1000 Pastels

I have been painting in pastel for ten years.  Unlike oil or watercolor painters we pastelists use individual sticks to create. Yes they will mix and layer, however finding that perfect hue requires a selection. Today I was resolved to organize them back into color families and values, light to dark, set the studio right and get back to painting.The sizes and shapes relate to the various brands.Two favorites are Terry Ludwig and Great American along with Nupastel for a hard, tiny little blender. I have purchased many more brands and use them all looking for the perfect hue. I used fake fur under the pastels to catch the dust and keep them clean.

Check out Deselms Fine Art to see how these sticks found their way into a painting.You may also see the Pastel Society of Colorado online show, Transitions, with sixty-eight members showing over 200 pieces of art.  The Home Brew Store has some pieces of Kitchen Art.  And next visit the Civic Center City wide show and look for Twilight on the Range.

Venues

While I have the gallery at Deselms Fine Art in Cheyenne I was pleased to be chosen to show my pastels through September at our Cheyenne Downtown Development  office.

I choose a selection of floral pieces along with some Kitchen Art.



  Stop by next trip downtown and tell Desiree, Amy and Ginny hello.

Heart Mountain

Heart Mountain Pastel 9x12

 This  painting was chosen for the 2016 Mile High Pastel Exhibit in Denver Colorado. The show opens on July 7th on the 7th floor of the Denver Library and runs through September 8th.   
We travel our state each year and finally took time to visit Heart Mountain Just outside Cody Wyoming. The Mountain is the scene for the camp that confined Japanese American's during WWII. 
See the show and see the mountain. 

From the web page, In August of 2011, the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation opened its doors to the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, a world-class museum dedicated to passing on the Heart Mountain story to future generations. Through photographs, artifacts, oral histories and the interactive exhibits, guests to the Center experience life at Heart Mountain through the eyes of those Japanese and Japanese Americans that were confined here during WWII. 

Watercolor

Many of you know that I profess to paint in only pastel, finding the medium expressive and mixing a palette of color is not required.  So imagine my trepidation when I discovered watercolor classes on our 67 day cruise this past winter.  Long cruises typically have many diversions for sea days so what did I have to loose?  Margaret was contracted by the cruise line to teach the classes.  She is from Canberra, Australia.  She started her 40 plus students with a simple color mixing chart, only allowing us to use the three primaries.  Check that, I could remember red and yellow make orange.  Then we painted a pear still life with the pears from the Lido.  She showed us how to under-paint, let the medium dry and begin to build the values.  Not a bad still life of two pears.  Over the two months we painted from photographs from the vicinity we were cruising in, icebergs, mountains, Machu Picchu, birds, as well as flowers from the arrangements. We also used Derwent Inktense water color pencils. They are perfect for an easy set to tote for plein air work and can create a wash on a ink sketch.  So I now enjoy watercolor but today I am back to the easel with my pastels.

Rose in Derwent Inktense

Still life of hand in watercolor

Toucan - Brazil watercolor