The inspiration for this piece came from a British murder-mystery show I discovered on my Netflix account. It is called Rosemary & Thyme and features professional gardeners who are also amateur detectives. If you find inspiration in flowers, the show is a treasure trove!
I saw some very unusual flowers in a vase in the background of a greenhouse scene, and that became a springboard for this artwork. It differs from that scene a great deal, but I find most satisfaction in a piece when I let it show me where it needs to go instead of adhering rigidly to references.
I was using soft pastel on the reverse side of printer paper to make a transfer for adding text to a Mother's Day gift. I started "seeing things" in the mass of blue, so I started playing with it...came up with a nifty little doodle, but it's just on plain, ol' printer paper. Not designed to last...but maybe I can make a print of it at least.
So even though I fight my pack-rat urges in most respects (or I'd have
one of those tragic hoarder-house situations), I MUST keep my drop-out
pieces from cutting mats. This little painting is the reason why; you
never know when you're going to need a bit of matboard ready for when
you want to play with the pastels.
Matted to fit a standard 8" x 10" frame, and available for purchase at my Etsy shop. Don't wanna mess with frame shopping? No worries! I can frame this for you as well...find out more:
I actually thought to get a few work in progress shots on this piece, not many, but a few. I started with a non-objective charcoal drawing on primed foamcore, which I sprayed with alcohol to give a wash effect. When it dried I repeated the process with a brown watercolor crayon and got this underpainting:
Black and brown underpainting
The wash effects can provide an interesting value map to use as a jumping-off point to develop the work. I must say I wasn't particularly excited about this one, so it sat for several weeks.
When I did decide to go back to it, I started blocking in some color in oil pastel. Once I started playing with the oil pastels, I got "in the zone" so I
didn't think to get photos of more steps in the process. I chose the
colors intuitively, building off the brown that had already been
established in the underpainting. I was digging the soothing earth
tones and neutrals, jazzed up with just a hint of green and a very pale
pink to compliment it.
Good stopping point to snap a photo
This seemed like a good stopping point to check how the values (lights and darks) were developing. Squinting can help, but I just use my camera on the black and white setting. Normally I would just view it through the camera screen, but for the sake of blogging I snapped a photo:
Value check
Not too bad! Maybe just unify the lights in the lower left a bit...
Final values
Yep, that's it! So here's the finished oil pastel:
"Cocoon" Oil pastel, 6" x 9"
The finished work is a small, non-objective abstract piece in oil pastel on primed, acid-free foamcore. While I wasn't so gung-ho to work on this one, I'm glad I came back to it; I'm quite happy with how it turned out.
This piece is matted to fit a standard 11" x 14" frame, and is available for purchase from my Etsy shop:
Can something be rustic and modern at the same time? Sure, why not?
"Still Life With Two Pears" Oil, 8" x 10"
"Still Life With Oranges and Flowers" Oil, 10" x 8"
Two recent, small still life works on panel. They ended up with a sort of folk art look to them...so, yeah, contemporary yet folksy-quirky...? Well, here they are, anyway.
Oh, and a close-up of the texture on the second painting below:
Please check out availability of these works and others at my Etsy shop, much thanks!
"Still Life With Yellow Fruit" Oil on paper, 12" x 9"
I've been tinkering with my oils lately; here's a still life on primed paper. I'm happy with how it turned out, however I'm unable to offer the original work for sale, I'm afraid. Silly me, I worked the paper edge-to-edge, and I managed to get oil seeping into the unprimed edge.
Back of the piece, with oil seeping onto the unprimed side of the paper.
Of course I wouldn't have had this problem if I had used Arches Oil Paper...or if I had remembered to tape off the edges. Live and learn.
The good news is, this piece is available as a fine art Giclee reproduction print in a variety of sizes from 10" x 8" all the way up to a whopping 36" x 28"! How did U2 put it? "Even better than the real thing..." Click here to buy a print.
This is a hand crafted, original work of art inspired by the landscape.
Layers of blue, olive, and pale pink dance across the textured surface.
The 7" x 5" artwork is matted and ready to pop into a standard 10 inch by 8 inch frame. You may have it for your very own by bidding in the auction: Daily Paintworks.
A simple little abstract piece with a very limited palette, although it didn't start that way. There are many, many layers of pastel underneath, from false starts that just didn't go anywhere that was satisfying. Sometimes the challenge in creating a piece is sorting out the jumble of thoughts and ideas...
The original artwork is available for purchase at my Etsy shop, matted and ready to pop into a standard 11" x 14" frame.
As the ladder-like forms asserted themselves, the Peter, Paul, and Mary song "If I Had a Hammer" popped into my head, with the slight variation. When working abstractly, such is the way of assigning titles, I've found.
Soft pastel on sanded paper, mounted to fiberboard panel.
This piece is available for purchase via Saatchi Art, either the original or prints. The original is matted to fit a standard 12" x 16" frame.
"Still Life with Bottle and Pink Flowers" Pastel 11" x 14"
Contemporary still life, soft pastel on a primed foamcore panel.
The original artwork is available for purchase via Saatchi Art. It is matted to fit a standard 16" x 20" frame. Or you may choose a high-quality giclee print instead, giving you additional size options.
With the pink and blue color scheme, I could see this piece decorating a nursery, especially if the gender is a surprise...either way, you've got it covered!
Abstract pastel on Uart paper mounted to hardboard panel. I enjoyed the play of scratchy, hatchy lines with the large blocks of color...I turned this one around and around several times to decide which way was up. Such is the way of things with abstract pieces...
You may purchase this artwork at my Etsy shop, matted to fit a standard 16" x 12" frame.
I'm primarily a pastelist, but I also enjoy exploring other media. This piece is an oil on canvas mounted to a flat panel. An imaginary still life of four vases done in a contemporary style.
This piece is available for purchase at my Etsy shop. The panel is 1/8" thick and would need to be framed for wall display, otherwise I do include a small easel with this piece so it arrives ready for tabletop display.
