Yesterday was a very lazy day. We went to breakfast at the Texas Grill https://goo.gl/noS8GL . It is an old diner/cafeteria restaurant. They have a cafeteria style lunch and regular breakfast. They are open from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
The grill was open 24 hours a day until about a year ago. It is good standard fare. For Easter lunch they were having turkey and dressing, fried catfish and chicken fried steak. They have salads like peas and cheese, coleslaw, etc., sides of potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, okra, etc., and then desserts like cake and pie. It all looks good and if you get one of everything looks like you would spend about $15 for lunch. We have never had the lunch.
Later in the day, Gene rode his Terratrike and I did my puzzles and watched a bit of TV. Then I realized the wind was not howling and the temperature was about 75. I got out my trusty plein air easel, which is actually called En Plein Air Pro. http://www.enpleinairpro.com/advanced_series_pastel_easel.html I am finally used to it and can set it up in a few minutes. It is a bit heavier than I would like, but very satisfactory.
I used the paper from the fruit bowl sketch of a few days ago. I brushed it with a paint brush, wiped with a paper towel and then wet it with the paintbrush and wiped it a bit more.
I proceeded with the Hunt.
It took about 40 minutes from thinking about it to finish including setting up the easel and washing off the paper. With a breeze the water dried on my paper while I washed the paint brush. I have had it take a couple of hours to dry here when the humidity is up. Then a hair dryer comes in handy.
You can't tell the paper was not pretty to start with, right?
This was a piece of Mi Teintes paper, smooth side, no under painting. About the same size paper. I spent about 30 minutes on this one. I used the pastels I had in my palette box from the easel so wasn't entirely pleased with the red, but it is only a sketch so not real important.
Mi Teintes paper http://goo.gl/XrMUbG is very inexpensive and comes in many colors. It is great for pastel practice. It will hold up for regular pastel painting to frame if your practice comes out better than planned. It can be used with a bit of water. It will buckle a bit but better than you think. I have done alcohol under paintings on it. I have a post about it here http://jocastilloartblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/under-painting-and-durability-of.html
Gene made me a catcher for the pastel dust from something he took off of an appliance we did away with. The plein air easel is magnetized at the bottom and the tray just sticks right on. How handy is that?? I didn't have to put a newspaper or foil tray on there. Photos with and without the tray.
My view of the geranium.
The tray also sits perfectly on my indoor easel along with a tray for holding the pastels I'm using. This pastel tray has a screen in the bottom to catch the dust.
Indoor easel with and without the trays.
8 comments:
The reused painting turned out very nice. It seems to have pink under tones. I saw a demo one time where the artist put down alizeron crimson as his underpainting. I like the flowers too.
The wind has been howling here. But it has been a mild winter. I can't complain.
Bag Blog, red is good under green for under paintings. I saw a demo where the artist put bright yellow as a start. Wow. He did a street scene with it. Since these are sketches, I imagine I will wipe and go again. The cream colored paper may not work, we will see.
obvs catfish taste like fish, but I just imagine it tasting just odd because of the way it looks :p
really great landscape :D
Sweet sketch of the lake. I like your dust-catching tray. Clever.
Jennifer Rose, catfish when cleaned and filleted correctly is very tasty. We used to get huge pieces in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, that was amazing. They called it suribi. When all the dark part is taken off, then it is the best. Small pieces curl up when fried. I can see why you might be suspicious. Sort of like eating crawfish!
Joanna, that pastel tray is clever. Your dad always recycles in a good way. :) I had it with me in New Mexico so it didn't melt in the fire. Neat that the magnet on the plein air easel holds it and on the regular easel it sits in the groove without any brace or tape to hold it. Just the right size.
yeah suspicious since they are bottom feeders generally and was always told to avoid bottom feeder when ordering fish lol
Jennifer, we were told that, too. Catfish are so prevalent here and most folks like and eat them. My brothers, back in the late 40s would go in the Rio Grande and muddy the water and catch them with their hands. I really don't know if they ate them as my Mom didn't like fish. I just heard the stories. I was too little or maybe not born yet. Ha.
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