"Casa Laurey Lavender"

Day 4 has one more entry to the "Casa Laurey" series. This time I'm suggesting, without drawing individual plants, fields of lavender. This will be the last of the "Casa Laurey" series but I'm thinking about an Italian village on the hill for the next series. All of Tuscan hilltowns that we visited were indeed on the hill, built there for protection and to allow all of the surrounding land to be used for farming.

"Casa Laurey Lavender"    7" x 10"    pastel

"Casa Laurey" Day 3

So here we are at Day 3 and I'm continuing the "Casa Laurey" series. I like working in a series to see how far I can push the color and keep the concept in tact. This first image is actually the 1st of the series and you can see that it's closer to reality with the soft sky color and the tan of the plowed September fields. Full reality would dictate the field color to be a warm gray clay color, but that's just too.... hum.....gray for me.

"Casa Laurey #1" 7" x 10" pastel

Today's image is another of the Casa Laurey series with the addition of sunflowers which bloom is late July. Since I was in Tuscany in September this is my imaginary version of what an overwhelming field of lovely Tuscan yellow could be.

"Casa Laurey's Sunflowers" 7" x 10" pastel

Day 2 for Pastel A Day

"Casa d'Laurey" is the second of my Italian series for "Pastel a Day" This house can be seen from the Val d'Orcia in Tuscany and I named it after my favorite tour guide - Laurey Masterton. Laurey was instrumental in organizing the trip that I and my 5 pastelling buddies took to Italy in September.

"Casa d'Laurey" 10"x7" pastel

You will notice a difference in texture between Day 1 pastel and Day 2. Day 1 is on a sanded pastel paper created by painting pastel primer on to museum board using a cheap student grade brush. I use this brush because I want the rough strokes to show. If I use a sponge brush the texture would be very fine, similar to the sanded texture of Day 2 pastel. Day 2 pastel was created on Sennelier's LaCarte sanded paper which has a very fine sanded texture and will have a smoother look to the final piece.

Pastel a Day

Yes, it's the old New Years Resolution time - only 15 days late. I woke up this morning determined to refocused on new pastels for the coming 2011 art fair season. In November I moved part of my studio to Artists' Attic in Victoria Square at 401 W. Main, Lexington, KY and I've been having lots of fun experimenting with oils and new directions for some pastels. But now it's time to get back to more serious work. Goals always help. So my goal for the next 60 days - the number of days before KYCrafted The Market at the Fairgrounds in Louisville is 1 pastel per day. And I'm going to post each new pastel every single day. Bets on how long before I miss a day?
Here's the first entry for my 2011 "Pastel A Day" adventure.

"Val d'Orcia Farmland" 8"x12" pastel

Just in case you're curious about some of the new oils, here's one that will be part of the Artists' Attic "Off the Wall" in studio exhibit. Reception at Gallery Hop Friday night February 18.

"Florence Tourist Morning" 40" x 30" oil

See you tomorrow!

Grand Opening of my New Studio

Busy fall. I've opened a second studio at Artists Attic, at Victorian Square, 4th floor, 401 W. Main Street, Lexington, KY. Gallery Hop is tonight from 5 - 8. Come see my new space. I'll also continue to work in my home studio - knowing where my latest art supplies and reference photos are located is good practice for the brain.

Compositional challenges are also good practice for the brain. Here are 2 new pastels from Shaker Village.

The first one "Shaker Home Fall" is a more traditional composition with the point of interest in the top 1/3 of the picture plane, however the house is facing out of the picture plane. So I decided to try another approach.

My second drawing is "Shaker Home with White Fence." This composition is unusual because I allowed the fence to run diagonally through the picture plane, dividing the image but allowing the house to face into the picture. This scene is what I actually observed and decided to see if it would work as a dynamic composition. Sometimes it is necessary to break the usual compositional rules and try something that may or may not work. 


What do you think? Which image do you like better. 

Both pieces will be on view at my new studio in Artists Attic.

Come down tonight for Gallery Hop and check it out.

What's the Common Denominator?

"Adam's Barn"    pastel    16" x 20"    $575

These two images at first glance may not seem to have much in common and yes, sometimes I think my images are very divergent, but what do they have in common? Color. I love color and try to push the color farther than what my eyes see. My favorite artist in Lexington is Carolyn Hisel and Carolyn taught me in a Lexington Art League workshop to choose colors with my heart not my eyes.

"Monteccheillo, Italy"   pastel   14"x11"   $245

Both of these pastels will be shown at my final art fair of the season - KYMarket:Spotlight Lexington at Triangle Park. The show is in conjunction with the World Equestrian Games that are being held for 17 days at the Kentucky Horse Park. Downtown Lexington is having numerous cultural offerings including art, music and drama during the 17 days of the WEG. Come on down and see my newest pieces and the celebration of color at Triangle Park Oct. 7-10 10 am - 6 pm each day.

Italian Vacation and St. James Art Fair

"Tuscany Abbey Spinota" pastel 16"x12"

What does my vacation to Italy have to do with the St. James Art Fair? I'll be showing some of my newest drawings from my trip to Florence and Tuscany at the fair this weekend. Come see me in booth #912 on 3rd Street.  Sorry for the very blatant promotion but I'm off to set up for the fair in about 1/2 hour and don't have time for the needed narrative to tell you all about the wonderful places I saw and food, oh the food. Not to mention the wine.I observed so many things in Tuscany while working on my plein air drawings. For instance, can you see the plow lines in the hillside in the orange/tan field. Yes, the lines are going straight up the hill which a farmer in America would never do, but in Tuscany the land is very, very heavy clay and apparently it doesn't erode ( or already has eroded away all the top soil) and they plow with bulldozers. Yep, bulldozers! I saw one. So up the hillside they go. In the springtime this hill would probably be planted in wheat to make their wonderful pasta, of which I ate twice a day.

"Tuscany Farmland" pastel 20" x 40"