Georgetown Canal in Summer, 20″ x 24″, Pastel Premiere white

Underpainting

Last Tuesday, an artist friend and I met in Georgetown to find and film alleys.  And we DID do that. But on the way back, we did  a little walking on the canal, and it was the images from that walk that made me know I had to paint it–again!  You may recall that I did a series of six paintings from the first of January 2015. Because the light was so different, those pictures are all in blue/violet color palettes, whereas this one is definitely dominated by the greens and oranges of the buildings. As a result, this seems softer than the winter pictures.

I used two photos, taken seconds apart, but very different in values.  The composition was developed from both of them and doesn’t match either as to the bridge.  In one the foreground was washed out; in the other the underside of the bridge was too black. So I used the lighter one primarily, but referred to the darker one for the foreground.

Photo reference 2

Photo reference 1

I did a basic drawing and redid it many times, trying to fit things in correctly. Then I did a hard pastel underpainting and lost a lot of it!  I’m thinking that maybe I should work on the Italian clay. But I do like the way the under color shows through on the premiere paper. It’s grittier than UART and is very nice for buildings, paths, etc.

Getting the reflections right was the most challenging part of the painting, particularly having the light and darker parts in right places!  I began with what was underneath, using darker values and vertical strokes. Then used a variety of Girault greens and grayed greens to brush over the water and give the light effects.  It didn’t really come alive, however, until the blue green was added into the sky and water. At first I had the sky all in pale orange; but then I added some blue to the left of the tower and it felt really right!  I had to up the value of it to make it come out in the photograph.

The path was also a potential problem as it was so one-dimensional in the photo. I began with dark colors, including a grayed blue, and let some of it show through when I added the warm tones, so that there is a pattern of dark leading into the picture.

One other challenge was that the paper wasn’t mounted, and, while I had it fairly well taped, it buckled everywhere. I will have my framer mount it from now one or buy it mounted from Dakota. (It’s too bad that True Grit Pastel Panels only come in UART.)

I will be having a show at the Dumbarton Church in Georgetown in mid-October, so I had an ulterior motive for doing this painting.  I’ll be showing my winter canal series and the three unsold alley pictures, and this one, along with smaller paintings. It’s Oct. 15, 6-8, followed by a concert of Italian madrigals!  If you are in the area, please come!

Sunlit Field, St. Andre de Double, 12 x 16, Pastel Premier “Italian Clay”

I just gave a three day workshop at Washington ArtWorks and did two demos. The first was for the whole class. I used two different images and the result was less than great!  But then, I decided to do a small demo the next day for several of the participants about beginning with analogous color when confronted with a lot of greens.  I decided to work on Pastel Premiere, because my new member was going to work on that.  I began with just the left part of the painting and began the greens with blues and the warm bush with browns.  I quickly realized that blue was the WRONG color!  This painting is all about warm yellow greens, and of course, the complement is my favorite color of red violet!  It was only when I employed my Ludwig “eggplant” and other red violet pastels, that it began to work.  Then I used a variety of dark and warm greens over the violets.  The biggest challenge was with the purple loosestrife, which is present in the foreground, both in sunlite and in shadow at the bottom left.  I find that a “bright purple” is a REAL challenge!  I began with warm magentas and some warmer colors, then went to my violet row and added some of the warmer violets.  But I was never completely satisfied.  The shadowed part was quite easy–it was the flowers in sunshine that were the problem.

However, my primary goal was to portray the beautiful sunlight hitting the bush and crossing the field.  I built up to the light in the bush gradually, finally moving to the yellowist of yellow greens.  In the background, I used some of the same colors, but then added some pinks/red violets over them to tone them down and keep them from competing.

For the sky, I used a warm green in the upper right, then a brighter yellow for the rest, toned down with the lightest of the yellow Giraults (the sky is all Girault).

Pastel Premiere does not accept hard pastel well, so I quickly moved to Girault and then my soft pastels.  I REALLY enjoyed doing this painting and using the soft pastels, sometimes with a Girault over them (as in the raised grasses in the middle).  It was really fun!

Late Day Light, Coulon 16 x 16 UART 400

Underpainting

Reference photo

I spent a lovely, quiet afternoon at the studio, doing my second painting from our recent trip.  This farm house was up the road a bit from the similar type of farm house that we stayed in.  I took pictures of many of them, but this one really intrigued me because of the side buildings and bushes on the right side of the picture. Much more interesting than just the house.  And the water reflections, of course, also gave it more interest.  I did the underpainting yesterday and chose a really warm yellow green for the sky and a warm green for the water. I used blues and off reds for the bushes and buildings.  I’m finding more and more that I’m just looking for a color with the right value and not worrying very much about what it is!  But I did think about temperature when choosing the sky and water colors.

I wanted this painting to show the glow of the beautiful late afternoon light. I used light blues and greenish blues in the sky, then added a Ludwig light orange above the house on the left side of the painting.  For the trees, I kept to blues and blue greens (no violets!).  The house is a combination of grayed green Giraults and a beige Schmincke.  I wanted to emphasize the light and shadow on the house and went back over it and the windows a number of times. I finally added a warm Schmincke to the second window from left on the top and added blue over some of the others to keep them from being too much alike.  I left out a lot of fence posts, a sign, and a telephone pole. But I did add the speed sign and really like the way it came out, and the fact that it breaks up the large dark bush against the house.

