Sunday, May 9, 2010

the dust doesn't settle!





So I am posting the images 77, 78 and 83 in the series and a test on a tiny piece of pastelboard. The first images are about 5x7. I took some Wallis over to John Knapp's studio a few days ago and joined the group of Wednesday night painters. It's an enjoyable time; I just don't get there very often! Since I was "traveling" I decided to take a limited bunch of pastels with me. I a recently gotten some Diane Townsend pastels and had my landscape set of Richeson's that I wanted to show John and Carlyrae. I found the Richeson seemed to work well and not quite as messy as the Townsend's - probably because the Townsend pastels are pretty "gritty". Oh they are beautiful color tho!!! So I opted for less mess since I was visiting John's studio and stick with the Richesons. They are nice and soft and blend well as I worked on my "Charlie Russell sky" as Carly called it. It was here I decided to do my next experiment with the Townsends on a less toothy paper like Canson...and they worked well.
So no, fast forward to this weekend and we are now in Mt. Vernon, WA for the NPS meeting. Les and the dee-o-gees went with so while I am skulking around the isles of Dakota Art Pastels, opening drawers, looking at hundreds of pastels, papers and hopefully not drooling noticeably, they headed off to Anacortes and surrounds. (What a candy store for pastelists DA is!)
The meeting was great. Denise Champion who is a masterful artist, did an over-the-top presentation that took some hours of prep. She had gotten some samples of pastelboard and each attendee was given one. (Robyn from DA had also given each of us a sample of the new PastelMat - a competitor for Wallis. So this was enough for me to hit the studio and give them a test drive. I love the idea of the pastelboard because it is rigid and doesn't have to have a foam core backing; it can stand a wash with alcohol for an underpainting or a good scrubbing if you really muck up the piece. Might try more of that. The PastelMat paper was nice! It doesn't appear to have a lot of tooth, but remarkably does. so on that tiny little piece of paper I made #83 in the series. I changed up my talelest trees some and may do that for some variety with the next 17. The paper performed well and I liked it! I used only Diane Townsend pastels on both of these tests and they worked beautifully. Her colors are outstanding; so brilliant and wonderful!
So now it's to MT to do the Quick Draw for the Custer Co Art Center and drop of new things at Moccasin Mountain Gallery in Lewistown. With any luck the snow is gone and I can paint in the quick draw without mittens!
Happy painting...and try some Diane Townsend's pastels...2 different types of pastels..some with a little grit and the Tarage's (sp) with more grit. Great products!!

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