If you have been following this journal for the past few days, you know that I prepared two acrylic paintings to accept pastel. I finished...

Here is my experiment of turning an acrylic painting into a pastel painting. The scene was inspired by the precious end-of-fall days we have...

Enjoy the process. I did! Recap: I had an old acrylic painting on a piece of 18 x 18 inch masonite. It was very textured because when I...

When the Golden Acrylic Ground for Pastels was dry, I began applying pastel but quickly found that the very textured surface (intentional) r...

You may have read my October 2010 article in The Pastel Journal magazine about reworking pastel paintings. Or, if you've been followin...

My very clever and artistic grandsons (ages 9 and 11) made this beautiful garden collage on the steps leading out of their mother's flow...

  I have taken about a million photos of scenery we hurry past when my husband and I are on road trips.  I'm always excited to view them...

This painting is from a reference photo taken while on a late afternoon walk at Sleeping Lady Resort in the Cascade mountains, Leavenworth, ...

The excess pastel dust (all colors mixed together) from my paintings falls into an aluminum-foil gutter attached to my easel. When I clean...

I thought someone might be interested to see how I store pastel paintings that are waiting to be framed. Paintings that are complete are a...

It poured down rain all day today as I painted in my studio. Maybe that's why this scene is more colorful than the subdued hues I talk...

The second day of the Handell workshop started with an overcast morning. Loaded with plein air gear, I wandered around looking for my mornin...

As in the reference photo, the sky is blue, there is a tree on the left, Queen Anne's lace in the foreground and a wheat field in the di...

Today I hosed off my painting from the first day of the Handell workshop last month. The charcoal lines and a little pastel color is the ...

Last month I rotated art at Attic Gallery in Portland, Oregon and brought back a painting that was based upon a reference photo my husban...

There I am on pages 42-47 of the October 2010 issue of The Pastel Journal - Yay! Opening pages show an original painting and how it looked...

Here is the finished painting that I have been posting in progression for several days. I enjoyed taking this from a very conservative lands...

An afternoon of painting changed this scene quite a bit. It would be easy to stop now because I am satisfied with the overall mood, color tr...

For about an hour I just played around. The areas I lifted off are gone, they served only to get me started. I applied pastel, brushed some ...

I begin to look for clues - a color, shape or texture might suggest what I could do next. With a stiff brush dipped in water in one hand and...

"Eliminating things from a composition is the best way to get to the essential statement. We become attached to whatever appears in our...

I'm reading Trust the Process: An Artist's Guide to Letting Go by Shaun McNiff. So many of Mr. McNiff's words ring true with me ...

I've been doing a lot of thinking about process vs product. If I give myself as much information as possible in the planning stages of ...

 With Mr. Handell's words whispering around my brain, I began my first painting since the workshop. I want to be care...

One of the nicest things about the internet is contact with other artists. Recently, Jim and Lynne Babcock emailed me in support of my work....

I'm letting the Albert Handell workshop sink in by scrubbing floors, cleaning the studio and gardening. When the time is right, I'll...

Just got home from Oregon. While going through the mail I was surprised to find my work included on the show card for The Pastel Society o...

Mr. Handell's tree painting demo this morning began later than originally scheduled because we were all at the workshop until nearly 11 ...

This morning Mr. Handell demonstrated oil painting. What exciting work! After lunch we all took off to various spots for an afternoon of ind...

The morning of Day 3 was a watercolor-foundation pastel painting demo by Mr. Handell. Spectacular! In the afternoon we painted in a huge wal...

Day two with Mr. Handell, shown here with my two plein air paintings at the end-of-day critique. See each painting and his suggestions below...

I'm in Oregon at an Albert Handell workshop. Hot. Fun. Exhausting. This is today's first plein air effort. Mr. Handell suggested tou...

This scene from my husband's recent fishing trip to Alaska may be the last painting with my favorite yellowy-green pastel. I am down to ...

When I painted plein air recently at Kubota Garden, I applied a loose watercolor foundation on a 14.5 inch square of Wallis then worked in p...

Another little plein air painting from a couple weeks ago. 5 x 7 on Ampersand panel.

This little painting was completed a couple weeks ago. A deliberate change of palette.

Today I joined members of the Colored Pencil Society of America, Washington Chapter, to paint plein air at Kubota Garden in Seattle. Most o...

When I began working in pastel years ago, I used Canson Mi-Teintes paper instead of the sanded surfaces I use now. This week, out of curiosi...

Here's the painting in the easel photo on that hot, sunny day of plein air painting. Last night it rained and was gray and cloudy today....

After a three week break from painting, I set up my easel on the deck in 90+ degree weather (note the glass of ice water). It was fun to pai...

"Tuesday's Child" received an Honorable Mention Award from judge and president of the International Association of Pastel Soc...