Back in the USA!

When the wind blows hard, it whistles past antennae, around canvas, through window screens, against rigging, and creates a weird symphony of sounds. It was to this accompaniment, I painted the water of Roche Harbor toward Speiden Channel.

I am nearly out of Wallis paper, the perfect support for a dispersion under painting with pastel on top. Lots of tooth in the paper to take as much as I could throw on it.

It is so good to be back in Washington!

May Bouquet from Abstract Principles -- final

May Bouquet
24 x 18, pastel over underpainting on Wallis paper

Oystercatcher

Oystercatcher
18 x 24, pastel

Red Poppies Step One

A painting attempt that failed to work out provided the surface for a new painting. I had heard of oil painters trying this technique, but I had not tried it with pastel.

Wallis paper is so hardy! I scrubbed off the old painting with an old toothbrush and then wet it to really open up the tooth of the paper.

Here you see the old bits of my first painting with a vine charcoal drawing on top.

Painting: Simple

A single spray of flowers. A little bud vase. Light. Shadow. Water.

A personal challenge to paint daily. To paint smaller. To be a better observer. Painted from life. "Simple." 9 X 12 pastel on Wallis paper.

A new painting

Here's the painting I worked on for the rest of today. On the left is the under painting, done with Createx Pure Pigments on Wallis Sanded paper. The under painting gives a structure under the pastel for the building up of the entire piece.

The second photo shows you how far I took this painting today. I was pooping out by the end of the session, but I like some of what is happening here.

The painting is done from a photo I took at Kalaloch Beach on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.

Value Matching

Day one at the pastel workshop ("Basic Color Intensive") with Kitty Wallis. I feel so lucky to be working with this world class artist! Our first exercise is to take a pastel and make a mark on a sheet of Belgian Mist Wallis Paper. Then, try to match that mark with another pastel from a different color family. It is not as easy as it looks! Good matches are revealed when you squint at the pairs and the line between them becomes less distinct. You can tell that I'm having trouble with this exercise!