House on the Point (corrected!)
16 x 20 pastel on board




I thought I'd add the corrected version of this painting. After I filmed it and added it to the blog, I had a critique from my husband and friend Muriel. They both felt the shadow at the bottom was too dark and prominent. So I lightened it, reduced the size and shape to look more like another building, and softened the edges, which were much too hard. It's easier to get past the shadow now and I prefer the shape of the light sand, which leads into the house. I'm really happy with it now!

House on the Point 16 x 20 pastel on board

This painting, from Westport, Mass. was done on Ampersand pastel board using a water color underpainting and a lot of hard pastel. I finished it with a minimum of soft pastel. The sky, however, is all soft.

I took several pictures of this house and knew it was something I really wanted to paint. I like the progression of boat to shed to house with the strong lights and darks. I thought about it a long time and knew that I wanted to mix a lot of colors in the darks and decided to work with hard pastel. I did a color study, using a green sky and red roofs, along with aqua in the lighted areas of the shed and really liked it. I added the buoys to the right side of the shed to give a little more interest to the shadowed side.

I like this house because it could be almost anywhere. It is New England weather-beaten shingle, but the style of the buildings doesn't say "New England." I could see this house along the Chesapeake and did think about adding an oyster boat, but decided that would make it too busy.

House by the River 11.5 x 19 pastel on paper

This painting was done as a demo for my class at Montgomery College. I was demonstrating two things: the use of complementary color and the use of two different kinds of underpainting. The surface is Art Spectrum "supertooth", a fantastic surface for underpaintings.

I used both hard pastel and water color as an underpainting, using the pastel in the dark areas behind the house and in the buildings and bushes. I used water color in the grasses at bottom and part of the top, as I didn't want to completely cover it with pastel. I used various green pastels on the house as an underpainting: a mid-tone cool green under the shadow areas, a warm yellow green under the lighted area. For the finished picture, the composition is primarily red violets and cool reds (magenta), along with warm greens. I really liked the luminosity of the water color at the bottom and added only a minimal amount of pastel.

One of the biggest challenges was the roof. In the photo, it appeared to be a very light violet but I was trying to keep to my red/green color scheme. I started out with a warm aqua, but really didn't like it and cooled it down with a light grayed reddish color and a little violet. It's probably still all a little too light but the sun was overhead, hitting it pretty strongly.

The "river" is the Root River in southern Minnesota. We were hoping to take some nice walks on the bike trail, but it was in the 90s and a little too warm. This might be a stretch as a "shore house" but there really was a river nearby!

Cape Cottages 16 x 20, pastel on board




I decided to share three of my recent "shore house" pictures that I'm working on for a show in April. This one is from Welfleet, Mass., on the outer Cape. I loved the row of little cottages that are so unlike the fancy new houses springing up everywhere. I removed picnic tables from the picture and added the bike. The photo was taken in early June, which is still off-season on Cape Cod!

This picture is painted on a board that had another painting on it at one time! The painting got washed off in the sink, leaving a lot of brownish color. I toned the gel I used to cover the old painting and thus, started with a rather rough and dark background. I thought it might be fun for doing white houses! For a long time, I thought it was NOT going to work at all but I kept at it and finally decided that I really like it.