#21 of 21-in-31 "Young Kingbirds on a Wire"

 

Day #21 of 21-in-31: "Young Kingbirds on Wire" (pastel, 10x8 inches) available, and will be with me at the Midland Septemberfest Art festival Sept 9-11, 2022.

My final painting of my monthly goal! Yay! This painting will soon be with me at the Midland Septemberfest Art festival Sept 9-11, 2022, unless it sells here first. ;)

See some progress pics on my Patreon Page!

#20 of 21-in-31 "Cowamel"

 

"Cowamel" (pastel, 16x8 inches) is available framed, and will be with me at the Midland Septemberfest Art Festival, Sept 9-11, 2022.

I'm finally on a roll, now that's it's almost the end of the month! That's usually the way these things go. But after #21 I really have to finish those darned donkeys!! (Maybe those can be #22? If I'm lucky..)

I'd had this cute calf partially underpainted for quite a while, so I finished it all up yesterday in front of my phone camera. I really liked the freshness of the terra cotta underpainting part, so I thought I would be able to pastel her quickly... but turns out all those subtle reflected greens and violets in the fur took a lot of attention and a really long time! Much longer than this quick speed video that my son made. 

Enjoy!

 

#19 of 21-in-31 "Mewler Contented"

 

"Mewler Contented" (pastel, 10x8 inches, available framed) might be with me at the Midland Septemberfest Art festival Sept 9-11, 2022.

Back to some of my last underpainting batch now, heading into the final paintings of my month's goal!

This was from a pic of Mewler as a kitten, sitting on my lap in the morning. First thing in the morning (before the house has warmed back up to summertime temps) is the only time he's a snuggly lap cat.

I had fun painting all these textures! I hope you enjoy this quick video of the pasteling. I was able to leave a considerable amount of underpainting showing... Mewler's coloring was a good warm match for the gold and terra cotta colors.

"Sentinel" from Richard Wilson Paint-Along

 

"Sentinel" from Richard Wilson Paint-Along (pastel, 9x12 inches) buy here

Yay! Thanks to Richard Wilson, I feel like I can now paint trees, fairly successfully. With trunks. And branches. This subject has been my bane for ever, and after this paint-along I'm feeling much more comfortable.

Richard gave a wonderful demo of this tree-lined river during Pastel Live, which I painted along to. See some progress pics and read about my thoughts here.

This painting will be with me at the Midland Septemberfest Art festival Sept 9-11, 2022 (unless it sells first.)

Day #17 of 21-in-31: "Vineyard" from the Brenda Boylan, Pastel Live Paint-Along

 

Day #17 of 21-in-31: "Vineyard" from the Brenda Boylan, Pastel Live Paint-Along (pastel, 10x10 inches) Unframed for a limited time, $425 includes US shipping.
This one was fun! Brenda is such a cheerful person overflowing with giggles. I painted this one along with her Pastel Live demo. Her approach is a bit different than mine, although she does underpaint for her light and shadow, she underpaints with blues in the shadows and yellow in the lights. So, it was about a half-familiar method!
Read about how I tweaked this one today before I felt it was finished...

"Wildflowers" from Karen Margulis Paint-Along, and what I did after

 

"Wildflowers" from Karen Margulis Paint-Along (pastel, 8x12 or 8x10 if cropped)
(And my 16th of 21-in-31 paintings this month!) bid or buy
Ok, here's one I tweaked pretty dramatically. I painted along with Karen Margulis during her Pastel Live demo... Karen was just so FAST! It was hard to keep up.  My original 1-hour painting to Karen's demo came out ok I guess, but much looser than I'm used to and it just looked kinda messy to me.
So I went at it today, using all kinds of methods I've learned from a variety of instructors lately (and some stuff I just made up, lol.) Really I was just playing with it to see what would happen. It's still messy and loose, but I like the spacing of the flowers better now. Anyway, I had fun making marks so that's what's important!
See a GIF of the changes here!

