Barbara Newton Art Journal

cold start

2012-01-27T13:23:00.000-08:00

My weed-eater has a lever marked "COLD START." I flip it up to make starting the motor faster and easier. I need one of those levers because I'm definitely having a cold start to 2012 in more ways than one. Our weather is warming up but I spent 7 hours yesterday putting pastel on this painting and wiping it off.

Months ago, in preparation for the holidays, it was easy to "close up shop" and use the studio as additional space for family gatherings. Then came a week in Maui and five days without electricity at home. Most of this week was used catching up but suddenly it is Friday and I have no more excuses - I have to start painting again. After yesterday's frustration, this morning I began again on the same piece of Wallis paper with an oil wash as the foundation for "December Color." It is another painting of the path at our off-leash dog park. I can't say my painting motor is actually running for 2012 yet but I managed to sputter through this one. Click on the image to enlarge. This painting can be purchased through Daily Paintworks.

5 days

2012-01-24T05:33:00.000-08:00

The slush we expected from our snowfall last week immediately after we returned from Hawaii would have been welcome compared to the freezing rain and wind that caused much damage to trees and power lines. Our power finally came on at 3:46 this morning after five days in the dark and I had a load of laundry going within the hour. I look forward to the new year in my studio with heat and light.

lush to slush

2012-01-18T10:21:00.000-08:00

I'm back from the lush island of Maui to soon-to-be slush snow in Washington. Quite a shock but it's good to be home. Wishing everyone a happy and peaceful 2012.

meadow lights auction

2011-12-13T20:01:00.000-08:00

It's end-of-year cleanup in my studio. I'm looking for new homes for some of my smaller, unframed works. This one, "Meadow Lights" can be purchased on Daily Paintworks.

sun song

2011-12-09T13:00:00.000-08:00

As we approach the winter holiday season and gray weather, it is comforting to remember sunlight and how it can put a song in our heart. I'm already looking forward to spring. This painting is for sale on my DPW Gallery (see the link in the upper right corner of this blog) and I have just added PayPal to make purchases easier. This may be my last painting of 2011. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

award at 6" Squared Show!

2011-12-08T13:59:00.000-08:00

212 artists, 542 beautiful paintings! I was happy just to be included in this show but to have "Northwest Meadow" receive one of the $100 Gallery Awards in those odds is amazing. My thanks to Randy Higbee and the Randy Higbee Gallery staff and to juror Jean Stern, Director of the Irvine Museum.

fanciful

2011-12-07T12:35:00.000-08:00

Fanciful is about color play and pushing colors just beyond believable for a whimsical view of the world. It is another of the 5x7 pastels for my Daily Paintworks gallery.

my DPW experiment

2011-12-06T17:18:00.000-08:00

About a month ago I joined Daily Paintworks and to date I have posted 10 paintings. What fun! My thanks to all who have commented, encouraged and purchased paintings! I have learned a lot and have made plans to change a few things next year.

Price: While I was getting to know my way around DPW, I have priced my paintings at $1.00 per square inch as my "experiment" price. That is far less than the amount the same painting would sell for in one of my galleries. Beginning January 1, 2012, painting prices will increase.

Shipping: I have shipped sold paintings in a USPS Priority Mail flat rate box - not the cheapest way to ship but paintings have arrived safe and sound. I will continue to ship this way but beginning January 1, shipping will be FREE within the US.

Medium: Pastel has been my primary medium for the past 9 years. If you have been following this blog, you know that I just started playing in oil (again) and am excited to continue. I hope to add oil paintings to my DPW Gallery.

Once again, thanks to all who have taken time to view my work and the work of the other fine artists at Daily Paintworks!

good news

2011-12-04T14:47:00.000-08:00

Good news today! I learned that my paintings "Cedar River" and "Summer Evening" have been accepted into the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS) 2011 Web Show. Yay!

website update

2011-12-03T15:27:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Kay Dewar of Dewar Design, my website has received it's annual update. Artwork Archives and About the Artist have new images and information. www.barbaranewton.net

wheee

2011-12-01T17:15:00.000-08:00

This was so fun, wheee! This is step 2 of Morning Frost Line (20 x 20 inches, oil on wood panel). I'm working on value. As you know, I am relatively new to oil paint and I have no idea how many "steps" there are in a painting. Lots of palette knife work and I love that random, spontaneous look. In moving from colored pencil years ago to pastel, it was the looser look that appealed to me. Maybe I am making another jump from pastel to palette knife? Click on the image to enlarge.

wish me luck!

2011-11-30T16:10:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty excited to try Morning Frost Line in oil so here we go...

I have it on my phone as wallpaper and by the time I'm done with this experiment, I might decide it was one of those lovely reference photos that was better left as just that - a photo.

I found my old box of oil pastels and began with a sketch on a previously painted panel.

