Hello Friends

It’s been a long time since I posted.  I had a terrible autumn and couldn’t paint for quite awhile due to broken bones.  I’ve been painting a lot recently, but I have a feeling that there’s little interest in my just discussing my latest paintings.  So, I’ve been thinking.

I contacted my website company, FASO, and I can’t transfer this blog to it.  But I could begin a new one there.  I’m thinking that it might be less frequent and based more on my teaching and personal explorations.  I’ve done a lot with classes in the past year: “Seeing Composition,” “Seeing Color”,  “Materials and Techniques”.  I’m thinking about developing a spring class/workshop? on “Seeing the Bones of a Picture”—value shapes, what’s underneath and behind, how to get started.  All of that.

For the first time, I have two distinct classes. On Mondays I’m teaching the Materials and Techniques class to a lot of first time people!  Most have experience in other media, so they aren’t beginners.  But they are new to pastel.  On Wednesdays, I’m doing  a critique class for the folks who’ve been with me for awhile.  All of these classes are on zoom.  I no longer have a place to teach in person, and it’s worked out really well, with people from other states joining in.

I”ll be traveling to three destinations this spring: North Carolina in April for a small show at Duke and vacation to Asheville; Paris and Normandy with Viking in May; and the American Library Association annual meeting in San Diego at the end of June!  I’ll be discussing my book, which was republished.  As a librarian who regularly went to ALA twice a year, I think it will be fun to go back as an author.  We hope to do some travelling when we are there and hope that the atmospheric rivers will be long gone!

So, for this last post on this blog (I think), I’m going to share some recent paintings with you–just the finished product and a discussion of the challenges and joys.

State Pier, New Bedford, 18 x 24, UART 320 board

State Pier, New Bedford. This was my first painting of 2024. I’d been looking forward to painting it since taking the picture last summer, but it turned out to be a real challenge!  There’s was so much stuff in addition to the boats and their reflections and I had to find a way to simplify it.  I finally opted for shapes of blue in the background and after a real struggle, it came together. I had originally thought I’d do three of these paintings but after one, I’d had enough.

Lock House, Lock 8, 20 x 16, Lux Archival

Lock House, Lock 8.  By comparison, this painting was a joy to do!  I was back to painting white buildings in light and shadow!  The house is on the C&O Canal, very near where I now live. We walk there frequently and I loved the play of light on the house and the texture of the building in this image.  After months of painting nothing but marshes (thinking I needed to have a theme for a future show), I was back to what I love to paint!  So this painting said a lot and meant a lot to me.  I then went looking for white things to paint!

Highland Light, Truro, 24 x 18, Lux Archival

Highland Light, Truro.  Back to Cape Cod!  White lighthouse, white buildings in light and shadow.  The lighthouse that Hopper painted!  I loved doing this.  I particularly liked the way the movement in the sky and grasses contrasts with the stillness of the buildings.  The primary challenge was the fence but it worked. My last addition was a patch of flowers in the foreground to pick up the reds from the building. That was really satisfying!

Chatham Roses, 20 x 16, Lux Archvial

Chatham Roses. Speaking of challenging fences!  I took the photo in September of 2022 and knew I wanted to paint it.  I loved the angle of the fence and the lines of the distant road, and, of course, the house with flag.  I did a lot of drawing for this one and used my new J. Luda Romanian pastels for the greenery!  (An award from the PSA). This was also a real joy to paint.  I used a variety of off whites for the fence in foreground and played with the colors in the roof, street, and distant building.  I was in my happy place for sure!

White Water, Great Falls, 14 x 14, illustration board with Golden fine pumice gel

White Water, Great Falls. I’ve been wanting to experiment with different substrates for hand-made surfaces and purchased some illustration board.  I cropped an old photo into a square and applied one coat of the gel (untoned) to the board.  It bent up but a short time under books flattened nicely.  (My previous uses of Rives printmaking paper were unsatisfactory because the paper always buckled once on the easel, even after an entire night under books!) I added a simple underpainting with alcohol and added another coat of gel and put it under the books again.  For the painting, I used nothing but the softest of pastels as the surface was pretty hard.  Blue Earth were the majority of what I used.

I did this as a study, thinking I’d do a larger one. I may, but might look for a different image and view.  I found the illustration board easy to use and satisfactory, although I would have liked a little more give.  Sigh!  You can’t have it all!!!

That’s it for now. Don’t know what I’ll be painting next or what I’ll do with the blog. I’d appreciate comments, thoughts, suggestions.  Be well.

Jean

jeanhirons48@gmail.com