From the Studio

Just wanted to take a moment from eating Christmas cookies and turkey to post some new work. I've been having some success and some "dogs" but mostly having fun in the studio. It's great to have my whole family around even if they are going in ten directions. Anyway here's some new "stuff". These pieces will travel to California next month for my show at Galerie Gabrie.

 

 

Enjoy!

Pastel in Progress

I've been painting a series of pieces of Smith Bybee Lakes in Portland, OR. It's a wildlife preserve very close to the city. It's a beautiful refuge year round. The place just seems to draw me again and again. A sacred place as Joseph Campbell said "...your sacred place is the place you find yourself again and again."

I thought I'd post one of the images with shots in progress. It was done on a large sheet of elephant colored Art Spectrum/Colorfix paper. I planned for two pieces on the one sheet. I started my sketch with a spruce blue Nu-pastel just to get some composition and a little value going.

Next, I started to block in some color ideas. I usually start a with a little brighter, more intense color with the intention of settling it down towards the end. I also use a pretty light touch at this point.

Here, I've put some meat on the bone, so to speak and thought a little about the what the final color story will be. I try to let this evolve on it's own a bit during the progress of the piece. It's part intuition, part knowing where I want to go and part letting the painting take me.

This is just a little more refined with a few details. I've kept the foreground simple by using a gradation and building a little bit of texture there. All the focus, detail, strong value differences are on the central area of interest or focal point in the piece.