Tuesday, November 9, 2010

New Works Posted Yesterday

One of you fabulous readers, and I mean that very sincerely, suggested I embellish yesterday's post with some details about the pieces I posted. Thanks. I always get a little nervous about what readers would want to hear from me; how much and what?? This post refers to yesterdays post of six pieces.

The first three pieces were all done on Wallis sanded pastel paper and each has a watercolor under-painting. They are all 15x15. These were all based on some photos I took while I was teaching in Fish Creek, WI in June. Everything was this stunning, soft emerald green. The woods were deep and secret. I love that!! I really want to paint from these for quite a while. It is a sensual place, with a special beauty. Each of these pieces has a good amount of layering of the pastel, especially in the foregrounds. I used many brands of pastel to get the layering I wanted, but relied heavily on Terry Ludwigs and Unison. The scratchy marks are made with Nupastels. These pieces took about half a day each to bring to the finish level as you see them. I may pluck them off my wall to make a few more moves, but I would say they are very, very close to being "done".

The last three are were all done on leaf green Colorfix paper by Art Spectrum. They are are all 11x11. They were also done from photos. I took the photos I based these on just the other day when we had one of our spectacular Oregon afternoons. My very wise and spontaneous husband, suggested a drive to one of our favorite parks with the camera. We went to a spot that I like to go and paint. The light was perfect. These three pieces are more sketch-like and were all done yesterday afternoon. Fast! Not a ton of layering and no under-painting. I also used Terry Ludwigs and Unison for these. There is one more piece like these that I didn't have the chance to post. I Finished too late. I'll try to get that one up too!

Today I will stay on this track by starting a larger piece similar to the first two. It will be a vertical piece that tries to capture the gesture of the tree shapes and the mystery of the woods. I also will be working on a large oil that is a commission. I'll start that by putting down some initial layers of bright, but thin color.

Happy Painting!!!

3 comments:

Bridget Hunter said...

Thankyou for "knowledge" which greatly helps a non-pastel painter like me. Your 6 works are a delight to the eye!

Jeanne Levasseur said...

Thank you for this information! Personally, I want to know as much as possible about each piece. You do such beautiful work!

Jala Pfaff said...

Love that top one, it looks pefectly "finished" to my taste.