Hawaii Bound

I’m off to Hawaii with my family for some serious relaxation, and hopefully lots of drinks with little umbrellas in them. Lest you think I’ve been slacking before vacation, I thought I’d post my most recently finished painting.

“Lunch Break”
11” x 14”
Soft Pastel on Suede Matboard

See you in a few weeks. Aloha!

My Paintings on Exhibit

My painting “Idle Moments” was juried into the Northwest Pastel Society’s 23rd Annual International Open Exhibit. You can see the exhibit at American Art Company in Tacoma through August 15, 2009, or view it online. Check out the gallery’s web site for info.

The artists participating in the Gig Harbor Open Studio Tour have art on display until August 28th, 2009 at the library in Gig Harbor. I have included a couple of my paintings (one of which won 3rd place at the Peninsula Art League’s Summer Show last weekend).

Dog Painting From my Live Presentation Last Night

I’d like to thank all of you who attended my EBSQ Live! Presentation last night. It was great to meet some new people, and overall a very fun experience. Here is the painting I used for the demonstration. It is my dog, in one of her favorite sunny spots in the house. If you missed the demo, you can see it on my web site here.

"Sunny Spot"

10” x 20”
Soft Pastel on Suede Matboard

A Live Presentation on Soft Pastels at EBSQ!

I have been asked by EBSQ to give a Live Presentation on soft pastels this Monday, 7/13/09 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific. Anyone can attend, and you’re all invited! The presentation will be held in EBSQ’s chat room. If you’re not a member of EBSQ, you’ll need to register as a patron (it’s free!) in order to attend. Then at 6:00 p.m. Pacific (look up the equivalent in your time zone) log into the chat room.

I’ll be talking about the materials I use, then going through a painting from start to finish, step by step. I’m using my dog as a subject.

I’d love to see you there!

Summer Bounty

This was painted for the Different Strokes From Different Folks blog. I started it last Thursday, thinking I’d whip it out really quick instead of waiting until the last minute. I was very impressed with myself for not procrastinating. Unfortunately, I only got it about half finished and didn’t have a chance to paint until now (no procrastination involved, honestly, just super busy). Still, I’m a week early, so that’s an improvement!

(SOLD)

7" x 5"

Soft Pastel on Suede Matboard

Cherries

Here's one I just finished. It will be available this weekend, along with some of my other paintings, at the Peninsula Art League's sale during the Maritime Gig Festival, June 6 & 7. The sale will be set up in the old Ship to Shore building by the new museum. If you're close to Gig Harbor, make sure you stop by and see all the great original art!

3.25" x 5.25"

Soft Pastel on Suede Matboard

New York Street

I painted this picture for the Different Strokes blog. Even though I had three weeks, I waited until the last day to paint this and got it in just under the wire. It’s not that I was procrastinating, I’ve just been really busy. Okay, I was procrastinating. I hate painting buildings. And I actually have been very busy, so it was easy to put off. It was just as well that I waited until the last day, because I didn’t have time to overwork it.

(SOLD)

7" x 5"

Soft Pastel on Suede Matboard

Springer Spaniel Portrait

This is a portrait of a beautiful tri-color Springer Spaniel named Cassidy. I donated a pet portrait to English Springer Rescue America (ESRA) for a fundraising auction, and Cassidy's parents were the winning bidders.

10" x 8"

Soft Pastel on Suede Matboard

Diana’s Companion

7" x 5"

Soft Pastels on Suede Matboard

People have been asking me lately about my process. Unfortunately, I don’t have an easy answer because I don't have a set approach to painting. I may do things differently based on subject, size, purpose of the painting, my mood, whatever. I decided to turn this Different Strokes challenge into a WIP, so those people who are interested could see one of my methods for tackling a painting.

Unless my painting has to be perfect, I prefer to skip measuring. It makes things tedious and takes the fun out of it. For this particular subject, I’m not concerned with perfection. Close is good enough, because no one will likely know if it isn’t perfect. Which means I’m not measuring (hooray!).

Step 1: I cut a 7” x 5” piece of suede matboard and tape it to a piece of cardboard. I then crop and print the reference photo to the same size, taping it next to the board. This will allow me to check size, values, and shapes, and is particularly useful to check accuracy when standing five or six feet back.

Next, I pick out pastels in a light, medium, and dark value. Not the lightest light, or darkest dark, of course – that’s like dessert for me, so I save it for later. I use the light pastel, making marks where the lights are in the ref photo, then do the same with the middle and then the dark values. Now I have a basic sketch.

Step 2: Obviously, I’m going to be using some pastel pencils with this piece. Her face is only ½” big. There’s no way I’ll get enough detail with these fat pastels. Using a gray pastel pencil, I define the figures.



Step 3: Going back with the pastels again, I work on the values.



Step 4: I alternate between pastel pencils and pastels, refining the drawing.

With the finished painting next to the ref photo, it’s very obvious where I’m off. But since no one is going to see the ref photo next to the painting in real life, I think it’s close enough.
Here is the finished piece again, larger. Lots of fun, and no tedious measuring. My favorite way to paint!

