Here, I plan to try and show you my world with the fabulous colors of pastel. You may email me with any questions by going to my profile. I am also on www.dailypaintersofnevada.blogspot.com
Here are a couple shots I want to share with you all, This was the last time I did an indoor pastle at the house in Dutch Valley, and I try to use the kitchen for painting with Pastel as its easier to clean up in there. I have a hard time with lighting there and I think thats why I love going outdoors to paint. Here, My mouser is looking over the color choices!!!! He chose a blue, pushed it out of the box and wanted to roll it around on the floor. He has got all the mice and is bored!!! So, You guessed it, I had "blue" to sweep up and cry over. Stupid cat!!!!
So, I drew him in Pencil, to understand all the values I was seeing. I thought, maybe I will try to be very realist with this one. I am usually trying to be "Loose" but this time I thought I would satisfy my "detail" mode. So, I chose a 300 lb. watercolor paper and put the drawing onto that. Then loosely painted with watercolor the background wash. After that I used a " Giselle" method, and painted the horse head's values with watercolor in violet tones-----Then used the pastles to finish.
Todays Plein air painting was just a blast. My Friend, Carole drove over form Dayton , Nevada and we spent the day in Art! First, we went out in the field at our Ranch in Dutch Valley and painted Indain Creek on this early spring morning. I used Uart , with a underpainting using achohol and Nupastel # 244---which gave me a great start, Carole used her pastelmat which is a great surface, and did an underpainting also. We both had a very enjoyabole time. Can't wait to go again! This one is 7 x 12 inches and we painted for about 3 hours.
Yesterday was such a sunny, cloudy, beautiful day, beginning with a morning that had skies so full of movement and color you could of watched it all day. I should of, as thats the best way to understand skies. I decided to get out there and paint! Then comes the age old thing..........Where? Are you kidding? I says to meself, as I stood in my driveway and just looked around. So I set up right in my driveway, and this is the scene north of the house. The fields are just trying to show some green. and that sagebrush hill always looks the same, and beyond it you can see clear down the valley and far mountains. My problem here is I think I made the dark Mountain, while it is close to us, a bit to large. Its hard right out there in the open, as it all looks so big! I did use a veiw-finder, did a thumbnail, and used the small pond and creek as a lead-in to take you thru the field, and back to the mountains. 9 x 12 on rose -grey canson paper. I am going to try a compostion a day, thing, sometimes in pastle and sometimes in pencil, and hope it improves my compotion skills for the entire year.
I will just do this quickly--I got to go out one afternoon with Oil painter, Ray Freeman just before our most recent snow. It was a sunny PM, and we just went up above the ranch, under the trees and in the sagebrush. As usual, I had a hard time settleing on a subject to paint, but then, the subject is always the light---So, I looked at the afternoon light. Ray was also impresssed by the late PM sun-rays. This is what I came up with. I did paint on a small 9 x12 canvas board by Blick--with a raw sienna toned gesso over it. I like that very much, and the paint didn't soak in as fast. Now I have 3 attempts! and am very into do more. Today I got a goose-down set of bib-coveralls for cold days! Imagine. A cousin passed them on, and tho they are very large, they should work. 
This was the drawing, with a charcole pencil. I have read, and have been told if you use charcole, it will muddy your pastel color------then I have been told by others that it will not, charcole and pastel go together nicely. So, to me, the only thing you can do is to try it!! I have found using charcole to start a pastel on canson works wonderfully! Here, I am trying to get the expression I see in the dog from knowing him!
And I hope I have gotten that! Boomer is 2 now, and quite big! He was a big puppy, too, with a large square head that I wondered if he would ever grow in to. I love dog-sitting him, his love for life is quite apparent!
This is where we ended up, and even tho Nevada can get very grey in the winter months, there was color all around as soon as the sun would hit something! We talked "Composition", made plans and he helped me to begin. I did Oils today, and have not done this to many times. I worked very near to Ray, so I could ask questions and watch a real artist at work. It was great! He begins with shapes, and paints the dog before the fleas, which is a good thing to remember. I always want detail to soon. We used a split-complementary pallet. I felt that the thickness of the paints themselves were hard to get used to, but they were so beautiful and sparkly on the canvas board.
I will show you Rays' work as it really turned out well. I feel I have a long way to go, but I did enjoy today and my painting isn't awful ( just what it should be for a beginner!) After Ray left, I did a quick pastel of the spring on the hillside and was happy.
This is where Ray finished today, and he says he has about 30 min. more work he will do when he gets home. He will add some more darks where needed and sky hole in the red rose bush at left. I really loved watching this all happen and feel I learn a lot today. Can't wait for another good day such as this one was!
The weather in our valley has been in the 40's for daytime, and sometimes windy. Not to cold, but I felt cold so didn't paint to much---began thinking about using a square format and making it work without becoming to static---and getting it to show "Hugeness" This little ranch is on 14 acres along hwy 88 in the Carson Valley and belongs to cousins--noone living there now or since the late 8o's. Plein-air painters have been seen lurking about painting this scene and I even saw the result of one in the Southwest Art Mag. by Kathleen Dunphy. This scene is painted looking south, hers was painting looking north. I will try this is plein-air , and problay will do it in all seasons. This one was from photos, and on Senniler Pastel card.
And around the cornor to the corralls. 
I have ideas about this, so more work to do. See ya in a few days!
This is the first group that arrived on Saturday. We had people all day. They were interested, nice, and really asked questions about how each painting was done. Fun for me! I had cards made of the paintings, and I did sell a lot of cards.
This is my sister helping the set up. We also had a huge pot of coffee, and cookies she , her granddaughter and I made. I did sell 4 paintings as well as the cards. Good for a beginner!
And Here is my sister, helping some folks as questions were always asked. It was fun to do all this.
And this is my most recent Pastel, on Black paper, mulit-media board, Great fun, But I was worried about the black paper fading with time and light, so I mixed Mars Black arcylic paint with Golden fine pumice and rolled that on with a foam roller. It made it nice and black, with tooth. The reference photo was a black and white taken in '84 of a cat who would come to visit. I Knick-named her "Leo"--and she was enjoying the last sun-light of the day. Black is very fun to work on, the colors just are brilliant. I used a lot of greys in this,(nuetrals)-- and no white at all.
