Back to Auctions!

 I can't believe we have been in our new home (and mini-studio) nearly a year! I'm finally settled enough to return to offering small paintings on the Daily Paintworks Auction. In the past, this has been such a pleasure...a way to get small studies out into the world. Good memories. 

So, here we go again, today's small painting is "Sunstreams." I'm painting local scenes these days and this one is the light streaming down our driveway onto the country road beyond. Thanks for taking a look at the auction.

Pastels are usually framed with a mat and spacer so why did I tape the border? I like a white mat around my pastel work. Normally, I would cut a mat and use a spacer to allow pastel particles to fall behind the mat and not ON the mat. But my new studio isn't set up yet and my Fletcher mat cutter is in storage so how to get the look of a mat without cutting a mat? Tape the edges and put the pastel directly against the glass. See the video.

acrylic underpainting for pastel

A few days ago I painted an acrylic under painting on Wallis paper. Finally got back to it today.

Path to Gold Creek, pastel, 13 x 17.25 inches

glory days II

For my sanity, I had to end the week with a pastel. Glory Days II, pastel, 13x17 inches.

happy day

I'm very happy to post the news that "Edge of Winter" received Best of Show at the Northwest Pastel Society 2012 Members Exhibit at Columbia Art Center Gallery, Hood River, Oregon. The show runs through October 28th and was juried and judged by Dawn Emerson. This painting has a special place in my heart because the reference photo is from a dog-walk early this year with my two grandsons. A happy day then and now.

finally

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.

spring cleaning

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...

jump-start

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.

framing day

Every once in a while I have to stop painting and frame completed pastels. I love to see the work all lined up, ready to go to shows and galleries. It is a good time to clean up my pastels, vacuum the studio and start again - maybe in a different medium for a while.

a saturday spray

A warm Saturday morning and a good day to wash off another old pastel painting so I can begin again on the same Wallis paper. This one is 19 x 25 inches. In this photo, I'm blasting it with water from the garden hose and because it is a sunny day, I'll leave it here to drip dry.