Square 39: New Harmony Waif

                                             6x6 pastel $100

This child played hide and seek with my camera for just a few brief minutes...I fell in love!

Square 37: 6x6 Pastel Study for oil...Creek Bed

I can close my eyes and still see these three young girls walking the creek bed  on a hot summers evening. I was working out some compositional things and color with this pastel. Really looking forward to painting it in oil!!

Square 34: Sundrops

6x6 pastel $100 unframed

The space between two mediums: How big is it really???

As predominantly an oil painter, I switched to a new medium for the entire winter...pastel. I greatly enjoyed this and have learned a great deal (mostly about optical color) from doing it. However, I have not been able to get comfortable with doing pastels plein air which is my big passion....soooooo I have gone back to my oils and just feel like I need to say ahhhhhhhhhhhhgh!

Ok...so I'm a little frustrated! Here is a work in progress which I wiped off my canvas 3 times yesterday. That is not normally a good sign. After the 3rd time I finally got to where I felt things were going in a direction I liked but oh man....Anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions?

A finished Tonal Portrait and a Memory painting!!

Top photo oil, bottom photo pastel
"Monches Farm, Spring" both 8x10

Last night I did a quick oil from complete memory. I had done a pastel plein air piece about two weeks ago but didn't have it with me so I just closed my eyes and remembered...how'd I do??



Last night I also put the finishing touches on the portrait of my son and Grandson.: "Father and Son" 16x20 oil. It was my first tonal painting so I learned bunches and while I loved the result I struggled some with the necessary patience...What do you think??

New Harmony and plein air in Pastel!!

Solomon's Vine 12x16 Pastel

Fence Line 7x5 pastel Sold!!!

What an amazing trip and week...80's and sunny most of it and painting, friends, and competition...even a sale...I am content. I learned that I have a lot to learn! (Shocker!)

She shoots...She Scores!!!

She wins second place in the Raven Juried show called "Renewal"!

Sheep and a tractor!

Tractor on Washington
8x10 Pastel




Shear Buddies
5x7 Pastel

Time crunch leads to a new passion!

Ok... so the 4 year old grandson comes to live here for a while and it rapidly becomes clear that after getting him in bed and doing a reality check on my available remaining energy level, I am too tired to set up my oil paints and paint. This goes on for a while and I am in utter creative withdrawal when a little light bulb goes on...what about pastels? I had a small set tucked away and I found some small mat board pieces and in about 5 minutes I was at it!

Having struggled for awhile to really understand optical color in my work, the first thing I noticed is that you have to work in optical color to create a representative image in pastel...I am learning!! I am painting small...5x7...8x10 etc. And I am trying to paint everyday!

Let me know what you think!!