My nine year old grandson created this picture this morning.

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 in...

This painting of dancing grass (again on gessoed rag mat with no pastel mixture ground) came together in about an hour last night. Add ano...

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 wh...

The good news is my "hand-made" surface held up through three total wipe offs of this painting. I wasn't sure if this surface...

I'm at a turning point with this painting. I was happy with the oil-wash foundation (left) but the painting went downhill from there b...

Today I used a reference photo that looked very much like this painting. And once again, I am reminded that though I am interpreting the s...

Another painting that I am pleased with on my marble dust/gesso ground on rag mat. I'm mixing different recipes to find the ground tha...

This painting was on my easel through the Thanksgiving holiday and it cheered me each time I looked at it. With Christmas less than a mont...

Ground test #2 seems a little better - less grit. 2/3 cup acrylic gesso + 4 teaspoons marble dust + 1/3 cup water. I applied it to another...

It occurred to me (duh!) that I should test the ground I'm applying to the cut mats since I've never used this mixture before.  I ...

Today I cut all the random sized pieces of 4-ply rag mat board in my studio into squares then applied an acrylic gesso + marble dust groun...

This painting has gone from "hope springs eternal" to "dashed hopes" then to "hope against hope." There are ...

There is a "hope springs eternal" time in the process of creating a painting when it is beginning to tell your story as you envi...

Today I attended the Northwest Pastel Society 24th International Open Exhibition. Steve Hill received Best of Show with a beautiful paintin...

Ahh...back to good old Wallis paper for the second painting in the Sleeping Lady series.  This one has a light watercolor wash on top of gol...

The painting of my second acrylic-turned-pastel was interrupted by a couple things but I finally got back to it today. It has been wiped...

My website has been updated! Please visit www.barbaranewton.net

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 ...