Later the same day...I just had the most fun painting that I have had in a long time. Here is the first step of Morning Frost Line in oil. More tomorrow.

study for a larger painting

2011-11-29T15:18:00.000-08:00

This is a scene of our off-leash dog park, early morning before the frost melted. The shafts of light coming through the trees give it a hazy, mysterious feeling. This 5 x 7 is a study for a larger painting. I am soooo tempted to try it in oil!

pacific northwest spring

2011-11-28T21:35:00.000-08:00

What better time to paint a rainy Pacific Northwest spring scene than a few days after Thanksgiving? Another 5 x 7 inch painting for my Daily Paintworks Gallery.

lavender sky

2011-11-27T16:01:00.000-08:00

Still finding my way around the Daily Paintworks site, today's 5 x 7 inch painting for sale there is "Lavender Sky."

good news

2011-11-21T19:46:00.000-08:00

Good news today! I have been elected a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America (PSA). Yay! Today's Daily Paintworks painting is 5 x 7 inch "Remembrance."

meadow gold

2011-11-19T20:58:00.000-08:00

Today's 5 x 7 inch painting for my Daily Paintworks Gallery is an abstracted view of a bright yellow meadow. This painting is about color, the details are for the viewer to imagine.

Six Inch Squared

2011-11-17T21:43:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to be included in the Fall 2011 6" Squared Exhibition. Here is the information and my three paintings.

northwest passage

2011-11-16T15:26:00.000-08:00

Today's 5 x 7 pastel for my Daily Paintworks Gallery is "Northwest Passage."

woodland path

2011-11-14T15:18:00.000-08:00

Today's 5 x 7 inch painting for Daily Paintworks is "Woodland Path."

the long way home

2011-11-13T20:24:00.000-08:00

Puppy Annie was entertained by the lawnmower and leaf blower outside today so I was able to paint all day for a change. The Long Way Home, another 5x7 painting for my Daily Paintworks Gallery was an all day project. I had to paint three other 5x7 paintings (to be washed off in the morning) to get warmed up for this one.

finally

2011-11-12T20:50:00.000-08:00

I have finally posted a couple small paintings for sale at Daily Paintworks! These are 5 x 7 inches, pastel on Ampersand® panels, unframed. I take every effort to establish a true representation of the artwork with my digital camera but colors may vary slightly between the actual painting and the image on your screen due to our (yours and mine) computer displays. Please visit my Daily Paintworks Gallery. I plan to add many more small paintings for sale soon.

another summer's end painting

2011-11-01T16:23:00.000-07:00

Another scene from Mt. Vernon, Washington reference photos taken in September. This one is called "Queen Anne's Lace" for the white flowers along the path.

improvising

2011-10-25T13:06:00.000-07:00

I finally figured out a way to keep the pastel dust off of my computer while I view the reference photo on the screen. I set the laptop on a chair, set the chair on my worktable next to my easel. On the left of the easel is an air filter that (hopefully) is sucking the dust in as I work. The painting on the easel is a beach scene of the Carmel river painted in the Spring of 2010. I unframed it and reworked 95% of it today. See the new "Carmel" below, 11 x 14 inches on Ampersand™ pastelbord.

a little help from my friends

2011-10-23T20:32:00.000-07:00

With another birthday approaching, it occurred to me to review all the paintings in my studio and divide them into two categories: those I am proud to leave to my heirs and those that might end up in a garage sale (with my name on them).

So, I'm beginning the process of getting rid of the mediocre work...one way or another. First up is a little 9x12 to be reworked into something better. I brushed off the pastel, turned the paper upside down, and after about an hour the top part looked good to me but the rest just wasn't coming together. I sent the image by email to several members of an artist's critique group I belong to and asked for 'a little help from my friends.' With good feedback from them, I was able to resolve the foreground and I'm now happy with the painting.

Here is the image I sent to them by email for critique:

They each suggested more work on the foreground. I brushed off all pastel except the top 1/3 of the painting and reworked the rest. Here is the completed painting, "Meadow Lights."

I thought it would be fun to show you the work of three of the artists who gave me feedback.

another 6 x 6

2011-10-10T17:37:00.000-07:00

Another little 6 x 6 inch painting, this one is called "Northwest Meadow" and is from an old reference photo I came across on my laptop. I set the computer near my easel and painted from the screen image instead of a photo print-out. I'm painting these little paintings on charcoal color Pastelmat. Click on the image to enlarge.

morning walk

2011-10-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

Another 6 x 6 inch study of the dog park. The reference photo was taken at the end of summer when grasses and seed pods were dry and still had some color. Now all is gray and soggy.

perhaps tomorrow

2011-10-05T15:44:00.000-07:00

Here's the dog-park path again, this time much smaller ( 6 x 6 inches) and painted in a different palette. Click on the image to enlarge.

byway

2011-10-03T15:18:00.000-07:00

Another scene from my daily outing with Annie. This path or byway runs parallel to the off-leash dog park fence.

my art on stage

2011-10-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to have two of my paintings included in the set for the production of Amy's View at the ArtsWest Playhouse in West Seattle, Washington. We saw the performance last night and it was an interesting experience to have my work referred to in the script as having been painted by one of the characters in the story.

over and over

2011-09-29T08:46:00.000-07:00

Some paintings practically paint themselves - and some definitely do not! This seemingly simple subject and composition began as a plein air sketch at the Elizabeth Mowry workshop a couple weeks ago. Back in the studio, I thought I could finish it quickly but the challenge was in the lighting.

