Orchard

"Orchard" (pastel, 8x10 inches) $375

Painting 8 of my 21-in-31 in March!

"Orchard" will be with me at the Bayou City Art Festival in Houston, March 29-31, 2019 (unless it sells first...)

This is my one self-defined "successful" result of the workshop I took earlier this month with Jen Evenhus. I almost didn't start this one; it was the last hour of the workshop on Sunday, and some of the participants had packed up already (as there are always a few who must hit the road early.) But Jen gave us one last assignment and (finally!) we were allowed to use our own pics! So, I took the lids off my pastels again and went to work.

I have to admit that Jen's workshop was one of the more challenging workshops I've taken. But in my experience, the more difficult they are, the more I learn. Frustration in effort can be a good thing in the long run. I mean, no-one but Jen Evenhus can paint like Jen Evenhus! Trying to brings on frustration, but in the trying are also included valuable things like discovery and exploration. Artwork cannot improve without occasionally moving into the unknown.

I took a roundabout route for this orchard landscape. When starting it in the 30 minutes or so of the end of Jen's workshop, I tried to apply her techniques for bold, large and loose areas of color, and I tried to keep my strokes fresh (not sure I succeeded in that, lol.)

Then, as I really did like the photo, I determined to "finish" this in my studio. My process then ran right back to my own habit of "copying the photo" (and using plenty of the small, impressionistic strokes that I picked up and incorporated from a workshop I took with Rae Smith in 2017.)

 (As an aside, I'm glad I was using U-Art or some other similar sanded paper for this, because it allowed for may layers and for washing in with alcohol in between!)

But instead of letting the image develop completely into a photocopy, I was able to put the photo aside in the final stretch and say "what does this painting need?" and then flattened out the values in some areas to simplify and give the eye a resting area in the dark tree on the left, and kept my detail markings mostly in the center and distant trees.

I can't say I learned all of this in Jen's workshop, but her idea of  the "beauty of imperfection," combined with really seeing the larger value patterns and simple shapes first, was sticking with me as I finished this painting.

The really nice thing about landscapes for me is that I feel I don't quite have "my own" ingrained style and technique yet for landscape painting, therefore landscapes are the perfect testing ground for trying out new things and with each workshop I take I'm able to add something to my landscapes that makes them better!

Check out the (upcoming) post on my Art Journal Blog showing Jen's demos (coming soon -- my son is putting together a slideshow video of her last demo "Gerber Gala", the painting she has put on her website home page!)

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Tenacity - a Plein Air warm-up, and workshop reminder!

"Tenacity" (pastel, 10x10 inches)  click here to bid

This was my first plein air landscape in ... well, a very long time! Maybe fall of 2013. I had scoped out almost all the locations on the list that Marble Falls has for us last weekend, and this was my last stop on Thursday at a little park called The Falls at Slick Rock (at Hole #14 of the Slick Rock golf course) It was a beautiful place filled with visual overload. I especially loved all the little watery falls rolling over tiers of rocks and plants.

But I knew I'd need something simple as it was already after noon and getting later by the minute. So I settled my rolly-cart-with-chair on that big rock that you can see in the first photo above, clamped on my umbrella, set my pastel box in my lap and got to work on this little tree growing out of this other rock over on the left:

photo

I wish someone had come by and taken a photo of me perched on the other rock. I had a feeling I looked like a real professional plein air painter! But I did get some shots of my own progress:

It looked better on Friday than I thought it looked on Thursday, lol. A big thanks to Terri Ford and Barbara Jaenicke who's workshops I look last year and was remembering techniques and procedures while painting this!

Speaking of workshops, I still have spaces left in my Pastel Workshop in Lee's Summitt, MO (Kansas City area) later this month. Be spontaneous and treat yourself to a fun weekend away! Click the flyer for a closer look, and visit my Workshop Page for more info and a convenient payment link!

Peony (and the Marble Falls workshop!)

"Peony"  (pastel, 6x6 inches)  click here to bid

Here was my first demo of the workshop at the Highland Arts Guild Gallery in Marble Falls this past weekend. I started this one from scratch to show how I build up the primers before adding pastel.

The workshop was a great success. A very talented group of artists. They did amazing things! Here are a few of the ladies at work, and a few shots of completed work I managed to get at the end, before the rest of them packed up...

Thanks for a fun weekend, y'all!

Desmond O'Hagan Workshop

This weekend I've been taking a pastel workshop by Desmond O'Hagan, with several other members of the Austin Pastel Society, at the Windburg Art Center in Georgetown, TX.
It's been quite challenging, but I've learned a lot. Mr. O'Hagan has a loose, painterly style, but a style that I've never seen "in action" before. He uses short, varied strokes with the side of the pastel. When seen applied, they all look quite geometric, squares and little rectangles mostly. But as he layers up the values and colors -- voila! -- light and atmoshphere magically appear!
I said to him today, "I don't know HOW you do it! I've seen you work twice and I still don't know how you do it!"

Here's a short progression of his demo from today:














The finished scene! Wow!


Ok, since this IS my blog, I'll post my accomplishments from the past two days:

Here's my first painting on friday almost finished.

Here's today's painting about 3/4 of the way through. I'll post finished photos tomorrow!

Thanks for watching!

Rita