Glimpses

              Edge of Spring 7x5 pastel, copyright 2012   

                                                                   Towards Evening 7x5 pastel, copyright 2012


This weekend I played a bit with the smaller format for pastel while trying to work from memory.  These two views were glimpsed from the freeway on the way home after a soccer game Saturday evening.  There is definitely a learning curve involved in capturing a barely seen image on a small piece of paper.  Creating a sense of depth and getting the proportions right are probably the most challenging things.  Hopefully by summer I'll have a good grasp of it.











                                                 

One sunrise, but not the same

      Sunrise, First of December 6x6 oil, copyright 2011

December Sunrise 12x9 pastel, copyright 2011

A first for me, two different paintings from the same reference photograph.  The first was just a quick study, painted the same day I took the photo.  It came out a bit softer and more muted, in part because I was spent perhaps 15 more minutes on it than I should have, and was starting to make mud.  I stopped when I realized it, made a few corrections then quit.  The second one I finished just yesterday, and perhaps overcompensated a bit for the earlier painting's softness, though the colors look a bit too saturated on my monitor.

Looking at the two of them together, I can't decide if one is really better than the other as both capture some aspects of the mood of the moment.  I'm not sure if it's the media or light in the studio or my subconscious that made them so different.  It's an exercise worth trying again with another photo.

Edit:  The pastel image has been revised, and is now a bit closer to the real thing.

A new home

I managed to accomplish a few things this past week - a pastel and two little oils.  But I haven't decided yet if I like the pastel, which is why I didn't post it.  And in this heat and humidity, the oils are drying very slowly, which makes it hard to get any good photos.  We did finally break down and buy a second air conditioning unit, so at least I am not soaked in sweat by the time I am set up to paint.

In other news, the friend who commissioned the two sunflowers posted a photo of them hanging on her wall.   This got me to thinking about how cool would it be to see all my paintings in situ as they say in archaeology.  So I've decided to start an album on my Facebook page of sold paintings hanging in their proper place.  Just send a photo to me, and I'll post it.  Don't worry, I won't include any personal info!