"Lodi Train Station", pastel

Sorry, I have been so deep in teaching my high school art classes that I have really neglected my blog for the past month. I worked on this a long time for me. It is a 24" X 30" pastel on Canson paper. The scene is in Lodi, Ca. I started it last December and finally finished it about a month ago. AWS has some really good buys on Sennilier Pastels so I finally broke down and got some. They are so buttery to work with. Schminke are even more buttery but...those I really can not afford.....but they are heaven. I have about 12 sticks. WOW!!

"Nancy's Shed", finally done

Well, here is the final version. I still need to sign it but it is finished. I started back to work 3 weeks ago teaching high school art so my postings will happen, when they happen till I am back in the groove with my high schoolers. I have learned a lot this summmer while doing pastel with Gill Dellinger. The 2 most important things that I learned was how important the neutral colors are and that I am terribly scattered all the time and have to work very hard to stay with the pastel even when things are not going well!!  Just like kids, you do not give up when they misbehave, you work through it.

"Nancy's Shed" inprogress

This is the outside of my friend Nancy's shed. The 1st block in of color had some perspective problems. In the last one I resolved the perspective problems in the shelf. This was started on location or plein air. I still have to resolve the perspective on the round vents at the top of the pastel and I need to refine the leaves. For me sometimes my corrections get worse before they get better. That is when it gets scary and I get anxious and want to quit but I know to improve I can not let my own fear of failure paralyze me. Sometimes I need to remind myself that it is JUST a piece of paper. This is a 18" X 24" pastel on Wallace paper and it is still in progress.

Egg Scale with Orange Wedges, done

Well, here it is done. I have been drawing in my friends back yard the past 2 days. It has been very nice because there is lots of shade, peace and quiet. My brother in law has been in ICU since Saturday and is on my mind so this distraction has been timely. If you believe in prayer or good thoughts we could use some on his behalf. His name is Randy. Thank-you all.

Egg Scale with Orange Wedges, first 3 steps

Here are the first 3 steps in this pastel. It is an 18" X 24", pastel on Wallace paper. I really like how important the orange wedges are in this composition. The blue complimentary colors really help the orange pop! I must go create. Later!!!

Finished, "Lonely Green Apple"

Well, this is the final version. It was painful getting here. Yesterday I tried to show some of the steps in the process but....I did a very bad job. Sorry! This is a learning curve for me. Sometimes I love the internet and sometimes I hate it. Someone was fraudulently charging on my credit card on the internet, Wednesday which really makes a mess of everything. It took me quite a while this morning to get my internet up and running again. I just hate that!!!

"Lonely Green Apple", in process

I tried to post this this morning and did something wrong and lost everything...so I gave up. Now I am trying again. 

The bottom photo is the still life I set up in my studio. Then the line drawing. After that I took a very dirty chamois and blocked in the dark values. I used fixative between each step.  Then I started laying in blocks of color. The last one (bottom left one) the color is more refined but a long way from being done. I will add more steps tomorrow.

This lonely green apple kept me awake at night because it was really giving me a hard time.  As I worked on it the apple felt cut out instead of in space and the apple grew to large and became a new species of apple that I have never heard of. This is a part of the growth. Everything is not always easy. Tomorrow I will post a few more steps.