I declared it done and photographed it (twice!) but I still had a nagging feeling about it so it went back onto my easel. I'm happy with it now to tell the story of the approaching storm that summery day, and of the change of seasons.

daily walk

2011-09-22T19:25:00.000-07:00

This view of the Cedar River from the walk-across bridge is now part of my weekday walk with Annie because it is how we get to the off-leash dog park. We started Home Obedience classes last night so today's walk was slower - not so much pulling. We are learning. And as I mentioned in my last post, thanks to Elizabeth Mowry, I am looking around with new eyes and I see several dog-park scenes for future paintings.

Elizabeth Mowry Workshop

2011-09-20T13:51:00.000-07:00

I have owned Elizabeth Mowry's books for years, reading bits and pieces here and there; always pleased to revisit images of her art but more importantly for me, to read her words of wisdom. In my limited experience with pastel artists who also teach, I am so pleased when their attitude matches the beauty of their art.

Last weekend I had the good fortune to take her workshop. Elizabeth's kind, gentle nature enabled me to be my best-self painter for a few days. I slowed down, became more thoughtful and took more care in selection of my colors and strokes. Even as I stood at my own easel, hearing her voice as she worked with others in the group of very creative artists kept me on track.

Back home, I am looking at trees, bushes, and skies with new eyes and as I paint, I am inspired by Elizabeth's serenity and focus.

meadow prayer

2011-09-09T16:31:00.000-07:00

I think I have pushed this painting as far as I can without losing my vision for it. Funny (well, NOT funny) how quickly a painting can turn to ... where are all those crazy symbols? I've had a week of hot weather, beans and cucumbers galore, almost constant watering of the gardens and visits to the dog park every day with puppy Annie. But, I've also managed to get three paintings done by not cleaning house or making dinner. Click the image to enlarge.

summer evening

2011-09-05T17:26:00.000-07:00

A textured gesso surface can help tell your story (click image to enlarge). This is a detail slice of "Summer Evening." To see the entire painting, CLICK HERE.

out with the old

2011-09-03T12:52:00.000-07:00

Today I unframed a piece that was painted six years ago - almost to the day. Looking at all those roundish, controlled strokes I couldn't resist a little rework. The detail at the left is the old painting, the detail below is the rework. I am pleased to see that my stroke has become more spontaneous and that I have managed a more subtle story of the scene. To see the entire reworked painting, "Daily Grace II", CLICK HERE.

Northwest Pastel Society August Editorial

2011-09-02T20:35:00.000-07:00

The August Editorial about framing pastels has been posted. To read the editorial, CLICK HERE to go to the Northwest Pastel Society homepage then select "editorial" under "News & Minutes" in the left hand column.

potpourri

2011-08-31T20:04:00.000-07:00

more value play

2011-08-31T11:01:00.000-07:00

the value of value

2011-08-25T09:10:00.000-07:00

Early one evening over the hot weekend we took a refreshing walk in the shallow part of the Cedar River near our home. Lazy-summer memories of swimming in the Green River as a child came back to me. A magical time involving all the senses.

Back in the studio I wanted a pastel sketch of the river scene in preparation for a larger painting. For me to paint a scene more than once, there has to be some additional challenge or experiment involved or I quickly become bored.

This time I focused on value as I mindfully selected colors based on value first and color second. To help me stay on track, I inserted a piece of slick, non-archival foam core into an unused metal frame and divided it into five values. Then, as I selected and used pastels, I placed them in their appropriate slot on the value palette. Working this way instead of intuitively picking up many many pastels to see which ones work limits the number of pastels I use. I don't know if that is good or bad but I do know it is fewer pastels to clean and put away when the painting is complete and the slick foam core cleans up with a damp wipe.

spellbound

2011-08-20T08:24:00.000-07:00

This painting is on blue Canson Mi-Teintes paper. I prefer the "soft" side because I don't want the pattern of the paper to be a part of my painting. Canson Mi-Teintes holds much LESS pastel than my favorite sanded surface, Wallis. There is not much room for playing around with colors and shapes because the tooth of the paper is full before you know it and won't hold any additional color. When I taught workshops, this is the paper I started my students on and using it again was a good exercise for me because I was forced to work slowly and more thoughtfully.

back to painting

2011-08-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

Back to painting and working larger. I hang my Totobobo mask from my light after each painting session so I remember to put it on, as well as turning on my air filter that sits on the counter to the right. This painting-in-progress is on Canson Mi Teintes.

editorial time

2011-08-15T07:55:00.000-07:00

These August mornings are beginning to feel like Fall though I hope we are in for an Indian summer. The activities of summer are winding down for me and it is time to get back to painting and the business of art.

