My source photo for this demo came from Jo Castillo – a wonderful sky to paint! Thank you, Jo!

Our show will be up for a month at the Old Bakery and Emporium at 1006 Congress, just south of the Capitol in Austin.

Hope you can come to see the exhibit and all the other great items!

This is the largest pastel painting I’ve done to date – 36″x24″ – and I am still working on it. I generally work to bring a painting forward all at once, but there are areas of this I really like and hope not to touch again. There are areas that are just roughed in, and other areas that definitely need more work.

This is the final, complete, absolutely not to be revised piece. Yep.

Fire and Smoke, Pastel, 9x14

“Fire and Smoke” was juried into the Austin Pastel Society’s Annual Member Show at Corridor of Art – 700 Lavaca, Austin, March 7 – April 30, 2011

Sky 10-15-10

Looking at the last post, I really seriously didn’t like the painting. Sometimes I can’t tell that until I see a photo. Weird.
So I re-painted it and cropped it. And what the hell, I blended it too.
And layered more pastel here and there. I like it better. At least for today.

I haven’t had much time to devote to painting for a while, so now that I’ve indulged my need to paint skies, I will be starting a commission that will take a while. It will be a challenge, and I’m looking forward to it!

Sky 101010, Pastel, 11x14

I can’t foresee ever tiring of painting the sky.  The continual changing of colors, shapes, atmosphere is breath-taking, and to try to capture these once in a while is never boring.

On this one, I decided to try to do a pastel painting without any blending.  It’s sooo hard.  I know many pastelists who don’t blend, but that’s part of the reason I love doing pastels.  It’s such a tactile involvement with the painting.  Usually I blend the back color of the sky before I start working with the clouds.  So I don’t blend all of the painting by any means.

So I tried it.  Now back to the way I love to paint.

Here is my writing from today, which is a reminder to practice having a positive and grateful attitude, and to expect (and work for) great things in your life:

~ Vermillion Lightness of Being ~

That lovely feeling

of expectation, anticipation

of knowing something delicious

is just beyond the horizon, like an unopened gift

So here is one I finished tonight (I think), two that I’m in the process of painting now, and one I’m going to finish any minute!!

Bastrop Sky Revisited WIP (painted, wiped, painted, wiped, now in version 3)

Bastrop Sky revisited WIP

Bear Creek Sky – WIP for a long while to come…

Bear Creek Sky WIP

LFB-WIP
Started a few years back, but I’d really like to finish it soon

LFB WIP

Bastrop Pines on a Cloudy Day

We lived in Bastrop County – in Cedar Creek, Bastrop, and Smithville – for many years and loved the beautiful Loblolly Pines there and the rolling hills. It’s a lovely and friendly area just east of Austin.