Olympic Firs, 24 x 18, UART 320

Olympic Firs, Underpainting

Drawing

I’ve been very remiss in posting my blog as of late.  It’s been a very busy spring.  In April, I gave up my studio and moved everything here. Fortunately, I have a lovely space to paint in.  In addition to that, I got rid of my bathtub and now have the pastel cabinet in there. And the guest bathroom doubles as my retail shop for cards and such!!!  Just made a sale and have someone coming next week.  So, you never know!

My first painting done in the lovely art room downstairs was a commissioned piece for my piano teacher and his wife–mainly his wife. She is from Seattle and wanted something with tall evergreens.  I found 4 x 6 color photos from our trip to the Olympic Penninsula in the 90’s.  I had a picture of the distant mountains, one of trees, and another of wildflowers. But none had a composition.  So I did a drawing and put it all together.  I’m getting to be pretty good at that!  I delivered it yesterday and they were delighted.   Here are the drawing, underpainting and finished painting.

The most difficult part was the distant hillsides just below the peaks of the mountains.  Getting the color and value right was a challenge and also making the hills different enough and not all the same.  Fortunately, pastel is very forgiving and I finally got it to my satisfaction.

My original intent (as you can see from underpainting) was for a solid band of white topped flowers running to the right of the large tree.  But I really disliked it and broke it into singlular flowers, such as Queen Anne’s lace.  I was much happier.  The foreground of chickory and path came from a photo from Revelstoke , BC taken during another trip.  But I really liked putting in the blue chickory to bring the blue of the sky into the foreground.

They were delighted with the painting and now Leander wants one from New England!  I have a few of those!!!

Olympic Firs, 24 x 18, UART 320