Green Pear

Here's the second pear for my kitchen series.  This was in the same painting as the previous yellow pear.  I didn't like how the entire painting came out, but I liked the pears so I just cut them out and tossed the rest.  It was bitter sweet throwing out the rest of the painting - a lot of time was spent on trying to make it right, not to mention the amount of pastels wasted.  I didn't think to take a picture of it before I took the scissors to it - that's something I will remember to do if it ever happens again - which I'm sure it will. 

Painting for the kitchen

I've been looking at my kitchen lately and wandering what I could do to spruce it up a little.  I've been trying for a Tuscan theme throughout the house and have fake pears, vines and wine bottles decorating the tops of the kitchen cabinets, but under the cabinets has always looked bare to me - so I decided to do some pear paintings to frame and hand under the cabinets.  This is the first one, and actually It was part of a large painting that I just wasn't happy with as a whole, but I liked how the pear turned out, so I cut the painting down to size. There is actually a second pear from this painting that I will share tomorrow.  2 down, 3 more to go. 

Yesterday I posted "No Name Monday"  and it seemed to be a difficult painting to title.  Coming up with a title is not always an easy task, but one title that was submitted was Seaside Dining - we could work with this - because the painting is of an island, and not the sea, I just changed to location to Island Dining. Many thanks to  Pam for the idea!  I can't thank you all enough for taking part in No Name Monday's.  I really look forward to seeing all the ideas, and love involving others in my art making. The painting is now listed on my Etsy store website.

Today I've started a painting of a field of sunflowers - and I'm really battling a terrible sinus infection, so I keep getting side tracked with a lot of nose blowing and trying to unclog these ears, but hopefully I can finish it this evening to stay on track with a painting a day.

No Name Monday

Island Dining pastel 12x18 available $85.00

Today's No Name painting comes from a reference photo I took at Assateague National Seashore.  I was so lucky that day to catch so many shore birds in one location.  They don't show up very well in this photo, so here's an enlarged photo:

Now if she only had a name.  It's been so exciting for me to see all the different titles submitted by everyone - can't wait to see what comes today. 

Experiment

I wanted to try out the pastels on plain matboard with no gesso - I guess it can be done, but I don't really care for the texture showing through, and I just couldn't seem to fill in the holes no matter how many layers I applied.  It was a lesson learned.  This photo was taken from my dining room window.  The birds seem to love resting on this small row of fence. 

Painting the Scriptures

Psalm 1:3 pastel 12x9 available $45.00

This is my second painting in my Painting the Scriptures series.  I'm choosing verses from the Bible to paint.  Psalm is one of my favorite books of the Bible and I love painting trees, so Psalm 1:3 was the perfect verse for me this week.  I did this painting entirely with my new Sennlier pastels which is a first for me to only use the softest pastels and none of the hard or medium. Doing this really helped me learn to use a softer touch when applying the pastels - which is something I've really been trying to work on. 

Painting Title Chosen

                                             Spring Surprise 6x6 pastel available $15.00 Sold

Many thanks to all those that participated in this weeks "No Name Monday".  It was such a difficult choice!  Monday's painting has been named "Bewilder Me Blue".  It was such a catchy name.  Thank you Debbie!

Above is a painting I did plein air.  This single tulip comes up every year at the edge of our woods.  Nobody knows how it got there, but it's so beautiful and huge! It's become quite an event in my house waiting for this tulip to open every spring. 

Well after quite a crappy weekend, yesterday I had a surprise filled day.  First, I received a delivery.

Two packs of UArt pastel paper, Sennlier pastels (yippee!) and The Pastel Book by Bill Creevy, which I've read in other artist's blogs that this is the book to have. I couldn't wait to test out the new pastels, so I spent yesterday playing with them - and let me just say they are like painting with a stick of butter!  Then, later in the afternoon, one of my favorite pastel artists Rita Kirkman started following me on Instagram!  Love her work - she does amazing paintings of farm animals and she inspires me to push the limits of color.  Look her up - -  you just can't help yourself but to smile when you see her animal portraits.

No Name Monday

Bewilder Me Blue 6x6 pastel available $15.00 Sold

Truth be told, this Easter was nothing short of disappointing.  I might even go as far as to say depressing - but the weather was perfect and I was in desperate need of some quiet "alone" time. So I sat down at our picnic table with my pastels and just started to paint. No music, no conversation, just the peacefulness of outdoor sounds. I had bought a container of African Daisies the day before and had them sitting in the center of the picnic table, I just painted what was in front of me. 

Last week I introduced "No Name Mondays" to the blog.  So here is this week's "No Name" painting.  Comment what name you would choose for this painting, and in 24 hours I will post the winner and officially name this painting.  I can't wait to see what ideas you have. 

Impressionism

Lake Impressions 9x9 pastel available $25.00

"People discuss my art and pretend to understand as if it were necessary to understand, when it's simply necessary to love."   ~  Claude Monet

This quote from Claude Monet is how I've always felt.  I never understood why in some of my art classes they go over and over about why an artist put this or that into their painting and what the underlying message of the painting is really about.  I've thought why isn't it possible that the artist just wanted to paint that scene without an agenda to it all? 

