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.

Emerald Glow 10 x 8 pastel on board





Back to Plein Air

After a difficult year with my broken arm and a very hot summer, I've been able to get outside to paint this month and it's been wonderful. We are finally having a spate of beautiful weather and I'm really enjoying being outside again. I'm giving a plein air class on Fridays and going out to paint on my own on Saturday. This picture was my first painting on Friday at Lake Needwood, a park here in Rockville that I've painted at in the past. I immediately spotted the beautiful green reflections in the water juxtaposed by the darks and decided this was my painting. It's being able to see simple compositions like this that makes plein air painting so challenging and rewarding.

Lakeshore 14 x 11 pastel on board

This was my second painting of the day on Friday during my plein air class. I was looking at a large bank of rather boaring trees, but spotted the grouping of three trees that I decided to focus on. It gave me confidence that I could always find something of interest to paint!

Needwood Reflections 14 x 11 pastel on board

I painted this scene last Saturday after my Friday plein air class. I went back to a different location and found this to be a really beautiful spot, even if it was right by the road.

I kept my color palette to blues and blue greens, along with the warmer colors, and eliminated most of the violets that I often favor. The reflections kept changing, of course, but that's part of the challenge.

The Importance of Surface, Pt. 3

On the Edge, 24 x 18 pastel on pastelmat

And now for something completely different! Both the subject, a house on the cliff in San Diego, and the surface--pastelmat--are quite different. This is a more dramatic picture--a modern house and deck chair poised over an eroding cliff with vegetation. I knew I needed a surface that would allow for the details of the chair, but the cliff was equally important.

So I decided to use a new surface, pastelmat, which is really remarkable. It feels very smooth, as if there is no tooth. However, it holds the pastel beautifully and allows for a fine degree of detail, while also being a nice surface to develop foliage.

I used a sheet of white paper and did a watercolor underpainting, which was really crucial to the cliff. It didn't work so well for the house and sky as it bled around the lines. But in the cliff it allowed me to lightly brush on pastel without overdoing it. Interestingly, it is hard to smear the pastel on this paper. I was going to use it for the Summer Houses picture, and realized it might be hard to get the water right, so saved it for this instead.

This is a great new surface for pastel painters. We are very fortunate that so many companies are producing the quality surfaces and pastels that make working in our medium such a joy!

The Importance of Surface, Pt. 2

Summer Houses, 24 x 18 pastel on Wallis board

This is another picture from Hollywoods Beach. The reflection of the red roof in the water really excited me and I love painting houses! Because of the detail needed for the houses and telephone pole, and the fact that I would be painting a lot of water, I chose a sheet of Wallis museum grade sanded paper, that I had purchased mounted on board from Dakota Pastels.

Wallis is a surface that allows for really fine detail, when needed, and also allows for a lovely build up of color. It also is very nice for smudging or smearing the pastel in places. This is something that should be done very judiciously! I do not regularly smear pastel with my hands as it tends to deaden the pastel. But when I'm painting water, there are times when a little finger blending is nice, particularly for reflections in water.

I found that this surface worked perfectly for this picture!

The Importance of Surface, Pt. 1

March Beach, 24 x 18, pastel on board


I recently completed three paintings in the same size, each done on a different surface. The surfaces were chosen, partly because I had them in the size I wanted, but more importantly because of their properties and the needs of the individual pictures.

I am a strong believer that in pastel, the surface is as important and probably more important than the pastels that are used. Because we apply the color with our hands, it is very tactile and the feel of the surface and how it takes the pastel is very important to our ability to accomplish the kind of painting we want to do. For that reason, I use a number of different surfaces and always keep the picture in mind when I select the paper or board.

This painting is pure landscape--no buildings or important structures. Thus, there is little need for hard line. Only the three boardwalks are man-made. I did the painting on gatorfoam with a Art Spectrum liquid primer painted on, which produces strokes that give a vibrancy to the picture. You can't see this in the reproduction, but it makes a real difference when doing a painting like this. This surface frees me up and allows me to be loose, which is a real plus in landscape work. But it's a little harder to get fine detail.

