The midpoint has been reached #50

48,49,50......................................................half way and it is still an interesting journey.

On # 49 and 50 I got out the Pan Pastels. 49 has the pink hint of field flowers and is done on a pale yellow Colourfix paper. I used a couple of different applicators with the Pans and didn't get beyond the underpainting on this paper. The Pans didn't seem to like to stay on the paper very well. It was slightly better with the Wallis paper because, I am certain, the sanded finish. You don't seen to get a great cover with these, even as brilliant as they seem. I didn't do anything beyond the base underpainting on either because of that. The golden fields with purplish sky was the one on Wallis. I think I will try some with a wet technique and see how that works with them on sanded paper. Steve Hill did his demo at the NPS meeting with them - underpainting, again for the most part on LaCarte paper. Haven't tried that. I am hoping I find something better with them as I like the visual appearance of the landscape set as you see it in their containers...but I need to get that value on my paper and so far haven't gotten that. Neither of these would have looked like they do without painting over them with some Schmincke sticks.

This is a project to learn by and I will try them again.

This weekend I am going to Pendleton to do a workshop for pastel students. Looking forward to that two day commitment. I am always energized to work with students; I teach but I learn and its most rewarding to have someone let you know that they learned something from your efforts! So for a couple of days...

happy painting...

more hills and trees and skies

Little pictures of the hillside number 48. Will take a bit of a break from the series to work on some work for the Willow show that hangs the end of March and for the NWPS show that I need to get my entries in VERY SOON.

Hay bales is a new miniature for the NWPS show. I have done other hay bale ones in miniature and I am liking them better as I do them. These are 4x6- or will fit in a 4x6 frame, so they are little drawings!

I am reminded of a post from Diana - she says she wants to live in my Series of 100. That's a huge compliment to know someone would like to live in place you are painting. I need to also post her last comments to the blog site, which I have neglected to do.

New work schedule...no more retail banking! I will do mortgages again and paint more. I really am jumping up and down about this! Took me a long time to make the decision, but I did and it is good!

Next, I am going to try some Pan Pastels on Wallis paper. If that goes well, may try some on the Art Sprectrum Colorfix paper. Someone asked who makes the Pan Pastels...I am not certain, but they are called Pan Pastels and there is a website which I think is panpastels.com...I have them linked to Facebook and see demos frequently - very nice one. They really look like eye shadow - they come in a screw top plastic container and are solid appearing - like eye shadows - and a series of these containers all screw together (I have the landscape set) so you have a stack of what appears to be a tall tube. You use an applicator - like a make-up sponge to apply the pigment to the paper. More later on this subject....and

happy painting

45 and 46 in the series

The most recent in the series. Now that I am closing in on 50 images, I am thinking I really will be able to get to 100! I have moments of doubting, sometimes!

Spent the weekend in Seattle; visited Daniel Smith Art Supply. It is truly a candy store for artists and staff is very willing to assist and share experiences with a variety of products. Great place.

The main focus of the Seattle trip was to go to the Northwest Pastel Society meeting and demo of Steve Hill's using Pan Pastels. I have always been happy with my membership in the NWPS with an informative and updated website, their use of digital images for their show entries, the great venues they have had for member's shows and when they host an International Show. So this year there was some lack of participants for new board members and I decided to take that step and say that I would commit to the first Vice President's job. And as of the meeting today, all seats are filled and it seems to be an energetic group to work with.

Steve Hill did a demo using Pan Pastels - mostly as his underpainting. He used a LaCarte paper (sanded) and they seemed to work well for him. I had not tried them on a sanded paper yet, so will do that. I can see a group of my Series of 100 being done with the Pans on Wallis and Art Spectrum paper! So give them a try...and happy painting...

little paintings...

Number 43 and 44 emerged; 45 and 46 nearly ready. It's almost like hatching chickens as two or three or four of these get completed and taped up on the wall...all hanging there waiting...which ones will go to the Willow Show; which ones will go to Miles City to Cafe Utza; which ones will never get a mat and frame...The fun of doing these is to see how the colors play; to see what you can visually get away with and still be pleasing to the eye.

I am going to Seattle in the morning to attend the NWPS meeting and election on Sunday. My hope is to go to the Pike Street Market tomorrow, do a little shopping, have dinner maybe at the Crab Pot. Taking my dee-o -gees along. They know something is in the air; my bag is out; so are their sweaters...they seem to know they will be included (they almost always are) and that they are special buddies. They don't know they are dogs...they are dee-o-gees!

I finished the large piece I was working on; am satisfied with it.

Next weekend is the workshop at the Pendleton Center for the Arts that I am scheduled to do...

I found another interesting web site...Illustration Friday...artists can submit work to represent a word of the week on the site. Some great stuff on it.

As part of the NWPS meeting on Sunday, someone will be demonstrating Pan Pastels. I am excited to see how they use them and their results! More on that later. So with that all said.....the weekend is upon us; enjoy it and most of all...keep painting...

Ok, this is piece is about 20x20 inches. Has a great deal of the small imagery in it. It proved pretty easy to convert my small works technique to the much larger one. I purposefully made the painting pretty loose and we'll see how I feel about it in a couple of days...it might be a piece to go or be entered into some shows. I beef up my foreground tho. Haven't decided...

enjoy...

happy painting...

