End of Autumn 2

I'm in a blogging frenzy.

Here's the second of the "End of Autumn" series. It's still slightly in transition since I'm working on "End of Autumn 6" which is also of moving water. I'd like the color of the 2 pieces to work together.

That's one of the many pluses of working with pastel. The pieces can always be adjusted and reworked (unlike watercolor). The problem comes if I overwork and ruin the energy of piece.

"End of Autumn 2" 18" x 26"

The Close-up Series

Yep, it's me again. 2 blogs in one night. woo-hoo. The only way to remember changes is to do it at least 2 times in one night. 

So now I've moved over to the laptop where I have most of my new pieces stored. Yes, I know there's a "cloud" to help jump back and forth from desktop to laptop, and my brain is there all the time. Unfortunately is not the part of the brain that stores computer information.

So here's the first in the "Close-up" series.

"End of Autumn 1" 18"x26" pastel

The "End of Autumn" series was inspired by a trip this fall to Swift Camp Creek which runs into Red River at the Gorge. I have completed many plein air drawings of the creek and hiking trails but have always been intrigued by the intimacy of the creek with the silt covered rocks, sinking leaves, leaves floating on the top and light reflections on the surface. Very complicated and not something I wanted to try in a 2 hour plein air session. So I snapped tons of photos - I just love, love, love digital photography. I like enlarging and cropping shots until I get the interesting composition I need.

In the studio I can study the many photos and work slowly with careful selection of colors and composition.

Way Too Long

Hello to the blogasphere,

It's been way too long since I blogged-February-now that's embarrassing. So much has happened.

1st - I moved my studio to the building that's houses LexArts: the umbrella org for the all the arts in Lexington. Neat place to be but I miss the art crew at Artists Attic.
2nd - In September my husband and I travelled to the southwest, visiting Santa Fe, Taos, Painted Desert and the amazing Grand Canyon.
3rd - In October our very sweet friends ask us to join them in Kauai, Hawaii for the 2nd week of their vacation. Again an amazing place and yes, I tried to surf but managed only to get up on my hands and knees. Oh well, at least I tried.

I'll be posting some pastels from my trips and some new pastels from my "close-up" series which started with creek images from Red River Gorge.

Now I have to remember how to attach photos. :-) It only took me 20 minutes to get logged in - the old forgetting my password and all the changes due to the lovely Time Warner Cable change over from Insight.

I do love winter. It's a quiet, contemplative time and I plan on working daily AND posting many of my new pieces.

Just to get back into the swing of things I'll post the image I'm using on my new business cards.

"Shaker Trail" pastel 14"x30"

State Park pastels

It's been way too long between blogs because I've been working on pastels for 2 one-person shows and a large commission for the new Owensboro Hospital.
So tonight I tried to load up some step by steps from my recent pastel workshop and of course couldn't get it to work. Now I'm back again, trying. You know the definition of crazy is doing the same thing again and expecting a different result. Well computer technology drives me crazy.
So here's a couple of images from my one person show at Artists' Attic, 401 W. Main Street, Victorian Square - 4th floor in downtown Lexington, KY. The reception is Gallery Hop night, Friday, Feb. 15, 5-8pm

"Greenbo Lake Morning Feelings" pastel 24"x30"

"Dale Hollow Reflections" pastel 24"x30"

Wildflower demo steps

hello to all in my latest pastel workshop students.
As promised here are the steps for the Wildflower demonstration and I apologize for working you all so hard. This subject was more difficult than I realized but hey, if it were easy what would you learn? right? :-)

oh, great! I'm having server/internet problems.
I'm going to try to create a folder directly onto my website, www.mcdonaldfineart.com and I'll title it Demos.
keep your fingers crossed.
guess it's time to update the OS on my mac......lordy how I hate tech problems.