Add and Subtract

I'm still confined to sitting with my foot elevated for part of the day. This gives me a lot of time to sketch. I'm working on a series using a high horizon line. I've been adding some color to the background. Mostly I work with charcoal, graphite and an eraser. I enjoy the give and take of adding tone and subtracting with an eraser. I like the textures I can create. The paintings below were done  today.

I found a great video of painter Barbara Moody using this process. She works in layers and layers, applying charcoal and erasing to create drawings that change, metamorphosing from image to image. Here's the link.
http://www.barbaramoody.com/pages/drawings.html

More Cruciforms

Another day of being confined to sitting. Another day of drawing cruciform compositions. Today I decided to try composing some of them as negative a shape. I also added a little color.

Big Foot

Following surgery to realign my toes I find myself confined to sitting for a few days.

To pass the time I sat with a stack of paper and a collections of pencils and charcoal and made quick sketches based on one composition, the cruciform. As soon as I can return to the studio I'll take these drawing, paint over some and use other as ideas for abstract paintings. Here are some of the drawings before I begin to paint over them.

Online Learning

In January I decided to try an online art course. The course I chose was "Creating Small Abstract Paintings" given by abstract pastelist Debora Stewart. See Debora's work at http://www.deboralstewart.com/

Step one was to select several landscape photos and make black and white thumbnails sketches. 

Step two was to create black and white drawings from the thumbnail drawings.

1

2

3

4

The last step was to create small pastel paintings from the drawings.

1

2

3a

 3b

This was a fun exercise and I found I really enjoyed working on the black and white drawings. I think I will try to make it a regular part of the painting process. I like what happened in the drawing from photo one. I cropped out most of the photo. I liked the idea of two completely different textures in one painting. I'm not sure how well it translated to the color painting. The photo for image 2 was almost abstract so it wasn't difficult to make an abstract painting. The thumbnails from photo 4 were the most challenging. I cropped the photo and made several thumbnails. For the drawing I turned it on its side and I think it is the strongest abstract drawing. I haven't tried to translate it into color yet but will post it as soon as I complete one. 

This was a fun way to jumpstart a year of painting and push my technical skills by making the black and white drawing before starting a color pastel. I appreciated Debora's thoughtful comments and suggestions. I think it was time well spent.  

Gray Days

There are so many grey day at this time of year. Here's a little more color from a fall paint out in Mazama WA. Paint outs are wonderful because you spend lots of time painting with other painters. I always learn a lot. 

 

Mazama Colors  Pastel 8" x 12"

A New Year's Resolution

ring the bells that still can ring


forget your perfect offering


there is a crack in everything


that's how the light gets in



                                     ~Leonard Cohen

Celebration  pastel 13.5"  x 14"

Happy New Year

This is a day to reflect, remember and make plans for the coming year. Here's hoping it's a good year for everyone. This pastel was painted remembering a great jazz musician, George Duke. I'm happy to say it received a juror's award from Casey Klahn at the Northwest Pastel Society 2013 Member's exhibit at the Schack Art Center in Everett, WA. Thank you Casey.

Remembering George Duke   pastel  12" x 20"