too many mediums...

Today as I began the oil underpainting for a beach path scene in pastel, I was amazed to find an affinity for oil that I didn't know I had. It was so much fun to work in that medium again - I found myself painting longer than usual at the underpainting stage. It made me want to paint in oil again. Too many mediums, too little time.

#5 and the reference photo

This time it is acrylic over an ochre gesso ground. I'd love to continue playing with this medium but I need to return to pastel for upcoming spring shows. I'm including the one reference photo used for this week's acrylic experiments.

aha! moment

When I worked exclusively in colored pencil, the paper surface was critical to the outcome of my art. Then, I started working in pastel and again, found the surface was all-important. I am still finding my way with oil and don't have a favorite surface yet but one would think that SURFACE would be on my mind. Apparently not because I have been playing all week (without a lot of enthusiasm) with acrylic on canvas panel.

Today I finally had an aha! moment and switched from canvas to a paper surface. I'm much happier with the result. I have one more surface idea then tomorrow, I'll post the reference photo for the experiments of the week. 9 x 12 inches, acrylic on paper

bye bye sky

Another try with one brush, glazes and hopefully, more spontaneity. In the end, I wiped away all the sky that wasn't dry which left just a hint of the mountains. 9 x 12 inches, acrylic.

one brush instead of four

Acrylic again. Same reference photo, a little different composition. Today I used only one brush (#10 Connoisseur white taklon flat) and thin glazes to start. Yesterday, trying to find my way, I used four different size brushes. 9 x 12 inches, acrylic on canvas panel.

seven months later

It has been seven months since I first painted with acrylics. Today is my second try. I'm going on faith that I'll be able to get softer edges if I become better acquainted with this new-for-me medium. I may continue throughout the week using the same reference photo. 9 x 12 inches, acrylic on canvas panel.

late night color

Tonight, "Lavender Sky 2." So much color just before bedtime...wonder what that will do to my dreams?

back to pastel

Today it is "Lavender Sky." My afternoon attempt to get back to painting in my studio with pastel instead of painting the interior walls of our house. After the red kitchen (Behr New Brick), I moved on to the great room (Ralph Lauren Lincolnshire Olive). I'm done with walls for now.

Meanwhile, we're still looking for retirement property on Lake Sawyer or Lake Morton in Washington State. Anyone know someone there who wants to sell?

almost there

Here's a shot of the spaghetti sauce kitchen walls. Cabinet hardware is on order but I'm ready to move on from this project.

Good advice from my chiropractor this morning:
"Dreams are free; dream BIG."

side-tracked by spaghetti sauce

It has been a struggle this week to get into the studio to paint - lots of other things going on. Today was going to be the day but then the spaghetti sauce thing happened. I was cleaning up after dinner; I put the left over spaghetti sauce in a quart jar and headed for the refrigerator. But the color of the sauce was so beautiful I just stood in the kitchen holding the jar. The next thing I knew, I was on a mission to update the kitchen by painting the walls that color. One thing led to another and today was spent in major cleaning to get ready to paint the kitchen. The whole pantry needed to be rearranged to accommodate all the stuff from the counter tops and the collection of teapots, candlesticks, and water pitchers from above the cabinets. Tomorrow I'll buy the paint. I've been side-tracked by spaghetti sauce.

day's ease

What better time to paint a colorful late summer hillside than a rainy Sunday evening, the first day of March?
10.5 x 10.5 inches, pastel on paper

frame of mind

All this water isn't a great subject for my "less is more" challenge but the reference photo has been on my drawing table for weeks so I started painting from it. At some point, I decided it needed more. Not more detail in the water or trees, but more something. So I added the pink line framing the scene. Window frame, camera frame, picture frame? How about "Frame of Mind?" 14 x 14 inches, pastel on gessoed Wallis paper.

the garden hose solution

Today, for my "less is more" challenge, I hosed off an old painting and to the music of Paul Simon's Graceland, I applied a minimal amount of pastel for "Graceland Pond." Now I'm looking in my art database for another old pastel painting to wash off. 14 x 14 inches, pastel on gessoed Wallis paper.

less is more

Our tax preparation is 99% done, my nursing duties for my husband's shoulder surgery are tapering off and I have a show deadline to meet. Time to get back to painting.

