Morning Sunlgiht in Oil and Pastel

"Back Alley Sunlight II", Pastel, 18 x 24 on Pastelboard

It's been a busy couple of weeks!  I had to drive from Maryland to Saratoga Springs last week which took all day because I ALWAYS get lost in Maryland!  I don't know why.  We had a short visit with my brother who flew up from Key West which was fun.  So, a long explanation for why I haven't painted or posted in a while.  I am working on a few things this week.  The above painting is a large pastel version of "Back Alley Sunlight" which I painted in oil a few weeks ago.  I wanted to see how I could portray that bright early morning light in another medium.  The blues are not as electric as they appear in the above jpeg but the darks ended up brighter and more saturated than I anticipated (even though I used mostly greyed down pastels).  I decided to go back again and try another version with less chroma and more emphasis on the light part of the composition:

"Back Alley Sunlgiht III", Pastel, 9 x 12 pastel on sanded paper

I prefer the composition in the version above.   Below is the original oil (9 x 12) which is really a combination of the top two!

Saratoga Arts Fest

"November Afternoon",  9 x 12,  pastel on sanded paper

This weekend is the Saratoga Arts Fest in beautiful Saratoga Springs NY.  There are a lot of events going on downtown throughout the weekend.  The above painting can be seen (and purchased) at the Mimosa Gallery which is hosting a fundraiser for the Arts Fest.  The opening is tonight from 4 to 7 p.m. so if you're town please stop by (unfortunately I can't make the opening but hopefully you can!).  I love the town of Saratoga.  There is so much going on and there are lots of beautiful places in the area to paint.  I will be teaching a weekend pastel plein air workshop through the Saratoga Arts Center in September.  I will post more info on the workshop later so stayed posted!

In the meantime, I am getting a little plein air time in while visiting the Chesapeake Bay.  This is an inn in a very small town in Maryland called Oxford.  I was so into my painting that I didn't see the huge black clouds approaching until the loud thunder made me drop my brush!  I had to pack up quickly and didn't have time to finish but I think I kind of like it where I left it.  I'll let it sit a while.

And More Thick Paint

"Back Alley Sunshine", 9 x 12, oil on linen board

I have to say I really like working with the thick paint.  I like the texture and it is a lot more fun to push the paint around on the canvas.  I decided to work with a limited palette so that I could focus on just the brushwork in this painting.  I forgot how many grays you can get with  just a few colors plus black.  This was done with Cad Yellow Medium, Cad Red Light, Alizarin Permanent, Ultramarine and Mars Black.  A lot of painters do not use black and I think, for the most part, it is not necessary or helpful to use it when painting landscapes plein air.  If used as a low saturated blue, however, I think it helps create mood and atmosphere with a wider range of grays.

New Pastel: "Artisinal Waiter"

"Artisinal Waiter", 12 x 12, pastel on sanded paper

This is the fourth in a series of paintings based on a  trip to the restaurant "Artisinal" in NYC a couple of months ago.  I love this restaurant:  it has such a classic French bistro feel.  I am also working on some cityscapes and have decided to make the "New England Lobster Fellas" a series as well since I will be in Newport all summer.  I really focused on just the shapes in this painting.  I did a very abstract "notan" underpainting and used a fairly limited palette of pastels.  I'm pretty happy with it though the red violet of the curtains looks much more blue due to the contrast with the orange hues next to it.  I may go back in and push the red a bit more to keep the harmony.

Newport Lobsterman Again

"Newport Lobsterman II", oil on linen panel, 8 x10

The lobsterman paintings may become a series but I won't commit yet.  Two does not make a series!  There is so much material to paint from the New England lobster boats.  The boats are usually small and neutral colored but the bright gear that the men wear and the trap buoys create a colorful and appealing scene.  The challenge is to narrow down the elements to create a cohesive painting.  There is almost too much to work from.   In this painting, I focused on the center man in the orange gear.  I liked the positive and negative shapes created by the overlapping figures. There was actually a lot more going on here but I simplified the composition to focus on the main shapes and concentrate the brightest color around the focal area.   I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Revisiting Old Paintings

"Pears on a Pedestal", pastel on sanded paper, 8 x 10

I am sorting through all my plein air paintings, pastels and every other piece of paper or canvas I've been keeping for the last several years that are not framed or in a gallery.  I keep all of my unframed pastels paintings and sketches in a few large notebooks. I tape the paper onto a sheet of the notebook and cover with a piece of glassine.  It usually works well but I have been carrying these large notebooks with me everywhere for the past few years and some of the paintings are getting smudged.  In addition to the notebooks, I have two large plastic bins of all the oil plein airs that are not framed or should have been scraped off to begin with.  I have been pretty ruthless about sorting out the piles into the fixable and the non-fixable.  There were more non-fixables than I am ready to admit!  The oil panels will be covered with Gamblin Oil Ground which is a pain to do but results in a "like new" surface.  The Wallis paper will be brushed off and reused and the paintings on the homemade paper will be thrown away.  I have a pretty decent sized pile of fixables so it may take a while.  The above painting was done last summer when I was going through a "still life on bright colored fabric" phase (it didn't last long).  I was happy with the pears and the serving piece but I had placed the dish on a very bright green and purplish blue striped cloth.  It was very distracting from the main focal point:  the pears.  I used a few big soft pastels in analogous colors of blue green, blue and a slightly purplish gray blue to lightly cover the stripes.  I think it works much better now.  It has won a reprieve from the circular file . . . for now.

Cape Cod Pastel Show 2012

"Lobsterman", 9 x 12 pastel on sanded paper

I'm pleased to announce that my pastel painting "Lobsterman" has been accepted into the Cape Cod Pastel Society's national juried show "For Pastels Only 2012".  The show runs for three weeks in July in Yarmouth.  I'll post more information on time and place as we get closer to the date.  There will be an opening on June 30th for those of you lucky enough to be on vacation in beautiful Cape Cod that week!