For the past 18 months I have had the opportunity to contribute a quarterly editorial to the Northwest Pastel Society website. This month's editorial will be about framing pastels. I thought you might be interested in reading some of the past editorials. You can access them from the NWPS website.

On the homepage, look in the left column for this text and click "editorial." From there, you should be able to access any of the seven editorials that have been posted.

May 2011 Shipping Pastel Art
February 2011 Make Your Own Pastel Surface
November 2010 Commission Work
August 2010 My Workshop Experience
May 2010 Leap of Faith
February 2010 Business of Art
November 2009 Hello

partial rework

2011-07-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

"Sky View Meadow II" is a partial rework of the original painting (see original below). In the original, I believe the eye bounces from the yellow area in lower right foreground to the orange area directly above. I want the viewer to have an expanded journey through this scene so I put more detail and less mass in the lower right (the entry point into the scene). From here there are a couple paths around the painting but the one my eye takes is to the continued detail on the left and up to taller pink grasses along the hilltop. Added blue to carry the eye along the treeline to the right, to the orange spot and back to foreground detail. I added detail to the trees and softened the blue hills in the distance.

dream maker

2011-07-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought my life as I knew it was over and that I would be a puppy play-and-potty-slave forever, I took advantage of a short time in the Studio last night and "Dream Maker" came into being. Annie was surprisingly patient as I worked at the easel but it might have been my Totobobo mask that made her keep her distance. Finishing touches with CarbOthello pencils made a scratchy sound too tempting to resist and she was suddenly right there to investigate.

At the moment.

annie bo bannie

2011-07-12T20:50:00.000-07:00

My distraction from painting is 10 week old Australian Shepherd, Morning Mist's Annie Bo Bannie. Here she is in her vehicle safety restraint going for a ride in the car. We've had her just a week and after being without a dog for a dozen years, we are exhausted new parents. It gets easier each day. Today Annie made the choice - without prompting - to go off the deck onto the grass to go potty. Yay! No painting getting done but lots of smiling and laughing.

june

2011-06-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

This painting began as part of the five-artist demo at the American Art Company Gallery. I have been looking at it on my studio easel for a week. There was a one square inch area that bothered me (unfortunately, I don't have a photo of how it looked) so last night I began to paint on it again. The longer I worked on it, the more I felt the life of it slip away. I don't know how else to describe the feeling...it wasn't alive to me any longer - it was just a surface of unrelated marks and color so I washed it off and began again.

I wouldn't say I brought the original painting back to life, I would say a new painting, with a new message, was born.

This morning I ran across an explanation of painting on fb that rings true for me from artist Dan McCaw:

'I think about painting like sculpting, you add, you take away until you feel some connection, something that feels right, something that helps tie one thing to another and starts to hold your interest, something that surprises and makes you engage.'

five-artist demo

2011-06-16T21:48:00.000-07:00

Join us noon to 4 pm, Saturday, June 18th at American Art Company, 1126 Broadway, Tacoma, WA for a five-artist demo. Brenda Boylan, Reni Moriarity, Misty Martin, Neil Andersson and me. We're havin' a demo-party!

two gallery reworks

2011-06-07T17:31:00.000-07:00

I spent today sitting the Women Painters of Washington Gallery in downtown Seattle. I took with me two 8 x 10 panels that I washed off to paint again at the gallery to entertain myself when there weren't many visitors. Here are the finished paintings and below them is the way they looked before and after their bath (on left the original, on right the ghost). I guess I turned the lower one upside down from the way it was first painted.

I had a very limited number of pastel sticks with me + gloves + an apron. I worked flat on a card table with the little paintings spread on a towel to catch excess pastel.

thank you Ken!

2011-06-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

A huge thank you to Ken at Comcast Security for fixing my seven week blog problem.

Emails from my blog couldn't get through the Comcast spam filter because one or more subscribers reported the posts as spam instead of UNsubscribing. I'll be posting more art soon.

what happened in the studio

2011-05-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

If I find myself loving one area of a painting early in the process, it usually ends in having to say goodbye to the whole image. That's what happened to this painting. Back in the studio after the demo, I worked on the row of trees until I liked them a lot but the rest of the painting never came together so I washed it all off, turned it right-side up (same as the original painting in my previous post) and began again with a white NuPastel. This time, without a precious area to guard, the painting evolved all over simultaneously and came to rest as "Pond Dream II."

what happened at the demo

2011-05-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

This is how far I got on one of the Leap-of-Faith-Abstracting paintings at the PSWC demo. I'll let you know what happens from here.

upside down before the brush-off

original painting to be brushed off

pswc demo

2011-05-25T10:38:00.000-07:00

I'm back from my Leap-of-Faith Abstracting Demo for the Pastel Society of the West Coast at the Haggin Museum in Stockton, CA. If you are anywhere in the area, I encourage you to see the show - every piece is worthy of an award, I'm honored to have been included in the show and to have received the Atlantic Papers Award.

shipping time

2011-05-16T15:19:00.000-07:00

Spring is a busy shipping time. This is "The Tender Hour," snugly sandwiched in my good old (and I do mean OLD) Strongbox® for the journey to the IAPS 18th Juried Exhibition in Albuquerque, NM. If you'd like to read a short article on shipping pastel art, it will be posted as an editorial on the Northwest Pastel Society website soon.

pastel demo

2011-05-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

I was surprised and pleased to receive this postcard in yesterday's mail. If you are in the Stockton, CA area, please join me for my demo at the Haggin Museum, 1-4 PM, May 22. I'll be washing off a couple paintings and taking a leap of faith that I can turn them into successful abstracted work.

