Yay! An Almost Pastel Painting!

Yesterday was the plein air painters day.  It was about 46 degrees or so at 10:00 a.m. when we started to paint.  We are a bit wimpy so we decided to do a still life in the Art Center again.  I'm sure to all the plein air folks up north,  that would have been a balmy day and they would have loved to be outside, working away.

I took my pastels to sketch/paint with.  I'm a bit burned out on sketching and using the watercolors.

The set up was a skull from a small deer that Joan brought.  I thought it was a bit colorless so added some pots "hand made" from my memory.

I started on a "new" piece of tan Pastelbord.  Brown and tan are not my colors so I knew I was going to cover the tan.  I didn't do an under painting with water which is what I would have normally done.  It would still be waiting to dry and you know me about waiting for paint to dry.

Joan's Skull and Jo's Pots

Pastel on Pastelbord, 14 x 11 inches

The results of about an hour and a half with the pastels.  I'm happy with the over all effect.  I will ponder the idea of finishing it for framing.  The cloth and horns need work.  In real life the horns in my painting are darker.  I would also make the cloth a bit more cloth-like. 

I'm thinking that part of the reason I feel it is a pretty good start is that I didn't know what we were going to paint.  I approached it like a sketch not worrying about whether it would be a good painting or not.  I used my easel and stood to paint.   Hmmm. 

We went to lunch at Macocos again.  It was good, Mexican food in the Yucatan style.  After that I met Gene at the food trailer by the Art Center and we sat outside while he had a hamburger and I drank a Coke from Mexico with real sugar.  It was a good day.