Venice Painting in Soft Pastel

This painting is based on a photo I took when my husband and I were in Venice last fall.  Normally this is not something I'd choose to paint, but I was so in love with the image that I abandoned all good sense and insisted on painting it.  As you might guess, it was time consuming.  Definitely my most ambitious painting to date.  I started this painting the end of last year, and then had to put it away for a while so I could get other projects done.  I'm very happy to have finally finished it.

For those who are interested, here are a few WIP pictures I took during the painting process.  

And the finished painting again:

"Venice"

25" x 19"

Soft Pastel on La Carte

(SOLD)

Buddha

This is a painting of my favorite statue at the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the big island of Hawaii. I suppose because of the cold and snow I’ve been daydreaming about the summer vacation we’ve planned, which includes another visit to the Hilton Waikoloa. We had such a fabulous time there, and I am so looking forward to going back. This statue was by our hotel tower, so we saw it every day as we boated in from or out to another part of the resort. For some reason, just looking at it made me happy.

8" x 10"

Soft Pastels on Suede Matboard

Jefferson Memorial

Our current challenge on the Different Strokes From Different Folks blog is painting the Jefferson Memorial at night. I was happy to try my hand at this, as I think pastels are perfect for this sort of painting. I blocked in the shapes and refined from there, finishing the painting relatively quickly. Unfortunately, I've spent many more hours photographing and playing with it in Photoshop than I did painting it, and I still can't seem to get the colors to show up accurately. It is more vibrant in person, but this is as close as I can get to the original.

5"x7"

Soft Pastels on Suede Matboard

The Bean

I painted this for last week’s challenge on Karin Jurick’s “Different Strokes From Different Folks” blog. For some reason, it hasn’t shown up on the blog, though. Karin asked me if it was a digital painting, which isn’t allowed, so either she didn’t get my answer or she was just busy and it fell through the cracks. It is not a digital painting, though. It’s just me trying to paint loose!

“Cloud Gate”
11”x14”
Oil on canvas

This has to be the strangest thing I’ve ever painted. It messed with my mind. I thought I had shapes painted correctly, but when I’d walk away and come back to it, I would realize I didn’t. After repainting the buildings a couple of times, I had to resort to painting it upside down or sideways, just to get my brain to let go of what it thought was correct. It was a fun challenge, though!