"PRICKLY PEAR FRUIT" 8" X 10" Pastel

                                                                                                                                                       

Because we live in the desert of southeast Arizona we have many varieties of cactus plants. The one that is my favorite from a painter's point of view is the Prickly Pear cactus. I like it because of its shapes...roundish paddles that grow in different directions...and colors...everything from green to turquoise to pinks and purples. Here are a couple of pictures ( below) of them at various stages.

The painting itself is done on a surface called Multimedia Artboard. I hadn't used it before this project, and it makes an interesting ground for pastel. It's made from paper and resin and comes in white and black. I used black for mine. It accepts pastel well and leaves an interesting texture which is perfect for THIS subject matter. I did have a hard time making fine detailed marks, but again, for this subject I felt it was alright. This surface is also advertised for oils and acrylics. The website that makes this paper is http://multimediaartboard.com/Home_Page.php    You might be interested in experimenting with it sometime.

                                                                                

                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                           

"PLUM REFLECTIONS" 11" X 14" Pastel on panel SOLD

I did some some additional experimenting with plums photographed on foil. I used another piece of scrapbooking paper for the background. The foil picks up and disperses the patterns from the scrapbooking paper. Kind of cool! Thanks again to Carol Marine for mentioning this technique many months ago.



                                                                  

"THE SERIOUS ARTIST" 12" X 12" Pastel on Pastelbord nfs

I just completed this painting of my grandson, Landon. He's three years old and loves anything to do with art. He's comfortable with experimentation and is open to changing his original intention at any time. He loves to paint outside the lines and can complete a whole painting with just three colors. He uses a mixture of hard and soft edges, and he'll often disregard the true color of objects in favor of colors he feels are more suitable. There's so much I can learn from him!                                                                           

"STRAPPY SHOES" 12" X 12" Oil on Canvas

                                                                             
I submitted this painting in the latest DailyPaintworks Challenge. The idea was to choose a color scheme using the Munsell Color Wheel or the standard color wheel. The scheme could be complementary, triadic or split complementary. We were allowed to use only those colors in the chosen scheme and others made from those colors only. We could also use white. I used turquoise, red/purple, orange and white. It always is amazing how many colors you can make from just a few core colors.

"TWO FUJIS AND A GRANNY' 18" X 14" Pastel

Where would a still life artist be without apples - or pears, or oranges, or limes, or lemons, or peaches, or onions...ad infinitum. The bounty of vegetables and fruit available for interesting paintings just goes on. And their modeling fees are very reasonable!                                                                           

"AGAVE PLANT" 12" X 16" Pastel Sold

There are many Agave plants in this area of Arizona as they are one plant that can tolerate the heat and dryness of the summer. They can be very stately and almost sculptural in appearance, and I love painting the various hues and shadows they have. After a rainfall their stems (because of their cupped shape) often hold water for birds and animals.                                                                        

"Ready For My Close-up" 16" X 20" Mixed Media SOLD

As a follow-up to my last post about fixing pastels by steaming them, I thought I'd share one of the local cottontails I painted using the steaming method. The composition is very simple, but the idea was to find out what the steam does to different colors. You can see on his body the blues, greens, violets and oranges. The steam does make them more saturated which can be a good thing....or not.



                                                                            

"CACTUS GARDEN" 16" X 20" Mixed Media

This painting is basically a pastel painting worked in a method taught to me by Jean Ranstrom, an amazing artist and instructor. It uses a method often employed by the early impressionists such as Degas. It involves steaming the various layers of pastel, letting each layer dry, then adding another layer. You start with the lighter colors (the opposite of traditional pastel layering). This was done using a Frederick's Watercolor Canvas Board- a sturdy surface and able to handle the steaming process. A  primer with grit such as pumice or marble dust is applied in two layers so that the canvas will hold the pastel. Art Spectrum makes a fine tooth Colourfix Primer in a few colors as well as "Clear" which is what I used. For steam we used a clothes steamer in the workshop, but at home I've used a big pot of boiling water and "waved" the canvas art side down 2-3 times over the steam at a height of about 12 inches. You don't want it to get too wet. Be sure to let it dry thoroughly after each steaming. At the finish of the painting you can spray a light varnish on it and you're done. I put a frame around it, but there is no need for glass as with traditional pastel painting. The multiple steaming "treatments" adhere the pastel to the surface, and if done properly there's no pastel dust to fall off. I really enjoyed this process. The steam does darken the colors, but going slowly with color application and "feeling your way" with materials helps to control the results.                                                                           

"GALA GET-TOGETHER" 5" X 7" Pastel on Pastelbord

My grandsons came to visit this weekend, and I had purchased these Gala apples for snacks. I had a couple left over, and what's a painter to do with extra apples? Uh-huh...paint them!  I used a Pastelbord panel - one of my favorite surfaces.                                                                     

"ONE MAN SHOW" 6" X 8" Pastel

I experimented with a new surface for this onion painting. I think it's a fairly new product called Art Spectrum Suede. I ordered a sampler pack and it had eight sheets of different colors. The one I chose to use for this was the deep blue. I wanted the blue to show through here and there in the yellows and oranges of the onion. I used different shades of blue and turquoise to cover the background and foreground. The paper has a smooth, lush surface - just like suede! The pastel goes on smoothly and the paper holds a fair amount - not as much as a sanded surface like Wallis, of course, but certainly enough to put on multiple layers of pastel. I used Panpastel for the lay-in then soft pastels for filling and finishing.

The only thing I found I need to watch the next time I use this paper is to be careful of pressing too hard when sketching the design onto the surface. It's easy to add a bit more pressure with the pastel pencil or other pointed tool, and if you do you will have indentations that are very difficult to cover. But, knowing that, I'll just be more careful next time.