An ongoing challenge for me is to make my work more minimal - the essence of a scene, not the detail. I like the idea of engaging the viewer to make the scene their own - using their imagination or experience of a place to complete my areas of suggested trees, a pond, or wild flowers. How few strokes can I make to say what I need to say?

A month ago I quoted from William F. Reese's book, The Painter's Process. Tonight I opened the book again and found exactly what I needed (funny how that works). "Simplicity requires greater knowledge and more time. It takes a great writer to say more with less. The same is true of artists. Editing is what art is all about." And, advice in yesterday's posting by Richard McKinley in his Pastel Pointers: "The novice paints the leaves; the master suggests the tree." This week, I'll be working with those words in mind.

where the heart is...or isn't

Hopefully, when you look at your work you remember what you loved about the scene, the idea, the message.

In this painting, the island in the distance has special meaning for the people I was with. I was painting with them in mind, not because I was excited about the scene. That was a problem the first time and still a problem the second time around. I'll try to remember that lesson.

path to lake, revisited

This painting is from a September fishing trip to Canada. I was painting plein air from the upper deck of our chalet - listening to conversations below, smelling dinner cooking. I was determined to paint this scene but my lack of enthusiasm for painting and increased interest in food shows. Brought it home, put it away.

Today I took it out and washed it off. This painting didn't have a foundation of watercolor or oil under the pastel. I could have scrubbed the surface clean if I wanted to start a totally different painting but I thought I'd give this composition another try - this time, without the scene in front of me and without a reference photo.

I applied an oil underpainting and changed a few things. We'll see what happens next...

renaissance

Not my original vision but it is finally finished. 14.5 x 11.5 inches, pastel over watercolor foundation

watercolor foundation for pastel

I found this incomplete pastel while cleaning my studio today. All work on this was done plein air but I'll finish it in the Studio. It has a watercolor foundation on mounted Wallis paper.

I've come across it several times in the past year and each time I'm surprised because I don't usually keep unfinished art. If a painting isn't working, I get rid of it - rip it up, hose it off. But, each time I see this piece I remember my attempt that September day to capture the energy of the subject. At the time, I was wishing to be in my comfortable Studio but instead I was on-site with all my art junk spread around, weighted down so it wouldn't blow away and covered so it wouldn't get wet. I stayed there until it started to rain because the process of painting directly was so much more exciting than when working from a photo.

I read a wonderful quote the other day in William F. Reese' new book, 'The Painter's Process'.

"Remember that one is never as good a painter as one thinks when a piece works, or as bad as one thinks when it doesn't."

pastel over oil

Here's the finished painting, "Winter Riverwalk". Scroll down to see detail shots and the oil foundation alone.

details from Winter Riverwalk

As requested, here are several detail images from the finished pastel painting. Most of the underpainting was covered with pastel (as in the first detail image). The other two details show some of the oil underpainting. The oil paint is very thin when applied to the mounted Wallis paper so it dries overnight. Click on the image to make it larger.

underpainting for pastel

Today I completed the oil underpainting for the my first pastel of 2009. 19 x 24 inches on Wallis paper.

finally, number five

Based on my little experiment of painting 5 foundations on the same day and then turning them into finished paintings one at a time on different days, I have an opinion about what works for me: I don't think I'll make a habit of this. By the third painting, it begins to feel like an unfinished project. I have more enthusiasm and energy when I paint one painting at a time.

flat blue sky

At this time of year in Washington, it's hard to remember what a flat blue sky looks like but here it is for painting 4 of 5. I'm forming an opinion about this process of painting 5 foundations at once then adding color one at a time. On to painting #5 to see if my experience changes.

back to it

I'm back to painting this morning and not a minute too soon. Too many days out of the studio this week. This is the third of the five painting foundations I did (and posted) a week ago. Two to go.

banks of the wenatchee

I hope to be back to some kind of daily painting schedule soon.