what happened in the studio

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

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

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

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

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

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

demo candidates

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

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

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

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

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

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.