Day 8 Italian Air Space 4

My intention was to create one last pastel in this series and concentrate on the colors that I feel represent the joy I felt when I was in Italy. It is a magical country and I absorbed as much as I could by drawing every minute I could squeeze in. I came home with 30 drawings in various degrees of completion. I admit I was possessed - a drawing maniac, and I'd love to go back to feel the degrees of the country without my artistic maniac approach. But in reality that probably won't happen. I seem to engage with the world through the lens of my camera for reference photos or through my sketchbook and pastels. I can't turn it off. Oh well, just go with it until I wear out!

"Italian Air Space 4"     8" x 12" pastel on sanded pastel paper

Back to my intention with this drawing. I was not successful. These are not my favorite colors and they do not represent my joy. Try again. I do like the texture of the paper and tried to create this one very quickly as to not fill up the texture of the paper.

Day 7 Italian Air Space 3

Trying LaCarte paper for a different texture for the "Italian Air Space" series. It's amazing how just a specific paper can create a very distinct look and feel when applying the pastel.

"Italian Air Space 3"      7" x 10"      pastel        $145

Day 6

Here's the follow-up to yesterday's drawing. I'm enjoying these arial images and may run with it for awhile. I've taken some more photos from over Iowa....now I just have to find them.

"Italian Air Space 2"     8" x 12"    pastel   $285

"Italian Air Space"

Day 5 didn't go as planned and the Tuscany village is still in the works but I completed "Italian Air Space 1" Don't give me grief about how fast I work. This one was already 1/2 finished  and I like walking into my studio with a 1/2 finished piece on the easel. It's much easier to get excited about finishing something than being faced with that blank piece of paper. I almost always try to plan what I'll work on the next day to avoid the "white paper syndrome, which plagues writers and artists.

"Italian Air Space"      8" x12"     pastel      $285

This piece is on sanded pastel paper which was created using Art Spectrum's terra cotta colored pastel primer. I use an cheap brush so I can get all those textured marks.

"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.