Frederick, Maryland Riverwalk - A painting challenge

 

"Frederick, Maryland Riverwalk" (pastel, 9x12 inches, $475 framed Buy here)

This urban scene was a double challenge; for two separate pastel societies' monthly challenges. One was to paint an urban scene. The other was to paint in the style of a favorite artist. I decided to do both at once!

 Well, since Monet was not known for his urban scenes, I chose this river city scene and was inspired by another favorite impressionist, Alfred Sisley. My photo reference was one I took in Frederick, Maryland on a family vacation years ago. I really liked the composition of the photo just as it was (makes my painting job easier!) and I loved the early evening twilight glow.

To help me catch the impressionist style of painting in such a small pastel (9x12) I used a heavily textured paper, Sabretooth, a very bumpy sanded pastel paper. No underpainting this time, just dry working on the white paper with lots of blending of base layers. It took me about 4 hours total work time.

View the reference photo, along with some progress pics and the inspirational Sisley painting, on my public Patreon post here!

 

Creek at Willow City Loop

"Creek at Willow City Loop" (pastel, 8x10 inches)

This was the first of my plein air paintings last week in Fredericksburg, during the AIS paint out. A die-hard plein air painter I am NOT! I worked around the general rainy-ness of the day by scoping out the creek area with my camera as a viewfinder first, then retreating to my car to paint my chosen viewpoint.

I sketched the composition from one of the photos, and was able to pretty much catch the the colors from the slightly higher angle of the same scene... It was a little awkward, but it worked, and I stayed dry!

Calm River

"Calm River" (pastel, 8x10 inches)  click here to bid or buy

My final Sunday demo of last weekend's workshop. I always try to work in at least one landscape. With this one I showed my students how you can calm down a complex landscape photo by simplifying the basic value patterns in the underpainting.

See the progress shots:

This was how I left it at the demo. I had added the sky but today I didn't like it, so re-introduced more shrubbery back there before calling it done.

Thanks for watching! Please share!

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Creek Bend

"Creek Bend" (pastel over watercolor, 12x9 inches)  click here to bid

My last painting from my weekend workshop in Rockdale, Texas was from the old 1912 iron bridge. We spent Sunday along the San Gabriel River at Apache Pass (see yesterday's post for details!) We had an incredible breakfast and lunch catered by Kit and Linda Worley, owners of the soon-to-be-open Apache Pass Steakhouse. It was the only time I can remember being distracted from the views by the food long enough to not care how quickly the sun was moving across the sky!

 The older ladies stayed inside in the afternoon, but D.K. was nice enough to hang out while I was doing my underpainting and took some shots.

 I really put a lot into this underpainting...

 While working on the pastel, D.K. started her own painting of the view. But Mary Claire came by and took some shots when I was done. I love how she lined up the painting with the reality!

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Still Pond

"Still Pond" (pastel over watercolor, 6x8 inches)  click here to bid

Sunday we had a fabulous day en plein aire at the Apache Pass, which aside from being the location of a great new restaurant (almost open) and Icehouse (already open), includes acres of land along the San Gabriel River and the El Camino Real National Historical Trail.

This is a quick view of the river just yards down from the actual Apache Pass, the gravel bar crossing on the river that was used for centuries by Native American Indians, then by explorers and settlers, and now by local ranchers and farmers. The crossing was supplemented by an iron bridge built in 1912, which exists right above my scene, but using artistic license I decided to leave it out of this small painting. The river is quite low right now, which allowed us to stand virtually in what would normally be the riverbed.

Tomorrow I'll post my last painting from the weekend, a view farther downriver which I did from standing on the old bridge.

Here's the "Still Pond" progress:
 

 I was moving right along with the underpainting before I remembered to have someone take some shots...

 

 The pastel was quite minimal on this one... just enough to get the feel for the scene:

 See the old iron bridge? I painted from that vantage after lunch!

And here's my lovely group of ladies! What a fun-filled weekend we had!

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Morning Reflection

"Morning Reflection"  (pastel, 24x18 inches)  $1600

The river was smooth as ice. The sun started peeking through the trees, gilding the water with gold.

This painting is still available at Cactus Jack's Gallery in Gruene, Texas, through January 28, 2013.

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Sunlit Sapling

"Sunlit Sapling" (5.5 x 3.5in., watercolor with pastel pencil)

While the hubby and kids went paddleboating, I caught this young group of trees soaking up a little sunlight at Waller Mill Park in Williamsburg, VA.
Available at Cactus Jack's in Gruene, Texas.