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Sunday, January 15, 2017

Out and About Again - Pastel Abstract

Another outing with pastel artists yesterday.  Enid Wood www.enidwood.com gave a class for branching out in color with abstracts.  It was good to be with six other artists.  The time flies and we had a good time.  I met two new to me artists.

The day started off weird.  I went to pack my bag which already had my plein air easel top and pastels.  Nice.  I put in some small pastel paper in pads and looked for my ATC, art trading cards.  I could not find them.  I stuck in a pastel board, 5 x 7 that I had been playing with the Pan Pastels on.  The idea was to work in miniature sizes.

Where was my water spray bottle??  No where to be found,  I had seen it recently so I know it is here someplace.  I put in Jennie's spray bottle she left here for a substitute.

The tripod part of the easel was next.  Where was it?  It weighs about 6 pounds I would imagine and is about 16 inches long and 4 inches in diameter when folded.  It doesn't just fit in a drawer or behind a piece of paper.  Not anywhere in the corners or closet in my studio.  In the closet with the spare jackets and old French easel?  No.  Hall closet?  No.  Our closet in the bedroom? No.  Garage with the folding chairs and things from our trip?  No.  Shoot, I must have left it in Silver City but Mitzy would have called.  Maybe the hotel in Big Bend?  I hadn't used it so weird to have left it someplace on the way home.

Finally took the easel part out of the bag and put in a couple boxes of pastels and was off to paint in Smithville ... without an easel.  I could have taken my old watercolor easel, but I was not happy by then and it was getting late ....

The first part of the class was to abstract the shadows of our subject.  Enid brought some clementines and put them on an orange napkin.  My favorite color, right?  Not even!   I worked on the Pastelbord and put a tape across to make it into two miniatures.  They look weird together.


You can see the space down the center where I had the tape.

Abstract shadows in dark and light, any colors.

Using 3 main values.  Added the very dark for shape and to sit the clementines on the cloth.  Sprayed a bit of water for texture when all was done.

I divided a piece of pastel mat into fourths. and did them in order so as to not get my hand on a finished one.  The other board I turned upside down to do each half.



The first two are just colors I like together, again trying for value changes more than color.  I had no reference, just strokes and color.  The third, blue and brown is trees by our lake.  Again, varying strokes and values.  I put the smaller version of the lake so you see more how it really looks.  What looks pinkish here was really a more beige of the paper.  This was my favorite, probably because it is from something real.  ???

The fourth was going to be an abstract of Enid's bag on the floor.  It was purple but I didn't have 4 values in the right colors so made it blue with the 4 values.  It came out more realistic so I'm using it for Scavenger Hunt 481.  http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?p=21005559
Number 2, on the floor

I won't become an abstract artist anytime soon, but just playing with color is not all bad, especially because pastel is fast and I like color!

Oh, and I found my tripod part of the easel this morning.  I put it in a bag that an old folding table for camping had been in, reusing the bag.  Why didn't I think of that yesterday even when I went and looked with the chairs?  It was with the folding chairs in the garage. Yay!!

5 comments:

Joanna said...

I'm glad you found your tripod! I also liked the lake painting the best when I saw them in person yesterday. That remains true today! :-)

Joan Tavolott said...

Glad you finally found your tripod. I don't understand how we can lose things that are large like that. I think they just go into a black hole and then reappear after we need them. lol Looks like fun pastel work!!!

Regina Calton Burchett said...

Sounds like a lot of fun, Jo! Hope we can get together to paint this year!

Bag Blog said...

I like the clementine painting and the trees are fun too. You did very well for not liking abstracts or orange. Sometimes I try for an abstract look, but instead my painting just looks messy. Yours is really nice. And I love orange.

Jo Castillo said...

Hi, Joanna. Thanks. It was a relief to find the tripod. I had put it away too well!

Joan, as we age we get more black holes! Thanks it was fun to play in the dust.

Regina, I'm looking forward to paint time with you. I do have an extra easel for you. Should have used it yesterday. Painting on the small ones can be lap or desk work, but upright is better for the dust.

Bag Blog, thank you. I have a hard time "abstracting". You can see with the bag, I didn't get far from real. I think they look unfinished when I do them, too. I also feel like I'm not really painting?? Sigh.


About Me

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Bastrop, Texas, United States
I Grew up in a small town , Magdalena, New Mexico. I enjoy art and the pleasure other people get from my work. I always donate some of my sales and art to charities, especially for children. That started in Bolivia with Para los Niños. "I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colors. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns." -- Winston Churchill

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