Before you leave this postcard image, take a moment to appreciate how the person who designed it related these three images. The tree in the upper right corner of my painting repeats the tree in the barn image by Kim Lordier then the barnyard flows into the vineyard of the third painting by Dug Waggoner. To do this, images might have been cropped but I think it is a thoughtfully designed postcard - and I am pleased to be on it with these two outstanding painters.

my blue heaven

2011-05-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

This is the finished painting based on the under-painting I posted yesterday. I'm loving all that blue!

another goodbye

2011-05-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

This is an acrylic wash over a painting that never made it to framing. The painting below had a nice part in the middle but nothing else so after trying to add a foreground (which didn't work), I had to say goodbye. I wiped the whole thing off and applied a blue acrylic wash. Hopefully I'll have a better incarnation of it to post tomorrow.

demo candidates

2011-05-09T19:50:00.000-07:00

These are my candidates to be washed off Sunday, May 22nd at a demo I'll be doing for the Pastel Society of the West Coast in Stockton, CA. Right now, these are framed so I'll have to go through my art data base to see what surface each was painted on. My first choice would be Wallis paper because I could just blast it with a hose. But, if it is Canson Mi-Teintes, I'll have to brush it off...not nearly as dramatic.

high country test

2011-05-07T20:21:00.000-07:00

The second of the five paintings I brought back from a gallery yesterday was unframed this morning. This was one of the Sky View Meadow series of 2009 - I brushed it off and began again. Now it is called High Country. It will also serve as a test to see if I will receive this post through a gmail account instead of Comcast. Thanks to all who have taken a moment to let me know that you have (or haven't) been receiving these posts in the past 3 weeks. Interesting that the people who aren't receiving it anymore are those with Comcast email addresses. Original painting is shown below.

promises

2011-05-06T21:29:00.000-07:00

Promises is the new rendition of a 2007 painting that has been shown at three of my galleries and a couple shows without selling. A sale is usually one of the goals of a painting but I've always been fond of this one and happy to have it back in my studio. However...today I unframed it, painted on it some more, cropped it into a slightly new composition and retitled it. I'll probably send it out into the world again but I won't mind if it comes back home.

group show

2011-05-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to be included in a group show at American Art Company, Tacoma, WA, May 14 through June 25th. Other artists in the show are Neil Andersson, Brenda Boylan, Fumiko Kimura, Misty Martin, Reni Moriarity and Ann Stockdale.

If this post doesn't go out automatically to email subscribers, I will send it to the list myself. Still testing...testing...

blue monday

2011-05-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

The title says it all. After a beautiful spring day yesterday, today it's raining again. I'm going to bake a chocolate cake.

value addition/subtraction

2011-05-02T10:07:00.000-07:00

Today's post is about making decisions. I've been reworking a painting and getting nowhere so I decided to eliminate the color decisions and work in value only. I took a photo of the washed-off-painting, printed it out in grayscale and added and subtracted value with pencil and eraser on the printout until I got to a composition and value story I could live with. Then, I printed this image on paper and put it on my easel next to the painting. Next I will select colors to match these values and begin painting again. See below for the visual journey to this point.

Gray scale of painting waiting for decisions.

Washed off, reworked, washed off, reworked, washed off.

This was Simplicity completed last December.

spring cleaning

2011-04-28T16:04:00.000-07:00

My pastels have gotten out of control which makes me crazy. I don't pre plan the colors for each painting but I do like to find a color I have in mind when I want it so I took the time (and it does take time!) this week to reorganize. Pulled the pastels out of each section of my boxes and cleaned them in cornmeal. Then they went to paper plates to be resorted by color, value and temperature before they go back into the box. I'm almost done! This post will also be a test to see if my posts are being delivered to email subscribers. I haven't received the last two posts. I had a similar problem a year ago (same time of year too) with my previous journal blog which I finally gave up on and created this new one. I haven't done anything to my settings, the posts just quit coming. Testing...testing...

good news

2011-04-21T07:02:00.000-07:00

I'm very pleased that my painting, The Tender Hour, was accepted into the IAPS 18th Juried Exhibition to be held in Albuquerque New Mexico in conjunction with the International Association of Pastel Societies Ninth Biennial Convention June 2-5, 2011.

poster honor

2011-04-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

I am honored to be featured on the poster for Escapade, at the WPW Gallery, 701 Fifth Avenue, Suite 310, Columbia Center Building, Seattle. Open weekdays 11 AM - 4 PM. The show will run May, June and July and features the art of 23 members of the 80 year old organization, Women Painters of Washington.

making the cut...or not

2011-04-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

In February, I posted an image of completed paintings hanging all in row in my studio. They were waiting framing and the decision about which show they would be entered into before they went to a gallery. To date, four of those paintings have been framed entered into shows. Now it is time to make decisions about the rest and order frames.

