Cape Code Dreaming, 12 x 24, Stonehenge

First layer with Holdbein pastels

Hello Friends.  I’ve been painting a lot these last couple of weeks. Fortunately, my back is much better and I can stand and walk without any pain.  All of which makes me feel a LOT more positive!

I tried something new today.  After doing the hydrangea picture, which I loved, I did another hydrangea using hard pastels to begin with.  I don’t think it was quite as successful, but I liked it.  Then I did an 18 x 18 with more hard pastels and soft on top and got more frustrated.  Paper sagged and rippled in places, which I didn’t like at all!  I’m going to try the 280 gram Rives to see how that works since that is what Dakota sells.

Anyway, today, I did a 12 x 24 and decided to begin with my box of Holbeins.  I love the colors of these sticks, which are between hard and soft and quite unique.  The blue greens are wonderful and I started the sky with those.  I completely made up the composition for this one. No reference photo OR drawing!  I just decided to wing it.  I really liked using the Holdbeins, as opposed to the Caran d’ache.  They are much softer and go on faster and more evenly (when the paper isn’t buckling).  I drew in water various levels of hills and bushes.  I wasn’t sure where I was going with any of this.  My first thought was fog but there was too much sky to be all foggy and I wanted to show the water.  I liked the path and ended up having it lead to a beach.  I used various shapes of bushes, with rosa rugosa (beach roses) in mind.  I ended up adding some taller evergreens to give some variety to the composition.  I began the grasses withg greens, then added organges on top and ended with a combination of both.

The sky became more blue violet and I decded to add the tops of sunlit clouds to try to give the sense of light.  I used quite a few colors in the path, including violets, green, pinks, and ochres.

I added the small yellow flowers and the roses and I’m not sure how much I like either, but i had them in mind.  I decided to call it “Cape Cod Dreaming” as it’s what it reminded me of.  I haven’t been there in over a year now and i”m not a beach person, but walking through fields like this is my idea of heaven.

Hydrangea Blues, 12″ x 24″, Stonehenge

Underpainting over toned surface

Initial layin

Almost complete

Happy July 4th!  (Although I”m not sure women can celebrate something called “Independence” day!)  Anyway,  I finished off a painting today and thought I’d share it with you.  I was going to do another Lake Bonneville picture, but I was struck by the beautiful hydrangea bush in front of our building.  So I took pictures from a lot of angles and decided to do a 12 x 24 on the Stonehenge paper.  I am really loving this surface.  Nice and sturdy.

The primary challenge for me was the composition.  It’s just a long bank of bushes with grass in the front and light coming primarily from the left.  So I tried to vary the flowers as they rise about the bush and played with varying colors to give more interest to it.  The pattern of light on the grass also provides some directional movement, which I think helps.

I decided to do something different in beginning the painting–use hard pastel.  I put in the sky and added Girault on top and really liked it.  Then I decided to do a hard pastel underpainting for the flowers and grass in order to provide the darks.  This worked really nicely.  After that, I used various hard pastels in greens, blue greens and warm brown greens to lay in the flowers and light and shadow on the grass.  I then used soft pastels to develop the flowers, grasses, leaves, etc.

One of the things that I’ve liked least in this series of paintings has been the skies. Using Ludwigs and other soft pastels has made them too cakey.  I really liked the effect of the hard pastels and Girault for the background and I plan to do more with this in future paintings.  My initial thoughts were to do this one quickly land loosely like the Fog and Poppy painting (which I have sold).  But when I began this one, I realized that I wanted to take my time with it.  I loved playing with the various warm greens and cool blue greens.  When I was almost done, however, I felt that it was missing something, and I decided to add pinks.  I got four values of very light, medium and dark pink/magenta and added some of the lights to the flowers and some of the dark to the undergrowth.  It can be hard to see, but it adds just enough contrast to make it more interesting.

Working on these pictures has been really energizing for me.  Unfortunately, my back isn’t cooperating and it’s also been painful.  Nevertheless, I plan to continue to explore and see where it takes me.  I hope that you are also enjoying whatever creative endeavors you are involved in.  Best wishes for the holiday. Hopefully you aren’t flying somewhere!

Jean