Worth the Wait, Pastel Painting

I finished, I think, the painting I started before we went to Albuquerque. It is a take on the New Mexican Restaurant we ate at in Taos. With my artist's license I made some changes. Not too many.


The painting is on Pastelbord. This board is made in Austin, check out all their products. I taped it to another board to put on the easel so that I can paint to the edges without getting down into the tray for catching the pastel dust or bump into the clamp at the top of the easel. (This video is on my sidebar about how I do that.) I put on some pastel and smooshed (official painting word) it around with a paint brush and water to cover the light beige of the Pastelbord .. I don't do beige. I was going to use watercolor for a change, but couldn't find them. I am 99% sure that I packed them, but did not see them anywhere. The main objective was to cover the light colored board. An under painting saves pastels as well. You don't need so many layers of the expensive pastels.

I was thinking about the bright blue tape, do you suppose that affects my choices in colors? I probably shouldn't use that. In this painting, it probably is OK as the colors are bright anyway. I was just trying to use it up. Hmmmm.


I then got into the zone and forgot to take more photos. In general I try to put some pastel all around and put some of the colors in all areas to harmonize the painting. I don't mean that I put bright red in the sky or trees, but I try to add some dark red into trees and some green in the shadows of the reds, etc.


In looking at the photo, the edge on the light green umbrella looks off, not as noticeable in real life, but I will touch that tomorrow and take another photo in the morning sun before the clouds come. Let me know if you see anything else. The values look pretty good as well. There are a couple of spots too dark in the trees and by the umbrella as I mentioned.

Worth the Wait
Pastel on Pastelbord, 9 x 12 inches

There is a post fence around the patio, but I didn't want to close in the area, so I left the fence out and added another couple waiting to be seated. I like the final piece.

While I was looking at the Ampersand page I found a new to me pastel artist, Joe Mancuso. I especially like his plein air pieces. He has a video of a quick paint out painting as well and a blog.

We hope to golf tomorrow. We will see if the rain cooperates. Rain is needed, I'm not complaining about that at all. It is good to get out and be somewhat active, though.