Bulldog Cliffs

This is a piece I did plein air out in Bulldog Canyon in the Tonto National Forest 2 weeks ago. It just needed some finishing touches in the studio which I did this morning. Bulldog is one of my favorite places to paint. It is very much still as nature intended. You need a pass to access the area which only has a couple of 4-wheel drive roads through it. The entrances have gates with padlock codes which are given to you 6 months at a time. There is a herd of mustangs that travel this area that we have seen twice. This canyon borders the Salt River which attracts wild life. Hope you enjoy this piece as much as I did doing it.

Sunflowers

Finally finished! This was a tough piece for me. The sunflowers themselves were a gift from good friends as part of a larger bouquet of flowers. The sunflowers were so eyecatching I just knew I had to paint them. I isolated the sunflowers and the deep purple flowers that so wonderfully accented the sunflowers into a vase to take pictures. I was happy with the resulting photo and even happier with the watercolor underpainting as I shared with you in an earlier blog entry. I was actually worried about ruining such a great foundation for a pastel painting. Maybe it was that fear that set me up mentally. I like the finished piece....but it was a painful process. I painted and left it for days...painted again with new ideas and left it for days....this continued more than a few times. Some pieces just flow from the pastels with no effort.....and other pieces fight you all along the way! As long as I am happy in the end I guess I can't complain too much about those that are a struggle. I hope you like the results!!

Small Works Continued

Surprisingly I find myself having a lot of fun with the small works approach. I was so pleased with the "Artichoke" piece that I decided to try another vegetable that also uses purples and greens....an eggplant (besides....I love eggplant). I used the remaining half of the UArt 500 grit paper sample I received at the IAPS Convention in May which is 5" x 7". I went to the Wet Canvas Reference Photo section and found a photo of eggplants that met my needs. Small works are so much fun because they are not long term projects. I completed "Eggplant" in about 3 hours with a little more tweaking the next morning after "sleeping on it". I have some samples of UArt paper of different grits.......I may just have to try some more vegetables!!!

Small Works

I work almost exclusively on 9 x 12 paper as I do so much plein air painting. The 9 x 12 size is easy to transport in my backpack or tote bag. I have been planning to do some pieces in a larger format to add variety to my work as I prepare for the Hidden in The Hills Studio Tour I am participating in this fall. However, I have been noticing more and more art shows for small works. I found myself intrigued about doing a smaller piece. This was fueled by the fact that I had received a free promotional pack of the new Uart paper at the International Association of Pastel Societies Biennial Convention. The pack included four sheets of the paper in various grit sized 7" x 11"......so I had the paper. Now the topic. It didn't take long to decide what to paint......I have had a hankering to paint an artichoke since last winter when I took a class where one of the other artists in the class painted a beautiful artichoke. I had purchased an artichoke and taken photos....but planned on a large painting. Now I decided to paint it in a small format......7" x 6". I sketched the piece and created the watercolor underpainting yesterday. This afternoon I completed the painting in pastel. Here's the results....."Artichoke".

California Dreaming

I have just gotten home from a driving trip to California with my husband. We were gone two and a half weeks. During that time we visited with our sons and their families, but we also spent quality time in three of our beautiful National Parks, Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite. I collected enough inspiration and photos to keep me painting for a long time!! I must admit that I found some of the scenary too awesome to try to capture in a painting. Mother Nature has much more skill than I could ever hope to have!! I do have some photos that I plan to work from, but they may not see the light of day!!!

We spent a week of the trip at a condo on Bass Lake in California just south of Yosemite National Park. The lake is truly beautiful. It is at about 3400 ft. above sea level with beautiful conifer forest surrounding it. I did a couple of paintings during the week. I think I am finished with this one which I titled "Bass Lake Shoreline I". Here is the photo of the scene, my thumbnails, my sketch and the painting. I have put my name on it....but may still do some tweaks after I look at it for awhile.

Company on Location

Despite the heat wave Arizona is experiencing (daily temps from 112 to 116) I went out painting early this morning. The location was a new one for me out in the desert. The morning was actually a little overcast which gave great misty color to the mountains in the background. As I was painting, I thought I heard the sound of hoofbeats and looked up to see I was being observed from a nearby hill by a band of three horses.....a mare, a yearling, and a foal. I am not sure if they were mustangs or range stock belonging to someone because they were not as timid as most mustangs I see while out painting. They went on their way out of sight and I resumed painting. Not 20 minutes later they reappeared walking towards me in the actual scene I was painting. They continued to amble along grazing and came within 50 feet of me. Needless to say I stopped painting to take pictures. The foal even stopped to check me out for several minutes before continuing to follow his mother. They finally moved to a tree not too far from my location and gathered in the shade to relax. I went back to my painting with a smile on my face knowing they were back there in the shade critiquing my work. Made for a fun painting day!!

Trip to France Art Work

As promised I have taken photos of the four pieces that I completed while at the Richard McKinley workshop in France so that I could share them with you.

This piece titled "Roman Gate" was completed on our first day of painting after arrival. The location is Castelfranc which was a walled town during the Roman Empire. There are components of the wall and this gate still standing. I really liked the arch of the gate and the different colors in the stone. I was also intrigued by the light coming through the gate and slanting across the grassy area in front of it.

This second piece is titled "Wine Cellar Niche". This location is at Haut Baran where we stayed. I stood on the flagstone steps down to the pool to view the side of the wine cellar building which had this niche filled with flowers. The hydrangea were so beautiful! I fell in love with this scene as soon as I saw it. The door to the left is the entrance to one of the guest rooms in the main building. As you can see the landscaping at Haut Baran is breathtaking!

The third piece is "Theron Vineyard Lavender". Theron Vineyard is an absolutely beautiful vineyard located on top of a gently rising hill. Above the lavender is a castle. I first began the piece with the castle included. However, I realized the castle became the focus when included and I really wanted to paint the lavender. I changed gears and started all over with new thumbnail sketches that focused on the lavender field. The color of the lavender was a real challenge to capture....not really lavender and not really blue. Loved it!!

The fourth piece I completed during the workshop is titled "Belaye Overlook". Belaye is a tiny town at the top of a hill overlooking the Lot Valley with the Lot River snaking it's way through beautiful farmland. What intrigued me about this scene were the shadows slanting across the river and farmland as the afternoon progressed. I was also caught by the shapes of the farmland as the different fields accommodated the curve of the river.

I will be working on the remaining pieces begun in France in the next few weeks. I am hoping to finish them before my husband and I leave on a driving trip to California the end of July. In any event I will share them as I complete them. In the meantime I would be interested in any feedback or comments you might wish to share about the four presented here!