"a summer's day"

"a summer's day" 12"x16" pastel on home prep mat board

 I have not been inspired to paint much these last couple of weeks, but still sketching every day.

in my sketchbook

On my iPad I keep most of my reference photos for painting. When using your own photos , I think you have a better connection. You were there, you took the photo, something caught your eye, so typically I paint from my own photos. I came across a photo on my IPad when looking for something to paint and found one  that was not mine. I don't remember where it came from, but I loved the photo. Not wanting to pressure myself, I decided to use the photo and did a sketch, it felt good….. 

I had fun with my last painting using mat board that I had prepped myself and decided to do this again.

 

I cleaned up my pastels and was ready to paint!

the board is white so I layer in the basic shapes with Nupastel and a turbenoid wash with a brush.

 It was feeling good, here is a progress shot. I got to this point and decided to let it sit for the night. 

Here is a close up detail. I'm liking the texture of this board, it forces me to be looser and get away from the details . I was constantly stepping back to make sure the painting was working. I finished the rest up this morning, working on the flowers in the foreground. I kept telling myself to forget about the detail and just suggest the flowers. I feel good with the end result.

"play of light"

"play of light" 14"x14" pastel on home prepared board

I have been trying to paint and draw everyday. My problem with this is having enough material to work from. I'm a;ways on the look out for images to paint from. Sometimes there is nothing that seems to inspire me, so I go back through my photo images and pull from there. 

Here is the image I have used before. I took the photo on one of my many trips to Gibb's Garden. I was drawn to the play of the light on the shrub in the right hand side of the photo.  I painted it before and actually sold the painting! Since I'm having a tough time painting right now I thought I would work from this one again.

As part of my #dailysketch routine, I worked in my sketchbook with a fine black sharpie pen. I really liked how the drawing came out and used this as my reference for the next painting. It was time to play, so I used a mat board coated with clear gesso and then a coat of fine pumice gel. Not my usual Uart 500 paper! I just let myself go….. I did a watercolor underpainting to lay in the shapes and cover the white board. Then came the pastel….. the texture of the board was rough and took more pastel to cover it than what I was accustomed to. I worked on it for about 2 hours and stopped, I knew it was not finished , but I couldn't figure out what was not right about it. So it sat for the night and when I looked at it this morning, I saw it. It was flat…. my play of light was not there. Simultaneous contrast…… it all came back to me! I spent another hour making it right. I will say this is not my typical painting, but it was a fun exercise for me and  I think I will explore more paintings with this surface.