Sunset over Smokey Valley Lake

Tree frogs chirp as we hike down to the lake at Carter Caves Park.

The day has been misty wet but the sun peaks through the clouds at sunset.

Smokey Valley Lake at Carter Caves Resort Park photograph taken on May 14, 2012

"Sunset over Smokey Valley Lake" Wallis sanded paper

Elkhorn Creek from my kayak

Drawing with pastels while sitting in my kayak isn't the easiest way to create new work, but OMG, was the creek beautiful today. Bright blue skies with fluffy clouds, geese honking, bobwhites singing, a light breeze and plenty of water in the creek....a bit too much water. My plan to paddle up creek was a good idea but hard to execute - oh my aching arms, and I'm a bit sunburned. Forgot the sunblock.

Back to the art.

Part of the plein air experience is recording the image quickly and with enthusiasm because the scene changes so quickly, especially sitting in a boat. My expectations remain high ... to create something worth taking to an art fair. But sometimes that's not the real reason to work on location. Sometimes you just have to relax and enjoy all the sensory experiences and be happy with the day.

This piece was difficult - I tried to take in too much of the scene and ended up rubbing out the whole thing with a paper towel, which produced a good medium green underpainting. Then I took a big breathe, talked to myself about just enjoying the experience, and started again. Painting/drawing requires that not only you get into the "zone" but that you also watch what you're doing and respond to what is actually happening on the paper. I tried to view the pastel strokes as an abstract painting, checking the shapes and enjoying the color. It was fun watching my mind bounce back and forth between "watch the abstract shapes" and "oh, that doesn't look like a tree"

Tomorrow, when I work in my studio I'm going to use some of these plein air sketches and reference photos and see what new piece I can create.

"Elkhorn Creek May Day" 8" x 12" pastel on Wallis sanded paper

Elkhorn Creek with the Plein Air Painters

This morning the Plein Air Painters of the Bluegrass met at Elkhorn Creek close to Peak's Mill for a morning paint out thanks to Betty BeShoar who secured permission from the landowner for us to set up along the creek.
The creek is always a beautiful place to work but I was especially interested in getting in some plein air practice because of my upcoming project. The Kentucky Department of Parks has generously granted me hotel space at 9 of the state parks. While staying at the parks I will be creating plein air drawings of the beautiful landscape. KY Parks are known nation-wide for their beauty and hospitality.
From those sketches I will create larger works which along with the initial sketches will appear in my show at Artists' Attic in Februray 2013.
So here are 2 sketches from this mornings plein air practice session.

"Elkhorn Creek May Morning" 8"x12" plein air drawing on Wallis sanded paper

"Elkhorn Splits" 12"x8" plein air drawing on Wallis sanded paper

Shaker Home East

Today I delivered 10 new pastels to Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, KY for a 3 person show with Bob Sanford and Dan McGrath. Shaker Village staff will hang the new pieces in the dining room this coming Friday. So while I was there I created this drawing of the east end of Shaker Village -- and I had a lovely lunch with Bob and Dan.

Back to changes. I think this image is a bit blurry. Guess I didn't hold the iphone steady enough but it's hard for me to tell because I had laser surgery yesterday as a follow up to cataract surgery and things are still a bit blurry. Isn't the world amazing now. Laser surgery one afternoon, no restrictions and off to Shaker Village the next day.

Things change so quickly but when I visit Shaker Village it's like life stood still. I like that feeling of quiet. It's very necessary when our world is spinning too fast.

"Shaker Village Home East" 8"x12" pastel on sanded pastel paper

Changing Winds

I've been vacationing in Spain visiting my daughter and haven't been to this site for much too long. Looks like some things have changed and it's funny that the image I created today at Shaker Village is titled "Changing Winds."
So let's see if I can get this blog created and correctly posted.
Along with changes to the blogspot software, I'm having trouble getting my images from my Canon camera to load up in the computer which may have something to do with the new Epson printer I installed. Gr-r-r, I'm not a techie. :-(
Not that you really want to read about this except to say that if the images look different it's because I have to shoot the pastel using my iphone camera which is actually a pretty good camera, then email it to myself to get it into the imac.

"Changing Winds" 12"x8" pastel on sanded paper

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.