Rainbow Sunset

Rainbow Sunset   |   Pastel   |   8x6

22 Days of painting waterscapes and I am more in love with them than ever!  They are profoundly abstract in their realism.  If I were given my choice of the last vision of nature I would see, it would be a sunset.

Smash Up!

Smash Up!    Pastel    8x6

Yesterday, my artist friend Maggie Renner Hellman posted this fabulous photo she took of the high waves smashing into the Capitola Pier. I asked her if I might paint from it and she accepted.  These waves are so beyond whatever one sees at the Pier!  All over the US we are seeing extraordinary weather phenomena.  Exciting times for artists; concerning times for those of us who live here and there!

7th Wave

7th Wave   |   Pastel   |   6x8

We all do it. When we are watching the waves roll in, we start counting because we’ve heard, we’ve experienced, we rely on the 7th Wave bringing in the next batch of Big Ones.  And enough of the times for us to count again, it proves true!

Spilt Milk Falls

Spilt Milk Falls    Pastel      8x6

I should call this Liberty Falls because I have taken a great liberty in painting it. You see, it is not my original creation. I painted this from a photo of someone else’s original painting-an oil I loved and saved to my file. Alas, I have never figured out how to label any photos on my iPad so I cannot attribute it properly other than to freely admit this!  And I have taken the liberty of making up a name for this swirling drop; I have never heard this name for a waterfall but, were I allowed to name one similar, this is the name I would choose for it.

The Grand Tetons

The Grand Tetons    |    Pastel   |    6x8

I sat across dinner from a watercolor artist who taught a class at last weekend’s ‘Mushroom Camp’. I was amazed to hear he’d only been painting for five years when he showed me his beautifully wrought mushroom paintings!  I shared with him my 31 Day Challenge and he sent me two of his favorite landscape photos - the one I painted this from and a Texas Morning skyscape with extraordinary colors. Thank you Denis Benjamin for sharing your inspiration and allowing me to do my vision of it!

Wright’s Wonder

Wright’s Wonder    … Pastel … 6x8

Every day you get to paint is special. Any day someone(s) share the experience with you is Just So Damn Special (JSDS!)! I just spent a weekend that gave me so many special moments I feel humble, delighted, thrilled, happy and high!

This awesome couple stopped at the same spot as I did, to see the gorgeous BIG waves at Wright’s Beach just north of Bodega, CA.  We had a great communication and sharing. When Sue told me it was Bob’s Birthday, that sealed the deal. I offered them my painting as a birthday present.  It was such a great encounter and I’m still savoring the cupcakes they gave me! Thanks to Barbara Tapp for turning me onto to the sheer delight of having a meaningful connection and giving a present of my art!

Tide Textures

Tide Textures | Pastel | 6x8

As the tide goes out, slick rocks and seaweed are left behind, looking bare and refreshed.

Painting Notes:  It’s all about nailing the values when you create the wet look. Pastel is very forgiving, letting one go smooth with the sweep of a finger, or pushing the previous stroke into the paper and making a new hard line over it. 

Fishing on the Sacramento River

Fishing on the Sacramento River | Pastel | 6x8

This scene will always mean a great deal to me for I took the photo of it on our first walk just a short week after my husband’s heart attack.  We walked 1 1/2 Miles down the levee before returning, way past the curve in the river seen here.  It was tiring for him but a good sign to both of us that he is going to recuperate from this dramatic heart event.  

Noyo Revisited

Noyo Revisited | Pastel | 12x9

Four years ago, I attended the first MOPO - Mendocino Open Paint Out.  Several of us went to Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg to paint. My painting that day has always bothered me. At first, I didn’t know what was wrong; then, I didn’t know how to fix it; tonight I took it out and redid in my 2018 style. As I grow as an artist, I’m able to see what is wrong, then figure out how I’d change it. This will be a fun painting to revisit every four or so years and see what I come to change.