"Bird of Paradise" from Lyn Dieffenbach Paint-Along

 "Bird of Paradise from Lyn Dieffenbach Paint-Along" (pastel, 6x8 inches) bid or buy
(Also, #15 of my 21-in-31 August goal!)
My friend Lyn Dieffenbach was one of the faculty for Pastel Live 2022, and on Saturday I was feeling energized enough to try painting along to some of the demos, including Lyn's! Read about how I met Lyn, and peek at a couple of her 2007 plein air landscapes, here!

#14 of 21-in-31 "Rooster Mini"

 

"Rooster Mini" (pastel 4x4 inches) bid or buy

Oh what a day! Today was the last day of Pastel Live and I decided to actually paint along to 4 of the demos... Karen Margulis, Richard Wilson, Brenda Boylan and Lyn Dieffenbach... Whew, I'm exhausted and pumped up! (I wanted to paint with Albert Handell too, but it was way too late and simply watching was wonderfully inspiring.)

I think I probably want to tweak most of those in the next few days (having only one hour each to work on them 🤪) so here's the last mini from Tuesday's VOS... (Which Muses and Buddies on Patreon can watch me pastel in real time in Episode 115)

Enjoy this quick speed video of the whole process. I just love backlit rooster combs!

#13 of 21-in-31 "Hereford Mini"

 

Day #13 of 21-in-31: "Hereford Mini" (pastel, 4x4 inches) bid or buy

What a month! Only 8 more days of my challenge left, and I still have the Rooster Mini to post tomorrow. Pastel Live is almost over. I missed most of today by having to go Costco shopping (yeah the boring normal life of an artist mom...) and since our nearest Costco is 35 minutes away, it's really an all day trip.

But... we had Rana Tagliatelle Grilled White Chicken with Portobello Mushroom, and imported French cheese bread for dinner. 😋 A good trade off.

Tomorrow (Saturday) I hope to get back out to the studio, watch some more Pastel Live demos with half a brain while working on the Donkeys (yes, finally!!) Or maybe I'll be brave instead, put the Donkeys off for another few days, and paint along to Karen Margulis and Brenda Boylan ...and Lyn Diefenbach!? Oooo! That might be a good way to accomplish 3 more paintings for my month? If it doesn't take me six more days to tweak them all up to standard, lol!

Meanwhile, please enjoy this little Hereford Mini speed video! Muses and Buddies on my Patreon page can watch Episode 115 when I pasteled this half-Hereford along with the Baldy Mini, the Busy Bee Mini, and tomorrow's Rooster Mini!

#11 of 21-in-31 "Baldy Mini"

 

#11 of 21-in-31: "Baldy Mini" (pastel, 4x4 inches) bid or buy

I thought I'd mark my half-way point with a half-faced cow! This was one of the 4 little paintings I pasteled at my Virtual Open Studio on Tuesday.  

Next up will be my Pastel Live demo! Whoohoo! (Though it was pre-recorded, it will "go live" Thursday at 3:40 ET) and then I'll get to post it! What a fun week this is! 

Meanwhile, enjoy this little video of this little Baldy!

#10 of 21-in-31 "Busy Bee Mini"

 

#10 of 21-in-31 "Busy Bee Mini" (pastel, 4x4 inches) bid or buy

I pasteled FOUR little minis at today's Virtual Open Studio! Here's the last one first because my son likes it best.

The Episode 115 video is still in editing, but will be posted soon for Muses and Buddies! Meanwhile, enjoy this speed video!

#9 of 21-in-31 "Summer Road Trip"

 

 

"Summer Road Trip" (pastel, 8x8 inches) bid or buy

Here's the first star of Saturday's "Summer Road Trip" Paint-Along, so I titled this painting the same. This is painted on white Art Spectrum Colourfix paper with a pastel underpainting washed in with alcohol. I liked the result! I clipped out some key still shots from the video to make a little slide show video for you of my process.

