Bedraggled Pastel Painting

I played in the dust ... longer than I planned and painted this, Bedraggled.  This poor hanging geranium made it through the long hot summer and lost half its stems and turned pretty brown.  It is finally coming back and we get 3 nights of mid 30s so I had to bring it in the house.  My mom used to keep geraniums in the house so guess that is where I got my idea to even have geraniums around.  I like them as they are sturdy and don't need much care.  They don't have a nice aroma so that isn't the reason.

In Bolivia the gardeners fastened them to the walls and fences and they grew 10 or 12 feet tall like a vine.  It was so beautiful to see a wall of flowers.  All colors from white to bright red.  We had all kinds of flowers.  The gardeners would trade and share with other houses where they worked.  The altitude in La Paz where we lived was about 10,000 feet.  It went to 12 or 13,000 in the city and 14,000 at the airport.  Trees didn't really grow above the timber line but Eucalyptus was the most popular tree and there were others.  People had poinsettia trees, pine trees and many others.  At that altitude near the equator, the nights were cool and the days warm.  I loved it.  (somewhat like our weather last week, now it is cold, brrr.)

Bedraggled (Yesterday)
Pastel on UArt 400 grit sanded paper
8 x 8 inches

This is on new paper, surprise!  I did an under painting with pastel and alcohol. It was a little runny and light so after it dried I added some more pastel and spritzed it with water.    I wanted the flowers to be more fuchsia in color and don't have the right pastels.  The pinks I have look peachy when you put them next to the dark fuchsia.  I also had the flowers in their "real" dark pot and change it to this sort of silver one.   

The UArt is sandpaper and no matter how much tape you put to hold it down it curls.  This makes it hard to drag a wide pastel lightly over to blend or soften edges.  I much prefer working on Pastelbord or Colourfix by Art Spectrum sanded paper.  Everyone has their preferences and style.  This UArt paper is very popular.

Sometimes we learn and sometimes we putz around.  I feel bedraggled with this pastel.  When an idea doesn't come together as planned I get frustrated.  A sketch or plein air can feel so fresh.  I attribute this to finishing in a short time.  So after piddling with it for a couple of days, I'm almost happy with it.  At least I painted and had fun, right?  Of course I had fun.

And of course I couldn't leave it alone.  Here is the final, I hope:

Bedraggled
Pastel on UArt 400 grit sanded paper
8 x 8 inches

I removed a couple of flowers and leaves and added some more dark shadows in the center of interest.

I got up early, I thought, but missed the actual sunrise.

Toward the easterly pond.