Hot Off The Easel

My first few attempts at painting in oil were small (5”x7”) paintings of my daughter reading. When I painted them last year, I decided it would be a good subject for a large painting. Of course, at the time I was planning on doing it in oil, but I never got around to it. Since I recently got a full set of Mount Visions pastels, I’ve been playing large. I thought it would be fun to see if I could paint this in pastels instead of oils. Turns out, it really was fun.

"Idle Moments"

24” x 28”

Soft Pastels on Suede Matboard

Twice Tapped

I’ve been given the “Passion for Painting” award by two of my online artist friends, James Parker and Edward Burton. I am supposed to list seven things that I love, and then pass the award on to seven other artists.

The seven things I love are:

1. My family
2. My friends
3. Painting
4. Sitting on my deck in the summer with wine and good friends, or a good book
5. Being able to watch hummingbirds, bald eagles, the occasional deer, or even seals while I do the dishes or lounge on the deck
6. The sound of my kids laughing
7. The smell of the air in summer, when the sun heats up the pines

Here are seven very talented artists whose work I particularly enjoy:

Jennifer McChristian
Jason DeGraaf
Alvin Richard
Nathan Fowkes
Todd Ford
Justin Taylor
Edward B. Gordon

Thank you, James & Edward!

Sushi

I took a quick break from the painting I’m working on to paint this for the Different Strokes From Different Folks blog. I debated doing several different things with it, but in the end left it pretty much as is.

I've decided I like eating sushi more than painting it. I really wanted sushi the whole time I was working on this. Although truthfully, I’m a wimpy sushi eater. California rolls are about as adventurous as I get, but I love them. My kids and I make them occasionally, and they are so addictive!

3.25" x 5.25"

Soft Pastels on Suede Matboard

First Place!

My “Moored” painting won first place in the Peninsula Art League small works show. If you’re local to Gig Harbor, stop by the library and see the show!

"Moored"

This painting is part of a small works show at the Peninsula Library in Gig Harbor. I wanted to paint something with a bit of local flavor for this show, and this little dinghy seemed just right. It will be on display until March 30.

"Moored"

5" x 7"

Soft Pastels on Suede Matboard

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

Victorian Rooftop

This is my submission for the current Different Strokes From Different Folks blog. As is often the case with the DSFDF challenge, this is something I would never have chosen to paint (if you ever see me painting a building, you can assume it wasn’t my idea). I dread painting windows, columns, staircases, etc., so it was with a fair amount of reluctance that I approached this painting. Luckily, I was able to paint it fairly quickly.

2.75" x 5.5"

Soft Pastels on Paper

I had a tiny piece of La Carte paper (a sample that came in the box with my Sennelier pastels) which I decided to use for this piece. I cropped the photo reference to minimize the number of windows I would have to paint. I started out drawing with a pastel pencil, but quickly realized I was going to have to use a regular drawing pencil and a ruler if I were to achieve a decent level of accuracy. Once the drawing was completed, the painting part was actually fun.

Choir

This one was really fun to paint. I wanted to keep it somewhat loose, so I tried very hard not to obsess about detail. It took me quite a while to get the results I wanted, but it was worth it. I'm so happy with the way it turned out!

"Choir"

10" x 8"

Soft Pastel 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

Buzz and Baby

This is a Christmas present for a good friend of mine. Buzz is the sweetest dog you’d ever meet. He’s also my dog’s boyfriend (does she have good taste or what?). They are fun to watch together – she puts up with his kisses, and even shares her bones and toys with him, something she’s never done with any other dog. When the family took in two underage kittens, Buzz was their surrogate dad, allowing them to snuggle with him and even try to nurse. I've painted him with one of the babies as a Christmas gift to his mom. Isn’t he handsome?

8"x10"

Soft Pastels on Suede Matboard

Happy Holidays to you all!

Painting Different Folks

This is my portrait for the current Different Strokes From Different Folks challenge. We were paired anonymously with another artist and given their photo. Since no one was going to see the reference photos, we could free ourselves up and use unusual colors or not even worry about getting a good likeness. Sounded like wild and crazy fun to me.

I had just finished rereading “Harley Brown’s eternal truths for every artist” when I received my photo reference, so I grabbed a piece of suede matboard and smeared pastel over it to “show it who’s boss,” as Harley advised. I was really impressed with myself for a couple of seconds, but I had no idea what to do next (I thought I had learned something reading that book, but it’s so easy to get distracted by the pictures). So I decided to block in the shapes as usual, but do it colorfully with blues, greens, yellows and oranges. Am I wild and crazy or what? It didn’t last long, though.

Here’s what I learned about myself: I have to get a good likeness. I can’t not do it. It makes me crazy. I started layering on normal colors and turned it upside down to check my proportions. Pretty soon my portrait was looking like the original photo. Just to compensate for my boringness, I put some wild color into the background. Plus, I’m slightly off and I’m not even going to correct it. Yep, that’s me, living on the edge.

10”x8”
Soft Pastel on Suede Matboard

One thing that did stick with me from Harley's book was this: "You can't go looking for style."