It just occurred to me that I am doing my own American Idol competition here. Not all paintings will go on...some will NOT make the cut. The paintings were hanging in no particular order but today, the painting that will go "home" is Hometown Heartstrings.

I tried to use my save on it by making a few adjustments but in the end, 98% got reworked. Now it is Hometown Heartstrings II.

east and west

2011-04-14T13:47:00.000-07:00

I am honored to have received two awards within the past week. One from the Northeast National Pastel Exhibition, Old Forge, NY (Ampersand Art Supply Award for "Dream Catcher") and the other from the Northwest Pastel Society Member Show, Seattle, WA (Presidents' Award for "Ruby's Canada").

flowering cherries

2011-04-07T18:29:00.000-07:00

The flowering cherry trees along our driveway are in bloom. They seem oblivious to the hail and coldest temperatures for this time of year since 1935. pastel, 15.5 x 20 inches.

a simple act of kindness

2011-04-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

I have been painting on this surface since yesterday morning at 10 AM when it began as a demo for a couple artist friends. When they left my studio two hours later, it looked nothing like this. In the time since then it has been washed off several times and has been poked and prodded. I even "painted" in wet pastel for a awhile with a bristle paintbrush.

Finally, in a simple act of kindness to both myself and the pastel surface, I quit working on it. I don't know why it was so hard. I think I need Spring!

rainy day vacuuming

2011-04-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

It's a rainy, rainy day this April 1st in Washington. I vacuumed off another old 2006 painting to use the Colourfix paper for a new painting.

When I began making marks and relating shapes and colors, I didn't intend to paint about rain or water, it just turned out that way. It is enjoyable as well as a leap of faith to begin a painting without any plans and to watch it grow into something that strikes a cord with the artist. This is the basis for the one day workshop I'll teach May 23rd at the Pastel Society of the West Coast show in Stockton, CA. Join me!

painful marks

2011-03-29T15:59:00.000-07:00

Donna T asked why I decided to paint over the 2006 painting shown in my previous post. Here's the reason: when I look at the marks I made in that painting (left image), they are painful to me. Roundy, poky, stabby. I can remember the feeling and movement in making those marks. When they worked I liked them (I have a little plein air piece hanging in my bathroom with lovely sharp marks) but when they didn't work...aaarggh. The image on the right shows my current marks. Gently pulling color over color. I feel better.

september becomes may

2011-03-28T18:46:00.000-07:00

Two paintings: the lower one, "The Third Season" was painted plein air in September 2006 on dark blue Colourfix paper. Wiped it off today and now it is a Spring scene, "May."

as time goes by

2011-03-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

If we continue to make art, as time goes by our work evolves, grows, matures. Our pastel marks and brush strokes become more confident. The process spans a life-time of creating. Let's live long and make art that pleases us.

the right side

2011-03-25T09:14:00.000-07:00

The right side of the 2006 painting has survived with some adjustment to foliage on all trees. It's growing on me. I'm going to cut the mat for it now and order the frame. It has become "Coastland Revisited."

5 years later

2011-03-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

I'd like to thank those who commented or sent me an email on my March 14th post with their opinion about what to do with this painting.

I intended to cut it into two pieces, crop and reframe each as smaller, vertical paintings. But when I unframed it I was immediately drawn to the spontaneous marks in the border area just outside the picture and how they differ from the more controlled strokes within the scene. This led me to reflect how my work today differs from this 2006 painting. Apparently my view of the world has softened and become more tolerant and playful, less literal. My application of the medium has evolved which affects the character of my marks.

So when I cut this painting into two pieces, I couldn't resist reinterpreting the scene on the left. Then, putting the two pieces back together, it was easy to visually compare how I, and my work, have changed. Click on the image to enlarge.

congratulations

2011-03-21T14:43:00.000-07:00

Washington state is well represented in this year's Annual Pastel 100 Competition in The Pastel Journal.

Susan Glendenning Third Place Abstract/Non-Objective,

Barbara Noonan Fourth Place Landscape and Interior,

Diana Sanford Silver Medal Award for Excellence,

Karen Schroeder Honorable Mention Abstract/Non-Objective

and me, Honorable Mention Abstract/Non-Objective

for "From the West Unto the East."

These are artists I know. If you live in Washington and received an award in the 2011 Pastel 100, let me know and I'll add you to the list. Congratulations to all in the competition.

Cropping Queen

2011-03-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

I love to crop. In our Critique Group I'm known as the Cropping Queen which is probably not what artists really want to call me when I suggest cropping away hours of their work. But, as with reworking, sometimes you have to let go of a precious area or two to get a better statement. One of the challenges of cropping occurs when a painting has a couple nice areas but they are at opposite ends or corners. In that case, you might be able to get two paintings out of one.

