This is Monday’s demo. I knew when I saw the photo that I wanted it to be a 16 x 20 and the only surface I had was white pastelbord, which is a favorite anyway. I love the fact that it can’t warp!!! (Speaking of which, one of the boards I purchased from Pro Art panels last fall warped so much it’s unusable, and another came completely unglued. Need to ship them back and probably won’t order from them anymore). Back to the demo–I did a hard pastel underpainting using base colors. I used a cool green in the upper sky and a light yellow green in the snow-lit field. For the dark areas, I used a combination of violets and browns. I started it out with a charcoal layin mixed with water. You’ll see that the tree doesn’t really appear in the underpainting, except for the lower trunks. I painted the sky first, then added the tree on over it using Girault and hard pastels. When painting the sky, I used a light grayed blue over the green, allowing the underpainting to show through. It really worked–giving me just the right amount of warmth and greenness. I lightened the cloud bank below and then added clouds above with warmer violets and added pinks and oranges above the cloud bank. I basically did one pass on the sky and never went back to it. For the snow, I used a combination of blue and violet Giraults and then softer pastels. For the sunlit field, I used my lemon yellow Art Spectrum extra soft tinted white. I think this is one of the most useful pastels I own! So many of the yellows are just too yellow. The road in the foreground and the foreground bushes were all done in my studio after the demo. I really needed to take time on them and used a lot of nuanced blues, violets, and pinkish colors. The bird–which I love–began as a mistaken piece of purple pastel on the branch. I immediately saw the benefit of having him there and added a little more to him. He’s right above the orange light in the sky and I think he balances the painting well. I teach people to “let the painting speak to you” and this was one case of that. The overall effect is of a cold snowy day, but I hope that the light in the sky, the bird, and the sunlit field give warmth and interest to the painting.
Farm Road in Snow, 16 x 20, pastelbord
Underpainting for Farm Road in Snow
Jean, as you know, I admire your work! I’m not sure if I should say this but I think your paintings on Pastelbord and UArt are better on those surfaces rather than the new Pastel Premier. I like today’s painting better than yesterday’s. Of course I am only one opinion and maybe your other fans prefer the new surface. No matter what, according to the news you must have lots of snow scenes to paint!
Margaret–a very interesting comment! I do think that the 16 x 20 is a better painting, but not sure about the surface affect. I didn’t do an underpainting or the usual type of preparation on the pastel premiere. I’m curious as to what exactly it is that you think makes the painting better than the others (I happen to think it has a stronger composition and a lot more going for it, but that doesn’t really relate to the paper). More specifics please!!! Meanwhile, I’m working on the large sheets of the white pastel premiere that I just purchased for my latest Georgetown canal series. Can’t remember whether I’ve posted #4 or not, but if I haven’t I’ll have things to say about it!!!
Jean, I have thought about it and had another look at your blogs. I think what it is that I like about your paintings on UArt and Pastelbord is that details are a little sharper. Nothing major.
I know exactly what you mean! Thanks so much for thinking about it and responding. I told my students today about your comment as they were looking at the three demos. They were all trying to figure out what it was! But I agree with you. The pastel premiere 320 is much easier to smeer and harder to get defined details on. Although I think I did it with the Venice picture, I still feel that everything I do on it is softer in some way. The pastelbord has always worked for me, even though sometimes it seems to have more tooth than others. But it’s basically a pretty hard surface, due to the substrate. So smeering is not an issue. I’m really enjoying working on the white 400 for my latest Georgetown picture. I find it substantially different enough from the Italian clay. Of course, I do like using underpaintings and am enjoying working over my initial layers on this paper.