For the water, I went with darker colors and more intense blues at the base.

What I love about France (and Europe in general) is the age of everything and the way the buildings have become a part of the landscape. This house, with its odd side buildings, and it’s typical grayed facade, is a good example.  There is a real soft, earthiness in France, with few hard edges and lovely colors.  It was such a pleasure being there and reliving it!

It was very quiet at my studio today, but just as I finished a man asked to come in and visit. He looked at all the work and fell in love with several of them and I have a feeling he will be back. You never know!

Underpainting

Port du Pave, 20 x 16, UART 400

Reference photo

Here is my first painting since our recent trip to France. I knew when I was taking the pictures that I finally had something I would paint.  We were in a very deserted quiet area of ruined buildings, boats and cars. Adjacent to it was a marina and wildlife preserve which we walked through. I loved the one red boat and took many shots of it from different angles, but this first one was the one I liked best. I loved the way the grasses of differing colors lead the eye to the boat.

The sky was overcast and we had just had a shower. I used blues and violets in the lower part, making it a little lighter at the top. Used a Girault to blend, then added a very light yellow Ludwig near the top to add some light.  This is subtle and may not show well, but it really adds to the painting.

As you can see from the photo, I made the buildings and boat bigger, giving them more prominence in the painting, as I knew I would. I knew I wanted to do a vertical, because I liked the movement of the grasses, but I didn’t want too much grass!

For the buildings, I have to admit to being very influenced by Tony Allain. I used simple strokes and only a few colors.  I purposely did not make the white roof as light as it is in the photo, as I didn’t want to call attention away from the boat.

The challenge at the end was that the red in the boat was isolated color. I “solved”? it by signing my name in the lower left corner, using a cool dark red pencil!  I think it helps.

Model of the show

I just received an image of the models for the show from Aurelio and I wanted to share them with you. In the background you will see Philippe Caillat at his computer. He was there much of the time.  There were paintings from a Canadian artist that never got there. Mine took a month and there were delays in other American’s as well. He took care of it all.  And look at the detail that went into planning the show!  Every painting in miniature in it’s place!  John and I were really astounded.  Philippe is the town pharmacist and we wondered how much time he was able to give to his actual job!

Aurelio said that he values this show above others due to the dedication of the local people and town and I can well understand that. I can’t imagine anything like  this taking place in the U.S.

And each year, the town buys at least one painting for their Musee du Pastel.  Imagine that in the US!!!  I feel very fortunate to have been able to participate and bring more Americans to this very worthy show in France. There have been a number of sales so far and I just hope that some of the Americans will sell as well.

Meditacion, Award-winning painting by Aurelio Rodriguez Lopez

Aurelio with his demos

I promised last week that I would add a post on the demo by Aurelio Rodriguez Lopez, that occurred on Sunday morning.  I didn’t stay for the whole thing, but I got pictures of the portraits in process, and him and his materials and I took notes on what he uses.  As I noted in the last post, what he does is completely different from what I would do for a landscape. But his results are quite amazing.  You can see that from the painting Meditacion, which won one of the two awards.  The background is gold, I think maybe irridescent pastel.  He uses a number of different techniques to create backgrounds for his portraits.  (Ignore the white spot, which is from the camera)

Partially-completed portrait

For the demo, he brought two different portraits which he had begun in workshops.  While I was there, he worked on the portrait of the man. I was very interested to see his pastel boxes, which contained highly sharpened pencils, as well as sticks. He uses pencils and sticks interchangeably, using a variety of brands of pencils with Rembrandt and Girault sticks.  He said that of the 6,000 portraits that he has done in the past 30 years, 90% have been done on Canson MiTeintes, as the two demo pieces were.  He uses a #177 Sepia pencil for his drawing, adding some black and a bit of white to create the initial layer of pastel. He uses a brush to get rid of excess pastel, as well as stomps for blending (all the things I have pooh-poohed over my brief career in pastel!!!). Needless to say, his technique is very exacting and delicate.

While he used to work from life, he now works from photos, reproducing the photo to the size of the painting and laying along side, as you can see in the photo. He uses four stages: 1) drawing, 2) color application, 3) mixing and blending, and 4) recapturing the fine details of the drawing. In the blending phase, he uses a black Conte 3B pencil, which is the “darkest black” to blend into other colors to darken them. He noted his problems of achieving darks (which had been my problem when I was using Rembrandts and Canson).  I think I noted in the last post that he mentioned the Ludwig darks, but I couldn’t imagine him using anything as large as a Ludwig! (Perfect for Tony Allain, however!)

I couldn’t stay for the entire demo as the weather was wonderful and the beautiful French countryside (and my husband) were calling to me!  But meeting him was one of the real treats of this trip. While I know I would never work like this, I do know someone who might.  I may have told you about my friend Karl, who is in a federal prison.  When he first wrote to me, I learned that he was doing portraiture, using Canson, and inexpensive pastels, including a lot of pencils.  I got him to use “better” papers (from my stand point) and softer pastels.  After watching Aurelio’s demo, I felt really guilty!!! I wished that Karl could have been there. I did send him a detailed letter with these images, giving him permission to do whatever he likes!!!

Aurelio’s materials

Paritally-completed portrait with photograph