I've gone through my inventory and scheduled pieces for upcoming solo and groups shows and find that I need more work! I came across a 2006 painting that I like too much to wash off and rework, but it isn't great the way it is. I'm thinking about cropping it into one stronger statement or maybe into two small paintings.

Below, I've posted some of the cropping possibilities and I'd be pleased to hear comments from anyone who sees a clear best choice. The last image at the bottom is the painting the way it is today.

Leap-of-Faith Abstracting

2011-03-11T15:35:00.000-08:00

Red Square evolution

2011-03-08T14:32:00.000-08:00

I was trying to forget about Red Square #1 and was pretty sure everyone else had forgotten about it too but today, The Pastel Journal Pastel 100 Second-Place-Abstract recipient Debora Stewart emailed that she was looking forward to seeing what happens with my red squares. So I turned it upside down and painted on it for a little while. Sometimes you feel like a red square, sometimes you don't. I'll let it rest for a few days before I go back to it (and add red?).

simplified red square

2011-02-27T09:38:00.000-08:00

Another hour of painting last night to simplify red square number one. I took a palette knife and scooped up all the paint on my palette and dragged it over the existing painting. Lost some precious statements but got rid of some awkward/tight areas. Click to enlarge. I'll get back to this painting next week.

resting red square

2011-02-26T15:12:00.000-08:00

This is what red square number one looks like today after an hour of evening painting yesterday. It is resting in my studio, waiting for me, but today I am busy planting the first packets of flower seeds in flats. Oil on cradled panel, 20 x 20 inches.

snow light

2011-02-24T10:34:00.000-08:00

Finished pastel paintings hang from a beam along the back wall of my studio. It's a good storage place while they are awaiting their frames but it is also usually quite dark. Today we have 3 inches of snow and the whole studio is illuminated by snow light coming through the opposite wall windows. Click on the image to enlarge.

red square number one

2011-02-22T09:02:00.000-08:00

This is what red square number one looks like now. It was completely red with a strip of blues/greens in the upper left corner. After the red was dry, I applied an oil paint wash of several colors and left the red showing in places. We'll see where it goes from here...

another spaghetti sauce side-track?

2011-02-17T14:32:00.000-08:00

A couple years ago I got side-tracked by the color of spaghetti sauce. At that time, I fell in love with the color and dropped everything to paint my kitchen walls.

Today I used the remaining paint in the gallon can to paint over three very bad oil paintings. I had the first panel almost completely covered, just one more brush stroke of red to go in the upper left corner, but I loved the original color peeking through so I left that area unpainted. On the second and third panels, I deliberately left areas without red paint. Now, I'm feeling myself pulled toward abstraction...side-tracked again.

31 to go?

2011-02-13T17:01:00.000-08:00

Another try using the thumbnail sketch I liked so much. I might have to take a break from this winter-marshland series or maybe change the colors to represent another season. The little image below is the oil-wash foundation. This painting is "Hometown Yesterdays," 13 x 13 inches.

32 to go

2011-02-09T13:14:00.000-08:00

I really love thumbnail number 4 but just as one can rely too heavily on a reference photo, getting determined to duplicate a thumbnail can be a problem too. I finally just put the thumbnail out of sight and let the painting go in another direction. "Hometown Memory," 13 x 13 inches, on raspberry ground.

Speaking of memory: artist Loriann Signori has been posting insights about memory painting for many weeks. If you want to go deeply into this subject, visit her blog.

I thought you might like to see the thumbnail I referred to. I may use it again for a painting on a different color ground.

33 to go

2011-02-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

This painting started out based on the third thumbnail from left, top row, on the sheet of 35 but it stayed on my easel in the oil-wash foundation stage for days because the composition made me wince each time I looked at it. When I went back to work on this piece, I thought about how much my hometown has changed since I lived there and what it is that still binds me to the area. One fondness is the sound of the train whistle of my childhood that I heard again as I was shooting the reference photos for this series. I kept that sound in my mind as I painted this one, "Hometown Heartstrings," 14 x 14 inches, pastel on paper.

34 to go

2011-02-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

One down, 34 hometown marshland thumbnails to go....oh, maybe not really that many but enough for a series of paintings from this photo shoot. How many is a "series?" Maybe it is however many it takes to get bored with the subject. "Hometown Marshland," 13 x 13 inches, pastel on paper.

jump-start

2011-01-31T11:17:00.000-08:00

I think the 35 thumbnails did the trick to jump-start my work for the new year. This is the oil-wash foundation for my first painting of the Hometown Marshland series. It is based upon the very first thumbnail in a previous post. I like this very much because of the spontaneity and am SO tempted to leave it as it is and call it an oil painting. But, the point of my bright idea was to take a reference photo, paint a watercolor thumbnail using the photo as a guide, and move on through the process to complete a pastel painting. My goal for the finished painting will be to keep the looseness but to add enough detail to draw the viewer into the story behind the scene.

