Traveling home was a bit hairy, the usual flight delays and plane changes and to add to the fun, I was a bit impaired getting around, having stumbled and aggregated an old injury. Wendy had to rescue me from the escalator once! Once home, I was of course hoping to hit the ground running with some work that I'd set up in the studio. I'd done five underpaintings in preparation for getting right back in the swing. I just didn't have my head in the game.... so I took the day off and what did I do?? I shopped!! Not what you think.
Art supplies, a new small carry-on bag and a back-pack sized Heilman box to travel with from now on. This was an is a big concession on my part. I really want all my pastels with me for plein air and workshops. Wendy convinced me that I don't really use all the pastels and that I will eventually be happy with the smaller version. It arrived today and I've begun to populate it with pastels from the larger box, (something I wasn't going to do). As I was doing this, I realized that I needed to take the same advice I give students. Get rid of duplicates, and near duplicates, make the sizes of the sticks more uniform, clean them up and make a few choices to pare it down. It really wasn't that hard. I'm thrilled that the box fits in a computer bag that I already had and BONUS.....my computer fits in there too. So now, I can get my computer, pastels and person items in the computer bag. This serves as my one personal item while traveling. I now have a very reasonable carry-on, 21 inches high, that will be for my cloths. This goes in the overhead bins. Then I will have one larger checked bag, for workshop materials which worked great this last trip. Yippeee!!!
So today was the day to get back in the studio and actually do some painting. Again, I decided to take my own advice and start with something familiar and small. You guessed it....Variations!!! Here they are. Mike especially likes the lavender one. I do too. After these, I really made some headway on a couple other things. Looking good so far.
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| Fluid acrylic under-painting on Wallis sanded paper |
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5 comments:
It's great to re-organise isn't it?
The lilac painting is great - wonderful pop of gold - I like it just the way it is!
Hi Marla!!!
That lavender painting is a beauty. It's amazing how you continue to invent new ways,through color, of looking at the same scene. I love them all!
PS I too only carry a Heilman backpack box. But I must admit I use what Richard McKinley calls my "nubs" that way I fit many different colors inside.
It's a good thing to know that you are happy! Great paintings as well! I agree, the lilac painting is great! If you have time, drop by my painting blog, Thanks!...Daniel
Hi Marla, I often look at your blog and enjoy your posts and your work. I have never used fluid acrylics, and wondered if you could give some pointers about how they react on Wallis, and how they differ from watercolour or gouache for an under painting for pastel? It would be interesting to hear your opinions about this product. Both your oil and pastel paintings always inspire me to use stronger bolder colour. Great advice for paring down a pastel travel kit….thanks for sharing.
would you organize my box for me...a daunting task cause I never put a single pastel back where it belongs, I'm envious. And the variations are yummy, sigh.
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