in a yellow wood

 

Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken" has had special meaning for me for many years. Recently, my 10 year old grandson memorized it for school. I was impressed and motivated to remember it for myself. I wondered if an old dog (me) could learn a new trick. I did it! Today, as I was attempting to find my way through this abstracted landscape, the words of the poem came back to me as inspiration.

third time's the charm?

Marshy pond on a dark rainy morning. Also, the third painting on this piece of Wallis paper. The previous two paintings hung around the studio unframed until they bugged me so much I had to hose them off. We'll see if this one survives...
Two months later...about 95% of it survived. A 5% rework and recrop. See my post of 3/30/10.

horse ranch pond

In our search for retirement property, my husband and I visited a 10 acre horse ranch with pond. It isn't the right place for us but I got some good reference photos that rainy morning.

red surprise

Today when I unframed a 2008 pastel painting to shoot a digital image of it, I discovered I had painted on red Canson paper. Now I think the painting is more interesting unframed.

too sweet

This painting has been on my easel for several days while I have been busy with other things. I just want it off. So, though it feels too sweet, I'm calling it done. 

snowscape

A fresh coat of paint over another old painting from the March 2009 series. Below is the original painting of marshland, water, and mountains in the distance. At right is how it looked turned upside down before I started painting over it.

big brush, white paint

Find an old painting, turn it upside down, load your brush with thin white oil paint and paint over the entire surface of the old painting. If the ghosty image that remains suggests anything to you, emphasize it with additional color (or more white). In this case, a water scene became a snow scene. 

blobs of oil paint

Another day of training myself to use more paint. A palette knife helps in applying big blobs - well, they're big to me. Others would laugh. Also finally remembered to clean my metal thinner containers and add fresh Gamsol odorless mineral spirits. Today's painting was more fun than frustration.

paint on, paint off

A year ago I was just beginning to experiment in oil landscapes. When I look at those paintings now, I see a need for more texture. Today I painted over the first of those old images.

For 3 hours I applied paint to the canvas panel, scraped it off, scooped up all the paint blobs on my palette, applied those, scraped them off, squeezed out new paint, mixed color, applied paint...over and over. Frustrating and fun. It took all afternoon to paint "Reason to Believe," a 9 x 12 inch textured impression of a northwest meadow.

shipped today

Today I shipped my painting to the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS) 15th Juried Exhibition. This is the first time I've entered this show and to be accepted is an honor. If you're near Brea, California, visit the gallery.

studio tour

I'm always interested to see where other artists work, aren't you? The idea to post photos of my studio motivated me to tidy up for the year of painting ahead. If you post photos of where you make art, please let me know. Happy painting!

My wet-media painting station with Soltek easel.

 

Studio entry.

 

Desk and computer area as well as my collection of art by other artists, family treasures and photos.

 

Flat files for paper storage with framed painting storage below

 

Paintings awaiting framing are hung from pants/skirt hangers

 

Pastel station with my Mabef easel.

 

My cozy gas fire. Paper mache masks were made by my son when he was in grade school.

 

Round oak table top and big work table with mat cutter.

cleaning and shredding

It's that time of year again...studio cleaning and old document shredding. I started yesterday in the southeast corner cupboard/bookshelf behind my paint station and will continue along all walls, then to the big worktable in the middle. When I'm done, I'll post a little Studio Tour.

year end favorites

The Christmas tree is down, excess cookies are in the freezer and I'm looking forward to a new year in my studio. Spent the morning working on 2009 taxes but when Fed Ex brought a studio delivery, it was a good time to stop, have a cup of mocha, and share a few favorite things with you.

• Richard Schmid's new book, "The Landscapes." By page 43 of 268, I was on visual overload. This is a big book to savor.

• Cezanne #72 Champagne Silver Frame, from Art Ready Frames. Beautiful frames at good prices. Owner, Linda, is a pleasure to do business with - and she owns one of my paintings!

• Clairefontaine Pastelmat paper. As I spend more time with my first painting on Pastelmat, my appreciation for the surface grows. Areas are simplified - was it because of the paper? You can order Pastelmat from Dakota Art Pastels.

Happy New Year!

frozen

Our pond has appeared in my paintings before but never as a solid - still frozen by our record cold streak. This is my first painting on new Clairefontaine Pastelmat paper. A big reduction in pastel dust. The paper is available from Dakota Art Pastels.

wild iris

Record breaking cold temperatures in the Seattle area. A good time to paint wild iris in bloom.

relationships

Back to the exciting challenge of non representational art. Playing with relationships of color, value, shape, texture, movement. Right brain work. Fun!

got rust?

In between paintings, here's something to do: write a how-to article, as I did about rust, on the How To Do Just About Everything site. Click on the little images to make them bigger. Take a look.

snowfall

Our Washington weather is crispy but no sign of snow at this elevation. The reference photo for "Snowfall" is from a walk to the Post Office in January 2007. 

end of the road

This is the end of the Road Show series for now. After looking at hundreds of road trip reference photos, I think it’s a case of “I guess you had to be there.” Very few photos are as interesting as I remember the actual places to be. A fun week of painting though.

sagey blue

Love the sagey blue roadside brush of early April in Eastern Washington. The lower right corner shows the watercolor foundation making crazy patterns...I like that a lot. Click "Road Show: Eastern Washington" image to enlarge.

stop and zoom

Second in the Road Show series is Tanglewood Creek. We pulled over and zoomed in to shoot the reference photo for this intimate roadside scene.

road show #1

For years I’ve been taking reference photos out the window of a moving vehicle. Many are completely useless: lots of telephone poles, other vehicles and roadside guard rails. But a few can be used as inspiration. This is the first of my Road Show series. “November,” pastel on paper 7 x 11 inches.

website update

My website has just undergone its yearly update thanks to

Kay Dewar of Dewar Design. Please take a look!
GO to Barbara's Website

november editorial

This month, I was honored to be asked to contribute an editorial for the Northwest Pastel Society. I began to write about WHY WE PAINT but ended up talking about bottles. Read the editorial and then look around the site. Penny Chadwell has created a beautiful and informative web presence for the organization.

out of control

I’m beginning to believe that if I paint from the heart, I don’t have much control over the end result. This was meant to be an abstract based on the composition of “Sky View Path” but it just kept leaning toward literal. I love how it looks unframed because the brick color of the paper and the lively strokes show. To see how “Passage” looks framed, CLICK HERE.