Pastel Landscape Variation Demo

We just completed this video. With the help of our son Kevin and a little trial and error! Hope you like it and share it with friends!

Coloring Outside the Lines

I just returned from teaching a workshop for LaConner Workshops in LaConner, Washington. My friend Wendy came along and helped me get to where I needed to go. Thank you, Wendy! Getting there was complicated because I had some business in Los Angeles that made the schedule extremely tight. After we got squared away in our lovely B&B, The Queen of the Valley, in LaConner, we had a chance to tool around and see the beginnings of the tulip festival come to life. The fields were just about to come into their full glory. It was fantastic!

The workshop got going on Saturday. Nineteen terrific students! What a great enthusiastic group. The workshop was based on some of the ideas that grew out of my variation series and Pastel Journal article,(Oct. 2009). We were concentrating on play, experimentation and repeating a theme. But mostly, play!

Three mornings of incredible breaksfasts prepared by the innkeeper at The Queen. What a treat to start each day with a superb breakfast. Turns out I needed those calories after all. Teaching is hungry work.Thanks, Shelly for the awesome waffle recipe!!

After three days of helping my students stretch their boundaries, I came home questioning just what my own boundaries are. How can I find my edge? That edge is different for each of us. What is it for me? What am I trying to say, what am I trying to paint and why? Just because you can paint a thing, is that reason enough to do it? I'm always pressing myself for new answers to these questions. The answers are constantly changing, like the work. This is good.

I learned a thing or two from my students; quiet persistence and raw tenacity. A room full of women is amazing in that the knowledge and experience in such a room is all we ever really need. I was reminded of this once again. So, lovely!

I learned a couple things from Robyn. She gave us samples of Rives BFK which I tried out when I got home and could get hooked on. Also gave Pan Pastels another try with some interesting results.Thanks Robyn.

I learned a bunch of stuff from Wendy. I always do. How to be gracious, how to be calm and how to have fun. Love ya, Wendy!!

I returned to Oregon and happily have settled back into the studio for a month or so before my next show. Mostly, I'm happy to be able to watch the Trailblazer games!

Fall at My Studio!

I'm just loving the fall color here. I can't believe what a wonderful weekend we had. The weather forecast called for heavy rains all weekend, but instead we got a little rain, lots of sun-breaks and gorgeous fall color. I think the studio is particularly inviting, so I thought I'd share an " in progress" photo of a piece and some shots of the studio.

 

  

 

 

Made it to 100!

This one has an oil wash under-painting and is on Wallis paper that has been toned with yellow ochre.

This is straight pastel on Wallis paper, also toned.

This one has lots of oil wash that wasn't completely dry when I applied some pastel to it. The pastel soaked into the oil paint. I love it!

Here are all 103 on my studio wall. It's great to look at and I'll be sorry when I have to take them down.

Most of the pieces were done at the beginning of my work day. Sometimes one a day, sometimes 2 or 3. They are small, about 10 x10 and are all on paper. Many of them are mixed media and have some kind of under-painting either watercolor or oil wash. I loved using Terry Ludwig pastels because to me, they have a little bit of a grainy texture that was great over the oil wash.It was my time of day to play, to get warmed up to stretch. Most of them were completed relatively quickly, 15 to 30 minutes and were intended to be studies, although I think that some are finished pieces that stand fine by themselves. A friend and fellow artist, (Trisha), told me that I'd made a quilt and she is right! The pieces together are stronger than the individuals.

Now have to figure out what is next for me.
This has been a great project. In so many ways, it's been positive. I'm sure I'll be weaving the lessons learned into my work for a very long time. I'm writing on an article about the series for pastel journal. It will come out in the September issue, so I hope you'll take a look.

I've posted more of these on my website .

Up to #26!

I've been working fairly steadily on my variation series. I'm amazed by how much there is to paint; how endless the possibilities are. It makes me happy to know that you can never run out. There's just too much to paint, even in the context a really limited idea such as I've been working on. My wall is starting to fill. I moved all the pieces to a different area of the studio to photograph them and realized that I missed them. I imagine they may be hard to let go of in the end.

100 Variations

I've begun a new series of work that I've wanted to explore for quite some time. I'm calling it 100 Variations. I love the idea of doing the same composition repetitively in an effort to focus on particular aspects of painting. The composition of every piece will be essentially the same, leaving me free to explore all the color and light variations. I think this will be both liberating and very informative. I've already videotaped myself painting a couple of these and it's amazing to see what is revealed already in this process. These are relatively small pieces that I can complete pretty quickly, so the ideas is to be free to fully explore in depth, color, texture, light , atmosphere and mood without having to come up with a new idea for a composition every time. Just simplifying!

I plan on auctioning these off, so if you are interested you can look for them in my ebay store. They won't be available at any of my galleries or festivals. You'll have to wait for your piece a while because I want to see all of them together and have a studio opening to showcase them. I think that will be cool! I'm currently on #5. I hope you'll keep watching for these. I'm working on my editing skills to the the videos a little shorter:) Check out the first video on Youtube: Variation #2.