Beau

 

"Beau" (pastel, 7x5 inches) bid or buy

 Here's "Beau", from VOS Episode 124 Part 2, which I finally finished. (Muses and Buddies on my Patreon can watch it here!)

See a quick speed video of "Beau" here!

Don Keyfurry

 

"Don Keyfurry" (pastel, 8x8 inches) bid or buy here

 The star of my recent Donkey Paint-Along! For your enjoyment, here's a fun speed video!

Argie in his Blanket

 

"Argie in his Blanket" (pastel, 8x6 inches) bid or buy

Here's a quick speed video of Argie expertly edited by my son. Enjoy!

Muses and Buddies on my Patreon can watch the real-time video in Episode 122 here!

If you pay attention you can see when I when I wipe off most of the first try, to correct the drawing and values and paint it again!

Star of the "Baby Bunny" Paint-Along!

 

"Baby Bunny" (pastel, 8x6 inches) bid or buy

Here's a little "Baby Bunny" for your enjoyment!

You might notice I used some black Art Spectrum primer over my usual gold and terra cotta on the underpainting, to get a good base tone for this black bunnyling. I did smudge some T.L. Eggplant and black pastel in there first, just to demonstrate an alternative.

I also decided to continue the little confetti-like strokes into the background to echo  the texture of bunny fur. :)

Muses and Buddies on my Patreon can watch and paint along to the full length Baby Bunny Paint-Along video of Episode 119!

See a quick speed video here!

#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...

#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!

#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! 

#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!

Mimzy

 

This was a sweet little commission job I just painted at my last Virtual Open Studio. Her name is "Mimzy". It suits her don't you think?  (8x8 pastel from client photo) Moo-tastic Muses and Bunny Buddies on my Patreon can watch the entire video here!

Enjoy this quick speed video!

Blue Chairs - at IAPS 2022

 Hi y'all! Here's "Blue Chairs" (pastel, 6x8 inches) my first painting of IAPS 2022. bid or buy on DailyPaintworks

Today (Tuesday) was my "off" day at IAPS (The biggest pastel party on the planet!) I ran some errands, got some groceries and relaxed a bit. In the afternoon, Laurie Basham (president, Piedmont Pastel Society,) with whom I'm sharing a house with along with my road trip buddy Esther Jones, came back to the house and we sat on the patio chatting. Suddenly the sun came out, and I said "We should paint those chairs!"

And so we did. Even thought the sun went away again a few minutes later (ah, the joys of plein air) it was nice enough to come back out for us right as we were finishing up! Laurie caught some little vid clips of me painting, so I put them together with the pics I took, for your enjoyment.

See a brief montage I made of "Blue Chairs" here!