"Mingo Flats Evening"

"If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint." Edward Hopper
This view always takes my breathe away. I'm looking to the west over Mingo Flats, West Virginia and it hasn't changed since I was a child.
Late in the evening, the golden hour, the mountains turn a dusty blue and the setting sun casts long shadows over the valley. I can hear a dog bark and wind in the grasses, maybe a tractor but that's about all. "There will be peace in the valley...." hymn.

"Mingo Flats Evening" plein air 8" x 12" pastel on Wallis sanded paper

August 2011 Polarization

"Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye.. it also includes the inner pictures of the soul. "  Edvard Munch
Yesterday morning as I stared at the two barns on the hill I was struck at how opposite they were in color, size, and shape. They reminded me of the polarization in our world on all fronts....nobody is getting along with anybody.
"Polarization" is my artistic interpretation of the state of affairs for August 2011.
It's pretty homogenized but the barns are opposites that reside together on the same hilltop.

"August 2011 Polarization" 8" x 12" pastel on wallis sanded paper

"The Bridge"

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." Edgar Degas
Another day of beautiful summer weather and plein air painting on Frogtown Road - not a very pretty name for a place.
When painting from nature I'm always conflicted by "what makes a good painting and what makes a good plein air experience?" In other words, plein air for me is observing nature, being inspired by the light, or the color or contrast, the composition, movement of shapes as they descend towards the background. And how does an artist adjust all those things to create a striking piece without strongly altering what is observed?
One way is to create the piece while observing nature and then use the piece for inspiration when back in the studio with controlled conditions and space, both physical and mental, to change what needs to be changed.
Marc Chagall said, "Great art picks up where nature ends."
Something to ponder.
Meantime here's one of my pieces from today.

"Shadwell Farm Bridge-late afternoon" 12" x 8" pastel

"Joy's Drive"

"The hurrier I go the behinder I get" Amish saying
I've moved my studio at Artists' Attic which has taken 3 days of my creative time which I should be using to get ready for Woodland Fair, but I just want the new studio to be "right" so it feels good to work in and looks nice for visitors.
Which means I didn't get to work on any pastels again today.
This is "Joy's Drive 3" from my trip to West Virginia and yes, I've drawn Joy's drive before but this is farther up the road and my point of interest is the bright area at the end of the road before it bends to the right. That can be a tricky composition because I'm putting the point of interest in brighter colors in the background which is an area that should have atmospheric lighter bluer colors to make it fade away instead of hop forward. Do you think the drawing works? 

"Joy's Drive 3" 8" x 12" plein air pastel on Wallis Belgium Mist sanded paper

Frogtown creek

"Good food, good wine, good friends and art - can't get much better than that." me
The Bluegrass Plein Air Painters met at Frogtown Road off Parker's Mill Road close to Versailles Road - in case you ever want to go there. (Oh yes, and after painting for 3 hours we met at Ramsey's for dinner--really fun evening.) The creek that runs along the road is beautiful - small, but with the cleanest water I've seen in Kentucky. The creek apparently runs through only horse farm fields because it has no mud or silt in it.
Today, we finally had a decent summer day without the horrid humidity that we've had all summer long and the sunshine was bright creating long dark bluish shadows as it set with golden light. 
This piece will probably get some touch up tomorrow after I'm away from it which always helps one see what really happens while working on it."The mountain is clearer from the plain." Kahil Gilbran

"Frogtown Road creek" 8" x 12" pastel on Wallis paper

VanMeter Road

No quote today. I had a follow up from cataract surgery laser procedure on my eye so I'm taking it a bit easy.
"VanMeter Road" was created in July as part of my prep sketching for the Run for the Bluegrass mini-marathon poster so it's technically not a "Pastel a Day".
I'll be drawing with the Plein Air Painters of the Bluegrass tomorrow night. Hopefully I'll have a piece completed that I can post.

"VanMeter Road 2" 20" x 9" pastel on textured pastel paper

Water house Shaker Village

"You are the sunshine of my life," Stevie Wonder
My daughter left today to work at the American School in Barcelona, Spain for 2 years. She's my sunshine and I'm going to miss her so much, but art is a great way to go someplace without leaving. So I go into my art and will seek the sunshine even more.
Here's the other piece that I created down at Shaker Village during the Plein Air Painters of the Bluegrass on the paint out.
I love this little water house building. It's the Shaker version of our modern water tower and inside was a large water storage tank that was supplied with fresh water from the pond below and the horses somehow by walking in a circle, hooked up to a wheel pumped the water up the hill and into the water tower. The funny little projectile coming out of the top of the building rises as the water rises. The Shakers were extremely cleaver especially for 1820.

"Water House" 8" x 12" pastel on Wallis sanded paper