New Pastel

"Sun Bee"

pastel on Canson pastel board

8" x 10"

.

Have been trying this pastel board made by Canson (it's not new, but I have 

a big pile of it to use).  I love their Mi-Tientes paper!

However, I use the wrong side of the paper, 

the side without much

'tooth' - the thing you need in a pastel surface to pull off the pastel and make it sit down

on the that surface.  Pastel hardly ever works on a slick, smooth surface.

This board utilizes the tooth that is found on the right side of that

familiar paper - a little too much tooth for me.

If you click on the photo, you will see what I 

am talking about.

I know that a surface definitely shows it's done in pastel

by virtue of seeing some of the tooth, but

I don't like that look. That's why anymore, I prefer

sanded pastel paper or board.

So I scumbled and scumbled this painting.

It had to come to an end.

I was even using a brush with

Gamsol on it, to brush the 

pastel down into the teeth

but still didn't achieve what I was after.

Live and learn - maybe I will use all that board

for trying colors and mixing colors up against

each other...my 'try it' board.

A Pastel of Sunflowers

"Illumine"

9 x 12

pastel on Art Spectrum

Both my daughter and step-daughter are
 'floral designers'.
This pastel is done from a photo that my step-daughter shared with me.
She recently relocated from Denver to Boston
and bought these pretty sunflowers to help begin furnishing and decorating her flat in Boston -
looks as though it would feel pretty good with these 'big guys' smiling on the windowsill.
I like the feel of the Art Spectrum paper which I mounted on a piece of matboard.  

Where I Stand Saturday

As you may know, this post is usually "Where I Stand Sunday" however, where I stand today (Saturday) is usually where I stand tomorrow, when I am home.  The studio needs some rearranging and organization and just plain revamping.  Boxing up things, so heavy stuff with removal of things off of shelves and out of drawers can be moved more easily. 

"Seaport Sunflower"

8" x 10"

watercolor/gouache

Arches coldpress

If interesting in purchasing this or any of my art go to my Etsy shop.

I am still in the watercolor mode.  I find that I have trouble leaving the paper white - like around the sunflower - it would have helped with the brightness of the petals, but I ended up using white gouache to bring it back up into the light.  Working background to foreground works OK, but lighter then darker, or transparent layers - often doesn't and I end up painting into the light that I wanted to leave.  I have such a mindset in dark to light.  I tend to go too opaque (and I know that sometimes watercolor can be opaque - but I'm going for that transparent look).

I am giving this medium some time and so onward with practice.  Artistic struggle at the most.  And I realize...sometimes - even though you want your work to be a certain way, it isn't.  Does that ever happen to you?...and even if you rework and have it there, it is sometimes just NOT THERE.  But when you ACHIEVE WHAT RESULTS YOU WERE AFTER and you know it, there is nothing better!  Lots of books and magazines and DVD's to learn with so maybe I can have that feeling with watercolor some day. 

Instead of JUST COLD, it decided to snow a little here today.  Just a dusting.  I am ready for more.

Thanks to my floral designer daughter, I have lots of flower resource material.

Where I Stand Sunday

Seeds of all kinds travel across the landscape

in various modes of transportation.

Lifted on the wind

carried by birds

attached to a host.

This one landed in the cracks of the concrete of the parking pad. It came from a seed from the dead head of last years crop that was sitting outside the fence for several days last year. Ornamental sunflowers need more TLC, than this one has been getting. Garden and plants didn't fair too well this year...hubster couldn't take care of it all while I was gone and we had enlarged the vegetable garden twofold. We have lots of yellow squash though. Tomatoes are just beginning to turn orange. Can't wait!

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life "standing".
Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on.
The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

Where I Stand Sunday

The sun comes up
the sun goes down -
with it arrives
another hot day.
Air conditioners,
fans,
praying for
a gentle breeze.
Mosquitoes,
bugs,
a relentless existence
til seasons change.

You just have to get up early to enjoy a little bit of coolness in the morning, something I don't do too often. Today, I am hosting the quarterly meeting of NCKAA (North Central Kansas Artists Association) in the studio. Luckily, we installed our old house AC there last week. Hubster's daughter and friend are visiting for another day from Colorado. We have enjoyed showing them around our little piece of heaven. Garden weeds had taken over, we spent the better part of the latter week, weeding! But it is in better shape now. Here are just a few of the great veggies we are harvesting, the sunflowers and a look at the wallpaper we found behind the old cabinets we tore out this week in our 100+ year old farmhouse. Funky, huh? We still have a long way to go on the kitchen remodel. Have to make a materials run, 1st part of the week.

Yep, the one above lends itself to a painting, soon!

I have seen this wallpaper in my life - somewhere. It must have been the only wallpaper in the country at one time?

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell. If you would like to also post this subject, please let me know. There are several of us (see my sidebar) and we would love to add your blog to our list.

Belgian, and I don't mean 'waffles'

(Check out the other blog from today to see before and after photos)
If you are an artist (photographers included), you know what I am about to say is what you also notice, as you go through your day-to-day life. Like the other night..I was driving back from town at about sunset and the full moon was already out and it sat right straight over the road as I traveled east. The sky was pink on top and blue near the horizon. Ah, wish you were here! Then there was the field of fading sunflowers as they drooped, heavy with their seeds and stems and leaves curling and dying. The pheasant as she squawked and lifted in flight over the milo field. The pumpkin as it lay in the patch, wilting away, sinking in and shriveling to waste. The large fat brown spider as it spun it's marvelous web in the afternoon sun, on the west side of the house, a perfect pattern only to be gone in a few days leaving me wondering, what happened? The rolling hills with fields of a myriad of fall colors and textures as they become home to one process or another, either disked, harvested, left for fallow, or ready to be harvested. The way the sun catches the greens and yellows turning them to gold! And most of all, the Belgian horses that live in a field that I often pass. They played 'hard to get' at first, but when I decided "Fine, I'll take some pictures of the cows across the road instead!", they quickly trotted over to the fence as if to say, "Oh take our picture, too!" and my camera had a 'hay day'! I plan to do some large drawings/paintings of these two, they are too cool! Yes, everyday is filled with sights that take me to new depths of thought and possibilities. Wish you were here!