More Chalk Dust and something new...

I don't do flowers often, but yesterday I decided to give it a shot. I have a favorite ceramic piece, a light ochre glaze with the red moon on it.. So I decided to incorporate it into a still life with some flowers that one of Kate's friends gave her for Valentine's Day. So if you are tired of looking at 40 some little fields...here's something different. I used Wallis paper, mostly Richeson pastels with some Sennelier and a few Schmincke. One thing I have learned is that you can't rely on just one brand of pastel; you need to have a variety, just because not all colors are the same for each company. Now I am sure if you have a 1200 piece set of one company, you might be just fine! Broke is what I would be! Have you ever heard of Roche pastels?? Supposed to be the absolute best ever...best ever priced at somewhere near $20 a stick...but I have heard they are remarkable...I just want to get my hands on a couple of them :-)
I then went on to do a larger 20x30 inches, piece of a landscape and employed some of my findings with doing the mini's. It's almost completed and will post it probably tomorrow...so far so good and if it continues to behave, it may be a piece that I use for competitions. I've probably hexed it, now that I verbalized that statement...but who's superstitious!! ;-D. So with that, I will say ciao! happy painting...

Chalk Dust

One thing for sure, I create a lot of dust. That's why I like to work plein air. No one has to follow you around with a vacuum or a dust mop.

So the Series of 100 is up to 42 now...I have just taped these to a wall in the garage; now I need more wall - or a ladder. I'll get the ladder! The photo of the "wall" is only a portion of what's painted thus far. And so, I am heading out to paint this morning...hoping to have something of note later today or tomorrow.

happy painting...

all in a day's work

The paintings came pretty easy today, so I just kept painting. Some interesting color combinations resulted. I am a little obsessed with snow scenes. Liked this one ok. Want to do one that is foggy. We know this should be easy because of the many days of foggy weather here every winter. And that dram might just be best played out with a camera and not a stick or two of pastel.

On Facebook today there was an ad for Jerry's Artorama. That a good place to buy supplies and they give some additional discounts to buyers who are on line with Facebook.

The paintings number to 42 now. So I should have close to if not the complete 100 by the time of the Willow show in Walla Walla and therefore plenty to chose from!

As a side note...Sommerset Studio publishes interesting magazines for artists...some are more fine craft in nature, some are for fabric art, stamping/scrapbook art, etc. Not too long ago they started publishing "Artful Blogging" a very interesting work that is dedicated to artists who blog and represent their art on their blog sites. It's generally a good read and helpful for art blogs. So with that said, I am going to sit down, watch a little of the Olympics and do a little "Artful Blogging"!

Happy painting...

Sunsets on the landscape

Probably one of my favorite times of day to paint is a sunset, just to be able to express that warm toned color onto paper gives me a good feeling. This is pretty dramatically golden, but I am working in some unusual, not necessarily realistic color....but for a sunset...it works, I think.

At the Willow show in Walla Walla this April/May, I will show a collection of these little works...so yesterday I bought a bunch of small (5x7"), black frames for them. With a small neutral mat, I think they will look good. I am going to try my best to get the full 100 done before then, as I want to photograph them all together on the wall, unframed, just 100 little pictures, all hanging, just the same (!)...Then I will select maybe 10 or so for this show. So with that being said, I better get to painting!

Check out the PastelNews.com site....Mario is sharing, with the author's blessing, a chapter by chapter in their entirety, of a pastel technique publication. Go to the website and roam around in it and then thank Mario for all the time and energy he puts into this site. It's awesome. so with that said....

happy painting!

the journey continues...

This is a journey! Every time I sit down to work on one of these I have to THINK about color and what I can do to make this one a little different from the last one and maybe learn something in the process. This one took some work. It took some workable fixative. It took some creativity. I wanted to achieve that twilight in the snow look, which I think I did ok. I have another twilight snow scene in my mind to work on...maybe more cooler colors. This does have that frosty look which I liked. There is a lot of pastel on this little piece of Wallis paper! It look some work to get the trees to look like I wanted them.

The new edition of the NW Gallery Publication is out and in the mail. It is a beautiful publication and represents the artists well. I got an email from a Oregon coast gallery interested in representing my work as a result of the publication being sent to them. That's what we want!

If you are interested in getting NWGallery of Artists let me know and I will get you added to the list.

Happy painting...This is a long weekend for some of us...so make the most of it and PAINT!!!

...and they all (don't) look the same...little pictures...

This is why I like purples. It adds such a depth and intensity to a painting. I don't remember without going out and looking at the number of this one...but it's a Unison purple...I think from the "dark" collection. It is a definite shadow color. then lay it next to some oranges and goldens and you have that complimentary thing going on.

