Icy Winter River

A soft pastel painting of a winter scene depicting deciduous trees along an icy river on a winter morning.  I used Unison and Terry Ludwig soft pastels secured with pastel fixative on a pastel surface. 

 

 

Apricot Roses & Blue Salvia Soft Pastel Art

 I created this pastel painting from a photo of a rose bush growing with salvia. The photo reminded me of an English rose that grew in my garden before it was winter killed.

Orange Coneflower Pastel Painting

I started this drawing over a year ago and keep coming back too it.i am not sure how well this will hold up too the rest of time and suspect that the powder will just chip and fall. I am wanting too change too Oil or a water based paint.

Update:  the pastel is very stable and the surface is treated with pastel fixative.  

New Pastel Landscape

Soft Pastel on Pastel Paper.

This is one of the first soft pastel paintings I have done in a few years. 

Illness and family history work have kept me busy.

Now I am counting the days until I can buy more paper and pastels.

This painting is created on one of the new pieces of Pastelmat I bought from the UK.

So far I love Clairefontaine Pastelmat the best of any pastel paper I have found, especially since Wallis Paper does not seem too be around any more.

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"

Greywood by Trilight

After creating some landscaping paintings of brightly colored trees I decided to paint a woodland scene with softer and more neutral gray colors. I wanted to capture the cool and tranquil atmosphere of the interior of the woodland in the beginning of autumn. I added a touch of warm orange to add a little color to the scene as well. I used artist quality pastels by Terry Ludwig and Unison on acid free pastel paper by Wallis. 

Greywood by Twilight, Pastel on Pastel Paper, 12x18"

Milky Way Sky

I decided to do something a little different than what I’ve done before and started a small painting of the night sky and the Milky Way Galaxy using some violets and pinks and lots of dark pastels. It was interesting and somewhat tedious to depict all the stars however I think it passes as a starry night sky. There is a certain enchantment in the night sky and I’ve always found pictures of galaxies and nebula to be beautiful, should try another one of these sometime. Terry Ludwig and Unison Pastels on Wallis Pro White Paper and it is a 9×12”.

Milky Way Sky, Pastel on Paper Paper, 9x12"

Morning Flight Over the Harbor

This looks like a tropical lagoon as seen from a plane window and this shot does put me in mind of flying if I was a bird. I have had dreams of flying places and being high up in the sky or floating in the air above trees and water. I used cooler tones and tried to capture the early morning light to give this a soft slightly moody quality. I used Unison and Terry Ludwig pastels on Wallis Pro White Paper, 12x18”.

Morning Flight Over the Harbor, Pastel on Pastel Paper, 12x18"

Japanese Maple in the Autumn

I have two beautiful Japanese Maples growing in my garden, one is the burgundy Bloodgood Maple that changes to a bright red in the autumn and the other is a small cut-leaf variety called Ever Red which also turns a bright red so I have affection for bright red maples. Therefore I decided to use some vibrant reds and oranges for the foliage of this tree and like the way it turned out. Some of my work is much brighter than it used to be. I used Terry Ludwig and Unison Pastels on Wallis Pro White Paper in the 12x18” size.

Japanese Maple in the Autumn, Pastel on Paper, 12x18"

Waterfall

I thought that this is a nice composition for a waterfall painting since the waterfall isn’t one straight chunk of water but instead it is divided into sections or tiered to create a pleasing shape.  I haven’t developed the ability to create rocks as well as I would like and think that I still have some work to do  before this really looks like a rock face but I do link the value changes and variation in texture.  This is only my fourth waterfall painting so still do need to develop a better technique for creating cascading water and think the color’s in the water are a little patchy looking, I’ll try to remedy the situation in my next painting of this subject matter. I tried to keep the color selection as naturalistic and neutral as possible and think that it works and the shrubbery in the background is only suggested since I didn’t want to distract the eye from the main subject matter. I also found that the camera didn’t capture the colors as well as it should so the colors do look a little gray and think that this painting looks much nicer in reality. 

Waterfall, Pastel on Paper, 12x18"