this as is:

Saturday Plein Air - Indian Run

Finally, Mother Nature blessed us with a beautiful Saturday morning! This view of the dead, twisted tree caught my eye, and although I needed to face the sun to paint, I put on my visor and gave it a shot.

I worked on a piece of putty colored 320 grit Pastel Premier today. This is a bit too rough for my taste.

I thought I had taken several in-process shots but only have a few. One from my camera in the field at the beginning, one mid-painting from cellphone, then one from studio.

I could do more but will leave this painting as was done in the field.

Did you Know? Reuse Pastelmat?

I recently learned that I could wipe out a failed pastel painting on Pastelmat paper! That paper is one of my favorites as it grabs the pastel and holds on tight with very little dust. I thought I'd try removing a little 5x7 painting. Here is the before:

 The magic removal tool? Baking soda! You sprinkle dry baking soda on the paper, and rub it around with your hands until most of the old painting is removed. This was a medium grey color paper and this technique removed quite a bit of the painting.

I decided to paint a pastel version of an oil painting I did plein air as reference - top middle of this photo:

 And here's the finished little pastel:

Not bad, but not sure I'd bother removing an old pastel on a large sheet of Pastelmat this way.

While my hands were dusty, I got both my Heilman pastel boxes out and organized them for the upcoming plein air season! Yes, I like lots of greens and blues for my landscapes. These are the "Double Sketchbox" (smaller size one) and the "Backpacker" size Heilmans. These are the best pastel cases made - beautiful workmanship!

Backpacker size

Double Sketchbox size

Back Outside! First Plein Air of 2016

We had a beautiful day for plein air. Today we painted in Gahanna at Creekside Park. The river was up from our heavy rain yesterday, so I turned to the side channel and painted that view.

I worked in pastel today.

Alcohol wash

I kept getting distracted watching the swan and ducks.

My camera battery died and it was hard to see the screen on my smartphone, so took a final photo at home.

Early Spring, 6x8, UArt 500 pastel

Working on Brush Strokes

I'm trying to improve my brush strokes with oils. I haven't been having much luck composing interesting still life to use for my studying because I have such a limited time to paint. Buying loads of fruit and such isn't feasible and I try to keep clutter to a minimum, so collecting gobs of interesting "stuff" to paint isn't desired. I decided to work with some of the master painters by copying their work.

Now, don't get me wrong - I am a BIG believer in using your own designs, own photographs (NO photos from the web!!), and own compositions when you plan on selling or exhibiting your work in public. Just because the photos are on the web does not mean you can copy and call it your own!

But for classroom work, historically, students have studied and copied many master's paintings. Today, I used a section of a painting by a well known painter to study. This was SO helpful to me. I do not plan on exhibiting or selling this painting. This composition is not mine. I have always used this blog to document my work, mainly for my own use. I find it very helpful to look back at my work, see the process I used, and work to get better.

I will try this again. Below are progress shots from my work today:

Three Lemons

Three days later and the lemons are still good. Trying to loosen up. This time on PastelMat paper and feel this is moving in the right direction.

I began with the dish in the scene, but quickly got rid of it as it wasn't adding to the composition.

Three Lemon Wedges, 4 x 5.5", pastel on Pastelmat paper.

Sliced Lemons

While I had the lemons out, I decided to get the pastels out. I always hope to go pretty loose, but end up tightening up. Doesn't take long for the lemon to start to dry out.