I only tweaked it a little bit afterwards, adding some green (with pastel pencil) to the sky and other little bits of color, including some pink in the distant fields, to pull the color harmony together.

Enjoy!

(Muses and Buddies can see the entire paint-along here!)

#8 of 21-in-31 "Twilight Road II"

 "Twilight Road II" (pastel on UArt 320 dark, 6x8 inches) bid or buy here 

This is one of the paintings I did for the Summer Road Trip Paint-Along on Saturday! I really liked the photo and painted it almost just like it was. Nice when that happens.

 

The paint-Along video is in editing progress and hopefully will be posted by Monday some time. But of course with my 21 goal this month I wanted to post these! Stay tuned for the other Road Trip painting tomorrow.

 

It was a great group at the Paint-Along. I'm eager to show off their paintings to you! meanwhile, enjoy this little GIF, here!

#7 of 21-in-31 "Fiesta Chick"

 "Fiesta Chick" (pastel, 6x4 inches) is on auction for a limited time at DailyPaintworks.

All right, it's the wrong time of year for Fiesta, but everyone needs a fun party now and then right?.. This Chick looks like she had a little bit too much fun last night, lol. It's funny how baby chicks do have such serious expressions, and those eye bags! Like they're older than their years (weeks, days?)

 

Enjoy these progress photos of the painting process! The last photo is of the colors I used.

#6 of 21-in-31 "Field Guards"

 "Field Guards" (pastel, 14x11 inches) available unframed for a short while

 This is my 6th painting of my 21-in-31 goal this month. I really enjoyed the playing with the grassy field on this one! (and the cows, of course. It was fun to paint them so small, hadn't done that in a while!)

Watch a short video montage of the process here!

#5 of 21-in-31 "Baby Blackbird"

 

"Baby Blackbird" (pastel on black Richeson surface, 7x5) bid or buy here

Here's something different.
Ok, it is another bird, but it's on the black Richeson pastel surface. That surface has a lot of rough texture, but it's a uniform texture. I've used it a few times and always like it, especially for landscapes actually. But this bird was so very black I felt it called for starting with a black surface.
I set my phone right in front of my painting today as I worked this one. It was fairly quick (but not this quick, lol) and I like the looseness.

Enjoy this little speed video!

Day #4 of 21-in-31: "Lorikeet II"

"Lorikeet II" (pastel, 7x5 inches, bid or buy here)

Ok, I'm slooowly catching up! This Lorikeet is one I've painted before. It's one of the best pics I've got of a Lorikeet, such personality! Maybe someday I'll do a painting of me with a hat full of Lorikeets from the family vacation that garnered me this pic. LOL

 

See the first "Lorikeet" painting from 2017 on my blog. This time, I flipped the image, and made the arched perch into a branch. 

Enjoy these progress pics of "Lorikeet II"!

#3 of 21-in-31 "Cheeky Chick"

"Cheeky Chick" (pastel, 4x4 inches) bid or buy here for a limited time

Here's my third painting for the month! I know I know, I'm only averaging every other day so far instead of the 2 out of 3 I aught to be, but I'll be catching up with many that I underpainted yesterday.

See a GIF of this cheeky chick on my Patreon page! 

#2 of 21-in-31 "White Cockatoo"

 

"White Cockatoo" (pastel, 12x6 inches) bid or buy here

My second finished painting this month! Seems like I'm getting a slow start... it's already the 5th day... but, I did finish a batch of 6 underpaintings today, and a little chick for posting tomorrow! Yay! I'll catch up as the month goes on.

 

Tomorrow I'm working my gallery in Boerne. We're having our Too Hot to Handle sale this month! Check out some of the deals here!

 

Meanwhile, you can watch a quick speed video demo of this Cockatoo on my Patreon page!

#1 of 21-in-31 "A Peaceful Morning Walk"

 

"A Peaceful Morning Walk" (pastel, 8x10 inches)

Available on my website unframed for a limited time. 

See progress pics here!