Today I wanted to try my hand at the impressionistic style of painting.  I only allowed myself to use my softest pastels and they are big and chunky (Terry Ludwig) so I could not do any fine details.  It was a very good lesson on handling the pastels and I loved how smoothly the pastels covered the paper.  I used Canson Mi-Tientes pastel paper.  I've heard some of my classmates say that you can't get more than a couple of layers of pastels on this particular brand of pastel paper and I wanted to test that theory out.  I have to say, I applied at minimum, 5 layers in the background trees.  It was probably more, but I wasn't really counting.  Next time I'll remember to count the layers. 

Our Plein Air group met in Oxford, Md. this week to paint tulips and daffodils.  I had to work and didn't get to meet up with them, but I am going to complete the challenge today.  I have 1 (yes one) tulip that grows in my yard every spring.  Don't know how it got here because I've never planted it, but it is going on a piece of pastel paper today.  Check back tomorrow to see how it turns out. 

Painting the Scriptures

Romans 8:39 9x9 pastel available $40.00

A while back, I came across a list of the top 100 books that are reviewed as the greatest books ever written and recommended for book lovers to make sure they read before they die so to speak.  So I began reading - and am still slowly working my way through the list.  The Bible is on that list.  It occurred to me in my entire lifetime I have not ever read the Bible cover to cover. Sure I will research passages for this, that and the other, but never read it like a traditional book.  So about a year ago I began reading and highlighting various passages.  I have different colors to highlight different scriptures and what they might mean to me.  I use colored pencils so the pages of the Bible don't warp.  While reading a section on using your talents for God's work, the idea of painting certain scriptures popped in my head.  I've been wanting to try out this project for months, but kept putting it off.  Today I've completed the first in this series.  I'm going to try to do at least one scripture painting per week to go along with what ever section I happen to read during the previous week.  It may be a reading done on my own or something from the most recent sermon at church.  This painting is entitled Romans 8:39.  No, I'm not going to tell you what that particular scripture says - - you have to do that for yourself - which is really the point to this project. 

I thought I'd share the painting steps for this one:

First, a quick draw in

Dark pastels were added along with the lightest lights

A brushed wash done with Gamsol and dried with a hair dryer

Sky was refined

Next the background trees were refined and more "dirt" was applied to the foreground

The foreground plants were added along with the water off in the distance

Some yellow highlights to bring together the yellow in the sky - and finished

Now for the results of yesterday's "No Name" project..... after votes were counted ( I had my family vote) the winning name is Autumn Beauty.  Thank you so very much to all that participated and especially to Ms. Dorothy for her winning name. That painting will now be available in my Etsy store.  Make sure to check in next Monday for the next "No Name" painting. 

No Name Monday

I've decided to add "No Name Monday" to my blog.  I thought it would be fun to see what kind of painting names others would come up with.  So every Monday, I will post a "No Name" painting and ask for all your ideas for a name.  Here is the first of many more to come.  I painted this same scene as a miniature last week.  This one measures 5x7.  I wanted to paint the same scene in different colors, which is actually very educational. Doing this is really helping me learn the color wheel and color recipes - so to speak.  So put your thinking caps on and post what you would name this painting.  The winning name will be posted in 24 hours.

Canson paper revisited

Across the Marshes 9x12 Pastel

                                                                                                                                                                                                 

This was a beautiful view of the entrance bridge at Adkins Arboretum, although I don't think I did it justice -  I struggled with the Canson paper, but I have so much of it that I have to keep practicing with it.  I'm putting in another order of the UArt paper today - can't wait for it to arrive!

My first ACEO

Well after a whole week of having issues with the computer..... I'm back at blogging.  Firefox crashed and for some reason I couldn't get to the place on the blog to add new posts, but enough about that, it's fixed and that's what matters.

I've recently seen various artworks in miniature, also called an ACEO which stands for art card editions and originals and believe it or not, they are smaller than a regular playing card.  2 1/2 x 3  inches in size.  When I first saw them, I was thinking what would you do with such a small painting?  But while shopping in Walmart I came across artist trading card cut papers. They cost only a dollar, so I thought I'd give it a try and see what happens.

Here's a picture so you can get an idea of the size.  12 blank pastel cards and 20 mixed media cards come in each pack.  First I covered the paper with gray pastel gesso because the pastel cards have the same texture as canson pastel paper and I wanted to have a little tooth to the paper to work with. Painting this small has it's own challenges and I didn't want the extra challenge of fighting the ridges on the canson. It worked really well - you can see the finished piece at the top of this post, but I was still left with the question of what someone would do with a piece this small.  Answer: frame it!

I happened to see already cut mats at Ben Franklin and got really excited - I couldn't seem to get a good picture (one without the reflection of my phone), but you get the idea of what it looks like.  I framed this picture in a 5x7 frame.  I love it! and the color scheme goes perfect with the colors in my house.  I've prepared some more papers with the gesso and will share them later this week.  They're so cute!  And very quick to complete.