The picture is the beach at Hollywoods in Mattapoisett, MA. I was there in March and my friend Paula Cobb took me there for a late afternoon photo shoot. Thanks Paula!

Playing around!

I've been playing with still life again. The July show at Waverly Street Gallery will include work that is in some way different from what we normally do. I decided to do a series of 4 orchid pictures, 2 of which I'll share in the blog. I'm working in a square format, something I've never done, and I'm doing floral work, something else I almost never do.

I really had fun with these, beginning with liquid acrylic and then using primarily Terry Ludwig pastels to lightly layer and build up color, trying to let some of the acrylic show through in places.

It's very different from my landscapes, which are pretty well planned out ahead of time. With these, I've just picked up a color and played with it. And the blue vase was completely made up! All four can be seen on my website.

Backroad sun and snow 13.5 x 19.5 pastel on paper




This picture is quite different from the others. I used a new surface--pastelmat--which is smooth but really holds the pastel. I found that I really liked it. I also returned to a more traditional technique of working from hard to soft pastel with no under painting. The paper was toned a warm sienna which added to the overall warmth of the picture.

In this painting there is more warm green in the sky and the light areas of the snow have been painted with peach and yellows. Combined with the reds in the bushes, the overall feel is one of bright sunshine and warmth, despite the large amount of snow!

I look forward to experimenting further with this surface.

Yellow house in winter 18 x 24 pastel on board

For this third picture, I chose an image of one of the most interesting houses in Mattapoisett. It seems to go on forever, with wonderful roof lines, widow's walk, and a great view of the harbor. I enhanced the view, however!

This picture is about the house and the drama of the snow-covered road with shadows. I used a cool ultramarine in the sky with green over it. Chose to keep the light areas of the snow pretty cool so as not to compete with the house. I used a combination of green, blue, and pink tints, as well as a cool yellow.

The roughness of the prepared board worked well for the snow-covered, rutted road.

Snow light 11.5 x 19 pastel on paper




Here is my second snow painting. On this day the sun was out and brilliant. It was so bright that it cast a glare over the scene. I found this old barn in Rochester, Mass. and took a number of shots of it, liking this view best.

The painting consists of complementary colors of cool reds and greens. The sky is green and pink! The snow in the shadows has a lot of light red and blue violet and is pink in the sunny areas. I like the harmony of this. A blue sky would not work as well.

The composition is unusual and I was worried that it would be too heavy on the left. So I tried to render the tree rather loosely and keep it from getting too dark. I feel that the length of the buildings stretching to the right gives balance.

The painting was done on "super tooth" paper by Art Spectrum with only Girault pastels. These are a medium soft, somewhat grainy pastel that really work on this paper.

Quiet watch 20 x 16 pastel on board

Snow!

It's February 1st and I haven't posted since October! But I have been painting and have completed 4 paintings, all of snow. (And this despite a broken left arm!!!) There is no pure white in any of my paintings. So I thought I'd share them on the blog and discuss my choice of colors for the snow.

This first picture was inspired by a scene in Mattapoisett on an overcast day. I saw the arc of grasses arising above the snow and knew that I had the makings for a painting. The village is my invention. You won't see this scene in Mattapoisett.

Since the sky is overcast, the light on the snow is cooler, not as bright as it would be on a sunny day, with the yellows of the sun. The color of the more distant snow is actually a very light tint of green; the snow in the foreground is violet and pink. There are no cast shadows, so the snow forms a solid shape. I find this to be very restful, very quiet without the energy of a scene filled with shadows.

I added a red tailed hawk in the tree on the right to balance the rust colors of the oak leaves on the left. But I didn't want him to be too obvious. He should blend into his surroundings, as a hawk on the prowl would want to do!