My hometown is Auburn, Washington. I spent my first 21 years there with my family, in a little house built by my father near the railroad tracks. When I was shooting the photos for this series, I could hear train whistles in the distance...music to my ears and soul.

35 thumbnails

2011-01-28T09:56:00.000-08:00

Here is the result of my bright idea of painting 35 small watercolor thumbnails while viewing reference photos on my computer display. The paper is a 14 x 20 inch pad of Lanaquarelle, 140 lb. cold press. To begin, I used a fat black Sharpie pen to layout squares - the format I prefer for my finished paintings. Click on the image to enlarge.

I started at the top left corner and closely followed what I saw in the reference photo. My left-brain said "You should write the photo number beneath the thumbnail so you can find the photo again." So, I did that for about 5 thumbnails. Then I got involved in the process of painting and decided that identifying the specific reference photo wasn't important to me.

I found myself caught up in playing with the color and experimenting with the lovely things that watercolor does - such an alive medium! By the time I got to the bottom row, my thumbnails had evolved into value and composition studies with much less detail than the thumbnails painted at the beginning of this experiment. For additional information, I used Photoshop to turn the thumbnail images into black and white. See the image below.

I plan to paint finished pastel paintings using the sheet of original thumbnails and a print-out of the gray scale images as my references. This was a fun, totally absorbing exercise.

my bright idea

2011-01-27T17:13:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to jump-start my painting year. Went on a photo shoot (see two photos on my display above), then started with black and white thumbnails but my thumbnails always end up with too much line work and too much detail. My bright idea is to bring the reference photos up on my display and do tiny loose watercolor thumbnails concentrating on value, color and form. The first two were fun. I'll let you know how this goes.

hometown marshland

2011-01-23T21:21:00.000-08:00

Today we drove to my hometown for a photo shoot. I didn't realize there were so many marshy areas...we even found this elevated perch built specifically to view the wetlands. Grasses and trees are moist and muted with colors blending one into the next...a beautifully subdued time of year. Today's scenes should lure me away from tax preparation and get me painting again.

books need new homes

2011-01-15T17:42:00.000-08:00

I'm cleaning out bookshelves and have 36 art books from my private collection that need new homes. A variety of mediums, all in very good condition. I set up a little store on Amazon under my business name, Bina Designs (since 1988). To see my books for sale, CLICK HERE.

a book for you?

2011-01-12T20:56:00.000-08:00

Some of you may know of my past with colored pencil and the book I co-authored, "Colored Pencil Solution Book." Since I posted last - 10 days ago - I've been cleaning the studio and I found a box of 9 new books (8 soft cover, 1 hard cover). If anyone is interested in purchasing one of these, please email me at barbaranewton@comcast.net. I'll be happy to sign it!

2010 in review

2011-01-02T06:24:00.000-08:00

2011 is here and I'm excited to begin painting again after the holiday break, but I was curious what 2010 looks like in review.

I began the year with a studio clean up and posted a tour on my art journal blog. Studio Tour

2010 painting began with experimentation in mixed media and non-objective work.

It wasn't long before I found some old pastel paintings to hose off so I could use the paper for new paintings.

"Tuesday's Child" was the result of a pastel rework.

Then, I found some old oil experiments to repaint.

Suddenly, it was summer and I was back to pastel.

A trip to Carmel, California and a series of 5 x 7 abstracted landscapes followed.

I was honored to have an article, "Infinite Possibilities," about reworking pastel paintings, published in the October 2010 issue of The Pastel Journal.

In the fall of 2010, I began experimenting with mixing my own pastel grounds.

2010 ended with a series of seven pastel paintings on my hand-made surfaces.

Looking back, 2010 was a year of experimentation. While The Pastel Journal article was certainly a highlight - as were awards received, the primary achievement of the year was learning more about myself through my work and through contact with other artists and those who appreciate art. Thank you for visiting my journal and for your comments and support. Wishing you a happy new year!

The Forest Above Me

2010-12-22T11:17:00.000-08:00

My nine year old grandson created this picture this morning.

december rain

2010-12-14T17:43:00.000-08:00

It has been pouring rain in the Pacific Northwest for days. The colors of wet trees, grasses and branches slide into one another and on into the creek. The only bright spots are the lichens on branches.

come dance with me

2010-12-09T12:36:00.000-08:00

This painting of dancing grass (again on gessoed rag mat with no pastel mixture ground) came together in about an hour last night. Add another 3 hours of messing with it this morning then another hour of trying to get the color right in Photoshop - now I'm tired of it. Maybe the last painting for a while...Christmas is coming.

pastel on gesso

2010-12-07T16:17:00.000-08:00

In my studio, another batch of 4-ply rag mag boards with gesso on both sides is awaiting the pumice-gesso ground for pastel. I wondered what would happen if I painted directly on the gessoed board (no pastel surface mixture on it). I applied a watercolor foundation on top of the gesso and pastel on top of that. This painting didn't require any wipe offs so the gesso alone had enough tooth for my needs.