Rockcastle County Hike

"No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artists." - Oscar Wilde
In last Saturday's pastel workshop I demonstrated the oil wash method and created "Rockcastle County Hike". The colors are different from the "step by step" that I made for the students to follow and appears in the previous blog. 
The blue sky wasn't very interesting in the "step by step" so I decided to change it to a warm color to coordinate with the warmer fall colors. That created a problem with the color of the birch trees which have very light bark and in the step by step I used a peach color which now is the same color as the sky. Gray was too dull and the tan color was much too brownish so I used a very light lavender over those 2 colors plus edged one side with a cream color for the edge of sunlight.

This is my reference photo taken 25 years ago and it's faded which is good because that gives me more incentive to invent the colors

Before I apply the oil wash a sketch was created on the sanded paper using a soft pencil.

"Rockcastle County Fall" 16"x20" in sanded paper with an oil wash underpainting

 This is the final piece. Compare these colors to the "step by step" colors in my previous blog.

Rockcastle County demo

For my next pastel workshop at Artists' Attic I'm demonstrating an oil wash underpainting before applying the pastel on top.
Richard McKinley is the king of oil washes and he's so skilled with the underpainting that many times he leaves quite a bit of the oil wash showing.
In this example you can see that I have covered almost all of the oil wash-not as skilled with my underpainting as Richard McKinley. However there is still an advantage to the oil wash method.
When an underpainting is created with a very thin application of oil paint, thinned to a stain with turpentine, the initial application of pastel sticks like glue to the sanded paper because there is no underpainting of pastel - no layer of pastel to fill up the tooth of the paper.
The layer of pastel is applied with a very light hand watching carefully to allow the creative play of shapes and colors to emerge from the oil underpainting.

Mingo Flats demo

In the second of a series of Saturday workshop I demonstrated "Mingo Flats Road". First, the students were asked to study the reference photo and see how I manipulated the image to create a better composition.
Here's the reference photo, the sketch and the final pastel created for the step by step demo.
I chose to move the large trees and the house back into the middle ground closer to the background to give room to the mountain and create a sense of the largeness of the mountain.
However, I strayed from the value study of the sketch by making both trees the same value. If I stayed true to the value sketch the tree on the left side of the road would have appeared even further back into the picture plane. And in the value sketch the further back mountain looks as if a storm has darken it with the foreground still in sunlight.
I may have to try this again and I do like the telephone poles - also eliminated from the final piece.

"Mingo Flats Road" 8" x 12" demo on LaCarte sanded paper

"End of the Day"

"An artist's world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep." Paul Strand
As you know I love working at Shaker Village Pleasant Hill, KY. Last fall I snapped the photograph for this scene and after looking at it often I've finally decided to take it on. I'm interested in the evening light at the end of the day and how it plays along the edges of the horses and buggy driver with the dark barn in the background producing a perfect contrast to the light.
This piece will be in my one person show at Artists Attic in February 2013. My goal is to produce at least 2 new pieces per month along with the pieces I have to create for the art fair circuit this year. That's why I'm starting now!

"End of the Day" 18" x 24" pastel on Wallis sanded paper

Mingo Road color studies

"No great artist ever sees things as they really are." Oscar Wilde
For my next workshop I'll be demonstrating "Mingo Road Maple" and today I created some color studies of the scene as well as small b/w pencil studies of values.
I"ve started the final piece and will post the steps tomorrow. Can you guess which one I"ll chose ? Kind of an easy question when you see which one I work on the longest.
The upper left was a complementary red/green study and the top right was a orange/blue study but the photo looks more red than orange.
The lower left image was an orange/blue complementary study with more subtle exploration of blues.

"Mingo Road Maple" color studies

Mariposa Grove

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." Henry David Thoreau
Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park contains a beautiful grove of hugh Giant Sequoias trees and it's easy to understand why the Native Americans worshipped here.
The museum cabin sits at the top of the mountain which is a 2 miles hike up but well worth the trip. 
I included the cabin to give scale to the trees. The October sun was illuminating the tops of the giants but the forest floor was sinking into shadow.

"Mariposa Grove" 12"x8" pastel on LaCarte sanded paper

Passages Evening Light

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."  Henry David Thoreau

The last 20 minutes of evening light can produce startling color and contrast. "Passages - Evening Light" is about that last few minutes when the orange colored sun flashes the landscape with brilliant color.

"Passages - Evening Light" 8" x 12" pastel on Wallis sanded paper