Early on a Winter's Evening

There is a certain enchanting beauty about a heavy snowfall on evergreens at the end of a winter’s day. I wanted to capture the peaceful quality of a northern Canadian landscape since this is where I’m from and we certainly have had a peaceful and long winter this year, which has brought several inches of snow although I am getting rather tired of the snow at this point in the year. This will probably be the last snow painting that I depict for a bit and plan on painting other subjects including a few spring landscapes if I can find the proper references or the wherewithal to paint.

I rarely talk about the actual application of the pastel however it might be interesting to some so…Many pastelists like to use harder pastels in the beginning and layer the softer ones over top however I don’t really like the hard pastel I have well enough to use them so I move straight to the Girault which are medium hard to the really soft one’s like Ludwig and Unison and keep layering until I either achieve what I want or I run out of layering surface. I don’t bother with an under-painting or anything fancy. It’s better to concentrate on things I need to work on improving such as the values changes, composition and color application.

Early on a Winter's Evening
Etsy

Morning Mist on a Northern Lake

I first picked up oils again about four years ago and this was one of the first paintings that I did and actually liked and triggered a memory of a natural landscape which I can’t quite identify which leaves me with a feeling of nostalgia.  It has been hanging on a wall in my house ever since I finished it and I finally decided to part with it and try to sell it online.  An artistic teacher had said something about how artists don’t try to paint mist and fog in their landscape paintings often enough and these atmospheric weather conditions have always held a certain attraction for me so I try to do this periodically and this was one of the first oil paintings where I practiced this.  I used artist grade Windsor and Newton oil paints on a pre-stretched canvas which is also an artist grade support. After about a year and a half of painting with oils I found soft pastels and enjoy using them since they require less clean up and you get finished results much sooner or at least I usually tend not to play around with pastels as much as the oils. I also needed to put the oils down since lifting the brush up and over the level of my shoulder was painful and the whole arm would go numb and the shoulder joint would hurt like crazy! I’m hoping that the shoulder will permit me to pick up the oils again if I should feel the lure of the brush again. I pulled the oils out recently and looked them over however the desire to use them didn’t quite hit me yet hopefully it will in the future and I would like to develop a more mature style with the soft pastels as well.

Morning Mist on a Northern Lake, Oil on Canvas, 16x20"

Silver Light by the Sea

I was thinking about water, wind and the weather and how it would be great fun to go see the ocean and see how it spoke to me. I liked the silvery morning light and the pink and violet clouds in the sky and the contrast between the rocks and the light on the water. The water seemed fairly calm so I decided to keep the marks smooth and I blended the colors a lot and I tried to capture the movement of the water around the rocks in the foreground. I used the same Terry Ludwig, Unison and Girault Pastel combination I always use on Wallis Pro White Paper.

Silver Light by the Sea, pastels on pastel paper, 12x18"

Redwoods in Color Pencil

I have two redwoods growing in my garden and love them both and really appreciate the beautiful color then turn into in the fall. I found a picture of redwoods that change to bright red and wanted to do a pencil piece about them. I completed this piece about four years ago and found it in my portfolio where it had been left forgotten and decided that I should pull it out and see if anyone would like to add it their art collection. There have been several hours involved in creating this piece as there is for all pencil art. I have a bad shoulder and don’t work in pencil anymore since it’s very aggravating so this is one of my few color pencil pieces. Faber Castel Colored pencils on acid free paper

Redwoods, color pencil on paper, 11x15"