Monday, January 2, 2012

55 days of New Pastels

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life" Pablo Picasso
I've used this quote before but I love it so much that it's a good start for my next run at "Pastel a Day".  For the next 55 days, which is how many days I have before "Kentucky Crafted The Market", I'll create and post a pastel each day. I did 60 days last winter and it was a great motivator to explore and produce.
This is a scene from Shaker Village which I have reworked again because it seemed too dark when I showed it at the last art fair. Sometimes it takes framing a piece and then standing back and just looking at it for awhile to make decisions about it's future. Too many times I've overworked a piece to be disappointed that I filled up the texture of this paper which I create using Art Spectrum's pastel primer. The great thing about this paper is that if I overwork the paper I can wipe off the too heavy application of pastel with a baby wipe and go all the way back to the color pastel primer and then start more carefully adding layers of color.
"Shaker Fields Dusk 1" 16"x20" matted on sanded paper created with pastel primer