You Choose What to Leave in and What to Leave Out

Cottage by the Bay  Pastel  9x12 available $115.00

It was a beautiful day for a walk and taking reference photos, so I grabbed my trusty walking buddy (my son Zach) and we headed to Blackwater Nature Preserve outside of Cambridge, Maryland.  My friend, Lorri, had recently posted photos that she took at this location and she had tons of beautiful photos of the water fowl found at the preserve.  I was excited!  I couldn't wait to get there and take my own beautiful waterfowl photos.  We walked......and walked.....and walked.....drove some....and walked some more..... the birds were no where to be found.  Oh was I disappointed. All in all I think we found 3 ducks and 3 blue herons, so not a total loss for the day, but I did get a few "non-bird" containing reference photos. 

This is the first painting for my Blackwater Refuge series.  I've included the original photo - I chose to leave out the boathouse in this painting, but plan on doing another of just the boathouse.  It's a lesson to be learned by all artists, that just because something is in the photo doesn't mean it has to be included in the painting.  This is where you put your creativity to the test.

Complimentary colors was my main objective while painting this. I used red and green in the tallest trees, and violet among the grasses since violet is a compliment of yellow. 

I chickened out of attending our pleinair paintout this week since the location was on the water and the temperature was 50 degrees - I HATE TO BE COLD! So I decided to do my own pleinair study this morning - I'm just waiting for the temps to rise a little bit more.  Check back soon to see what ended up on the easel.

Last Day of Capturing the Illusion of Light Pastel Class

Morning Glow 9x12 inches Pastel available $125.00

It's always a sad day when a class comes to an end.  You get used to seeing your classmates and you seem to begin to grasp the lessons being taught when BAM! its the end! I will miss my fellow classmates and I hope to see some of them in future classes, but for the fun of it, after our final class,  I had each student pose in front of their easel with their final paintings.  What a great bunch of artists! And for an extra special treat that day, our incredible instructor Katie Cassidy threw us a pizza party at her house complete with a tour of her studio.  I should have taken pictures of her studio and amazing works in progress, but I was too caught up in the moment - I didn't even get a picture of all of us with Katie!  But I will definitely remember to do that with the next class which starts on Wednesday. I'm so excited! We will be studying color harmony in that class.


Here's the Illusion of Light class along with their final paintings ( some of them were just being started) A couple of students had already cleaned up and I didn't get their pictures. (Sorry)

Katie giving a critique

And my final piece.....

I woke up that morning and rolled over to the sun shining in on my little arrangement and I jumped up to get my camera, and knew this was the next subject for the next painting.  I bought this little hammered metal pitcher at a flea market in Delaware this past fall for $3.00.  I just love it! Just last weekend I put the poppies (silk flowers) and dried baby's breath into it.

The paper that I used had a failed painting of a barn I was working on in plein air - it was just horrible!  So I took a stiff paint brush and brushed and scrubbed the old painting off which left a bright red tinted underpainting to begin this painting on.  That is one of the percs of using pastels..... if you don't like it..... just brush it off and begin something new on top.  No need to waste paper. I didn't take a picture of the failed barn because it was JUST THAT BAD, and I was too embarrassed to share it.