Back To Pastels Is Not So Easy

Today I spent a much over due day working in pastels.  It was not so easy to transition back.  Looking into a large box of unorganized pastels was daunting.  I started off doing 2 throw always.  Then I got here.  I feel tight.  This seems to happen when the comfort and flow disappear.  It was good to work and focus for a good amount of time.  Looking forward to tomorrow for more.

Below is the work in process with the underpainting through pastel.

Still Life Saturday!

There is nothing like getting a whole day to paint and study from life.  

A Day of Still Life

Great day, nice people and challenging still life.  I attended I day of still life with George Kyle today.  It was a challenge of compliments.  

Process of Seeing Color Through Still Life

Setup

Color wash on Uart paper

First over with pastel

Pastel continued

Refinement and review

Little Black

16x12 pastel on pastelbord

A day painting, talking and sharing good food is a very fine day in my book.  Sunday was a day I spent with fellow artists Dana Cooper, Julie Hill and Kim Vanderhoek.  Julie turned her kitchen into a lovely place to paint and share thoughts and ideas.  We enjoyed seeing her fabulous studio.  She treated us to a wonderful home cooked meal and lovely ambiance.  It was a mini artist retreat.  This time together was inspiring and fun and much different than the daily life of a painter.  Kelley Sanford from N.C. came a calling and shared some time with us by phone. 

The still life and little black, as I call him, was sitting on Julie's (amazing and spacious) kitchen island.  I was drawn to the red flowers and ended up  loving little black the best.

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Hanging On The Line

Time to answer the call even if I dropped the ball.  I feel a little rusty after a nice family brake.  The holidays were full and fun...oh and the stomach flu came visiting.  Noise filled our house for a few weeks and I welcomed the familiar sound.  I am so very grateful and feel very blessed.  Now it is time to get back in the studio.  I spent a few days cleaning and tossing and evaluating my work.  In the process of doing that, I painted this little 6x8 oil and it did not come easily.  Painting is not like getting back on a bike.  

So I am looking forward to pushing ahead in 2012.  Best wishes to all of you in the New Year.  Thanks for all your comments and views of my blog.  You keep me motivated.  Thank you for all your support.

This painting is available by bid through Daily Paintworks.  I decided to start my bid price at $25.00, which means if you are interested you might get it for $25.00 plus S&H.  So check it out and click on the link to follow or bid.  Have fun.

Bid here at DPW

Take Your Places

Happy Day After to all.  It was a great day.  I ate way to much.  We just sat around and talked and played a game.  Love listening to the kids talk to each other.  Lots of stories.  

Here is another one for composition.  Using the silverware is like drawing lines through the composition to divide up the space.  I am still exploring.  Might move onto the peppers I have in the fridge next.  

Enjoy the long weekend.  

DPW Auction

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Pep Talk

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I love making food and eating it.  Mainly I like spending the day with my kids, husband, brothers and sisters of mine and my husband and all the kids and their kids.  Again, I love all of this and the fact that great food is at the center of the day.  Everyone brings something yummy to share.   Now with all that said, the work involved is a labor of love by all and requires a few pep talks to get it all done.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

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Spoon Down

Composition is important to content.  Especially when content is random.  More fun with stuff around my house.  I must have pushed that spoon around in every direction.  In the end it ended up flat out horizontal, like a fighter down for the count.

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Bloom'in

Here is another composition of the little vase and dish towel.  Funny the difference it makes when moving that little view finder around.  I changed the lighting to a cooler bulb too.  I figure I will learn more by experimenting.  

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Hanging Out

This little vase traveled with me to Sedona and I never got to paint it.  So here it is along with the dish towel I forgot I brought.

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Nice Slice

Composing a still life takes time.  Cropping the composition in a view finder is an experiment at times.  

8x8, oil

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Odd Collection

Working with the color wheel.

8x8, oil

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$85

Clinging With Touch Up

6x6 Clinging needed some attention and advise.  I was able to take a second look and apply many of my comments from yesterday to finishing up this piece.  It is working much better now.  I could noodle this to death, but it is time to move on.  Thanks so much to all of you who gave constructive criticism on line and off.

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Today     vs.    Yesterday

Ready

Here is another fig painting with my little ceramic pot.  I got the pot from Jill, a 3rd grade teacher where I work.  She is a potter in her spare time.  I told her I would love to purchase a pot from her.  When I came to work a few days later this lovely glazed pot was sitting on my desk.  She said it was a gift.  I am so grateful to have this little vessel always ready to paint, and to think of the hands that made it is nice too.

Sold

Fresh Figs

6x6 oil on linen still life of figs and my favorite little pot.  There is a fresh air market near my home that is open every Thursday.  I am hooked on the marvelous tastes of the fresh produce.  They actually let you taste the different fruits before you buy.  This week I tried their figs.  I ate so many I felt sick.  Fresh and tasty with a seedy crunch. 

But...Before I ate them I painted them with this little hand thrown pot.  I really enjoy these colors together.  

sold

Irresistible

Every time I go to Trader Joe's to shop 

I can't resist the flower section right at the door as  I enter the store.  I always say there is a painting on the horizon, but most of the time I enjoy them and they die before my hand reaches for a paint brush or 

a pastel.  So I got on it today while listen to a book on tape and had a great time.

"Irresistible",  12x9 pastel on wallis paper,

Chemers Gallery
17300 Seventeenth Street, Suite G, Tustin, CA 92780
714.731.5432     info@chemersgallery.com

Admiring The Fresh Selection

It has been a slow crop this year, but the tomatoes we've picked have been tasty.  This little 8x8 pastel was done on Wallis sand paper.  I enjoyed working with reflections on my steel mixing bowl. The range of reds to work with on the tomatoes made this very challenging.

Donated to Orange County Fine Art Association

Admiring The Fresh Selection, 8x8, soft pastel $120.00  

Mid Day Sunlight

Mid Day Sunlight is a 8x6 oil painting.  This little one was painted last weekend during a Peggi Kroll Roberts workshop.  We worked on values for 2 days.  Painting from gray scale to full color.  I took lots with me from this weekend and am still turning things over in my head.

With Thought of Bischoff

12x12, oil, sold

Sunday was the last day of the Bischoff show in Pasadena.  My husband and I drove up in the rain and the down pour on the way back.  It was a show I so enjoyed with some of the most beautiful rose painting s I have ever seen.  I went for the landscapes and was delighted with the roses.  Just a gorgeous exhibit.