Here’s a shot of the original titled Harbor Lights | Pastel 2014

Painting Notes:  It’s not hard to ‘revisit a painting’ if it’s a pastel. I sprayed my Pastelboard painting with ISO 90 - Isoprophyl Alcohol 90%. Then I went off to eat my artichoke dinner. When I returned, of course it was bone dry and I was able to do anything I wanted with it. The only downside to fixing and changing is the substrate and what it is attached to. Recently I sprayed Spectrafix heavily on a sheet of pastel paper attached to a self-adhesive foam core board. It rippled when dry and I had to chuck it. Pastelboard, on the other hand, is rigid and will take any fixative and a lot of abuse!

Homage to Rudy

Homage to Rudy | Pastel | 6x8

My dear friend Suzi Long, Artist extraordinaire, lives in lovely Mendocino where she has a balcony which is visited frequently by a sea gull.  She calls him Rudy. He seems to be ubiquitous as we’ve run into him at every beach painting site, even in Monterey at one of the Plein Air Conventions. Here he is, again at the beach; or perhaps this is his first cousin once or twice removed!

Painting Notes:  A good set of pastel pencils is essential, not only for the initial drawing.  When a drawing requires accuracy, I find it is the tool to use. Only problem I continually experience is that the pastel inside its wooden sheath seems to easily shatter, either during the sharpening process or perhaps during transporting it during my plein air outings.  I sure wish some company would create a better casing so the whole pencil stick is usable.

BC Vista

BC Vista | Pastel | 6x8

As we traveled south from Alaska through British Columbia, it seemed like the mountains that had been so inaccessible in Alaska were now surrounding us. BC is known for many things, not the least of which is its awesome lakes. The water is still the glacier turquoise while the Black Spruces are still the main forest conifer. Black Spruces brunch closely together; their tall skinny forms are often ravaged by the elements of their long-lived lives.

Mountain High

Mountain High | Pastel | 14x11

Mountains always amaze me. Their height, their sheer cliffs, the way snow and light clings to their surfaces. Add a stream of melting snow and I’m in heaven!

Painting Notes: Save the good ones, put it away, then come back when you’re a better painter ... and change it up. 

Frosty Morn

Frosty Water | Pastel | 8x6

The end of September brought the first dusting of snow while we were cozily asleep in our van. We awoke to a pink dawn and a landscape so frosty that it seemed to crackle. Colorado showed us its winter glory that last week we were there and brought back fond memories of my four years at University of Colorado.

Falling Water

Falling Water | Pastel | 6x8

Hiking thru the woods, you hear it before you see it.  There it is! Water falling down the hillside. Eureka! Your thirst feels quenched, you imagine being under it, letting it stream down your face. 

Painting Notes:  Stroking in the darks on top of dark grit is an abstraction. Square pastels like Terry Ludwig’s are perfect for this. See and feel the geometry of the rocks; hear and stroke the water falling. Pastels are the perfect medium for depicting water- for being the water - as you release the lights from the dark background. 

The Fountain

 

The Fountain | Pastel | 8x6

It was chilly today so we dressed in our snow boots to stand on the concrete patio. We painted and chatted all the while the Fountain played it’s delightful tune. 

Painting Notes:  I’m sold on UArt’s newest dark pastel paper. I’ve been a die-hard Wallis Warm Belgian Mist Paper fan for all my years at pastel and still possess 12x18 sheets of what I believe is the last batch that will be sold. It seems to my touch that the 500 Dark is a touch smoother than the 500 regular cream paper but I can’t be sure. I just know that every painting I do on the dark ends with me liking the substrate a bit more. 

Wave Action

Wave Action | Pastel | 6x8

Day 1 #stradaeasel 

Starting my 31 Paintings in 31 Days Challenge with a wave painting. I plan to concentrate on water themes this January. This wave is froma photo I took at Carmel River Beach on Nov 10, 2017 at the start of the weekend Paint Out with the California PLEIN Air Painters.

Painting Notes  Playing again with my nutmeg grater and a white pastel to create the spray affect.  I used a small brush to remove some of the speckles where I didn’t want them.  NuPastels were the champion Pastel for this small painting.