Thursday, November 6, 2014

Wilderness Road Farmhouse

Last night I mistakenly posted on my old Pastel Lessons blog. That's what happens when I post at 10:30 pm.
So here's what should have been on this site.

Last week my husband and I took our mountain bikes to Cumberland Gap area and rode on the Wilderness Trail. I spotted this farm and loved the rhythm of the barns, the golden maples and the farmhouse.

This pastel is done on UArt sanded paper with pastel and alcohol wash underpainting. UArt is very versatile paper which accepts watercolor and thinned oil washes as well as the alcohol type underpainting without warps or buckling. Because it only comes in cream color and I like to have a colored underpainting to make the pastel pop.

After considering what I thought was the final piece I felt like too many of the angles of shapes were headed in the same direction. They needed a counter-balance - not strong, just a subtle shift in colors and shapes. I changes some of the shapes and colors in the foreground field. I think it's finished but with pastel is always easy to rub out and change things.

"Wilderness Road Farm" step one - underpainting

"Wilderness Road Farm" 11"x14" pastel

"Wilderness Road Farm" 11"x14" pastel final