So I have an invite, thanks to my Chris who is always looking out for his Mom and some place to show her work, at the quick draw event at the Miles City Bucking Horse Sale in May. This is a huge event for this eastern Montana town. It's like the Pendleton roundup in Pendleton, OR...The visitors for the event greatly outnumber the residents of these towns. Anyway, he knows somebody who knows somebody who made the invite to me. This is a big challenge. I love doing quick draws...but this one is one half an hour to complete! Many that I do are a hour in time to complete the painting. Well, it won't be 24x30 in size! After drawing is complete, you have 10 minutes to put the paintings in a frame and it's then ready for the auction! Looking forward to this!

Happy painting!

It continues....more little pictures...

I visited with my friend Bambi who is a very creative person and a fine artist, whether she thinks so or not. She graciously offered up her studio for one of my workshops a while ago and we had a fine time painting there. I told her I had gotten 35 of the little works completed and she asked if I had learned anything....???...well yes...and so I told her about the paper and different pastels and my fear that I might run out of ideas before I reached 100. We talked about color a little and how some colors make the distant hills look like mountains in the far distance or some, like these two, appear to be hills just on the other side of that creek which is beyond the trees. Did you know there was a creek there?? We talked a little about her project for her son's wedding - a "family tree" that all the guests stamp and sign...I hope to see the finished work and will post it if she will let me.

I read more of the articles on Mario's PastelNews website. Loved the snow scenes he has currently posted. Check it out if you haven't already.

So with this said, I am not too afraid that I can't get to finish 100 little paintings...what I am wondering is what and how I am storing them in!

Happy painting!

More little pictures...

The quest continues, inching toward the 100 number. I had a moment of panic, thinking I can't possibly get to 100 of these. But then I rationalised that 30+ are completed and they seemed to get finished without a lot of stress! For these I continued to use the Richeson pastels with the exception of the Sennelier #463. I like the Richeson pastels, how they lay down on the paper and their color. I have a small set of only 24, I believe, so there certainly may be more options with this brand than I am aware of. Again, with the Wallis paper, they work well.

There is a new post from PastelNews.com...good articles in it. Do check it out...well done...hats off to Mario and his site.

I read a good article on composition and using the "golden mean" in painting. It was on a blog or a web site of a pastelist. I will share details at another time. In the meantime....happy painting...

little pictures of the hillside; little pictures all the same...

the title of this blog makes no sense unless you perhaps watched the first couple of seasons of Weeds on Showtime. The goofy, off-key song was about little houses in suburbia, CA, all the same only different colors...so go figure...my Series of 100...little pictures, all the same except in color. :-/

I worked these images with a new pastel brand...Richeson pastels. They offered a nice set of landscape pastels through Dakota Art Pastels (my favorite pastel store in the world), so decided to try them. The set is a quite pastelish set...what I would call "pretty" colors in a lot of pastel shades...pinks and blues, blue greens, warm browns, yellows and brilliant greens and lavenders. So I did one in really just blue, cream and pink. My least favorite. I do like however, how the pastel works on the Wallis paper. The colors are rich and I only wished for some killer blues like 463- Sennelier - so dark it is almost black. This little study is my least favorite as I was scanning the series so far. I might go back, add some workable fix to the blue trees and make it frosty. the next one that I did #31 was a study with a mix of different pastel brands and using the favorite 463 blue for the distant hills and background for brush and trees. I can't get past it's richness and how it causes the image to "pop". I will use the Richeson pastels, however along with the others that are favorites. I hope to get to some place that has open stock of these pastels, because I am certain that there is darker darks etc to be had!

So as the fog settles in today; I ignored it painting. Was not even a bother. I was however, thinking of the beautiful day we had yesterday with the sun bright in the sky; the mountains dark and the sky a wonderful blue!

We are off to the Hospice Annual Event to raise money for this organization. Looking forward to visiting with friends and sitting through the live auction. "Cottonwoods" was my donation to the event and hopefully it will garner a nice sum of money for this worthy cause!

happy painting...

More Color

The series goes on. Limiting the palette on these little images seems to work. I am using maybe 6 colors of pastel. Keeps things interesting to work thru the process.

Interested in submitting images to a juried competition?

The NWPS member show submission deadline is coming up this month as well as Allied Arts of Richland for those of you interested in submitting images for the juror. The website of the NWPS lists possible competitions and links to competitions. So does PastelNews.com I believe. Lots of opportunities out there for shows.

I am posting this way late at night; I am tired and am heading off to bed. But as I continue on with the series...my words of wisdom...happy painting!

color fields

These are colored fields. Unfortunately the digital image isn't as detailed as the actual image with the green gently overlaying the red in the foreground and the suttle changes of reds in the trees. One of those technical issues with the quick snap of a digital camera. The lesson...when photographing dramatic colors, a great deal of care needs to be made in exposure, lighting, etc. Definitely natural light is preferred. There have been numerous articles written about photographing art work and it pays well to heed the words of the experts! This was a fun project to bring the reds and bright green together on paper. It definitely "pops". Reminds me of the sumac trees in fall (in color, that is).

I was online today and found the website for the CrossRoads Carnegie Art Center in Baker City, OR. I have not visited the center since they moved from their old Main St. location; but from the website, it looks like they have done magnificent things with their "Carnegie". They are hosting a juried show in April themed "agriculture". I can envision this will be a grand show with all there is to paint around Baker City. Email them for a prospectus.

happy painting!