A Need to get Dusty

I had a great urge to get my soft pastels out and have a play with them this morning seeing as I have neglected them for over a year or so. As I spent last week walking around galleries, gardens and park I decided to take them outside and play plus it’s too hot in my studio to do much work in there. In doing so I have found a renewed respect for the artist who go out and paint wildlife as I found that the beggars just will not stay still long enough so I can take my time and do then justice haha.

So this is a soft pastel of a duck swimming done very quickly I got the shape down fast and just looked and guested the rest but I still think if they just stayed still long it would make life and painting a lot easier haha.

"Afloat"

Soft Pastels on burgundy Fabriano pastel paper (9"x 11")

Feb 2012

And again

Ok i found the time again today to do another soft pastel painting, so I was thinking if Im going to try do these all month I might as well try some new paper and some different coloured papers to get the most out of the practise.
"Mist on water #1"

Soft Pastels on burgundy Fabriano pastel paper (8"x 10")

Feb 2010

another pastel for feb

Ok I made time to do another soft pastel painting today

seascape feb2010-#1

Soft Pastels on light blue grey Fabriano pastel paper (10"x 8")

Feb 2010

Dusting off the pastels

Well its a new month and as i have not use my soft pastels this year (haha) I thought I would Dust them off and give them ago. They say that repetition is habit forming so Im going to try and use them as much as possible this month, well the practice will be good for me anyway.

" I Wonder"

soft pastels on a Peach Mi-Teintes wrong side ( 8”x10”)

Feb 2010

Yellow Lillie

Well it’s Thursday again and I’m playing with my soft pastels again. This is a close crop of a yellow Lillie it is done in soft pastels on a terra cotta Mi-Teintes wrong side

"Yellow Lillie"

soft pastels on a terra cotta Mi-Teintes wrong side ( 8”x10”)

A new still life pastel

It was great to find the time to get out and play with my pastels again. This still life of fruit was done on a dark green colorfix board. I was going to blend but I like the thing that was happening with the dark background showing through the broken colour so I use no blending at all.

"Two red apples and pears"

Soft pastels on A4 Green colorfix board

A Week of Life Drawing

What a great week I have just had 20th – 24th April five days of total immersion in high energy life drawing. I was lucky to take part in a block course run by TLC in Te Aroha with 13 other people, the tutor was Christina Earl a lovely lady full of beans and high energy. Over the five days we had three different models (Sally, Christine and Tina) who worked hard and injected more energy in to the mix. We were drawing from 9.30 to 4.30 each day, learning life drawing techniques i.e. left and right handed blind contour, positive and negative space block drawing, line weight drawing, weighted block drawing, drawing with other mediums and drawing, painting implements, by the end of the week there was more than a few of us that could hardly lift our arms above our heads but it was still an amazing week and I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to take part in it.

The 22nd World Wide SketchCrawl

Yesterday I took part in my first World Wide SketchCrawl. A sketch crawl is were a date is picked and on that date people all around the world set out in groups or solo and draw for the day and post the results up on the World Wide SketchCrawl website

I went to the Auckland Domain here are my pics I did.

The Dust did Fly

Just spent the weekend on a two day pastel workshop the tutor for the workshop was Lyn Diefenbach. She is a highly regarded and award winning pastel artist from Australia, and she Came to New Zealand to do a number of workshops, the main one being at the Pastel ConventionLyn is a great tutor, on the Saturday she explained the 4 thing that make up a painting plus the 10 thing you need to make a strong painting. Then she did a demo on sky’s and clouds. And then we had time to complete a painting for ourselves with her coming around and offering constructive help. Sunday Lyn started with a demo on waves and again we had time to complete a painting for ourselves. In the afternoon we had a talk and Lyn did another demo this time on trees

All in all it was a great weekend and a brilliant workshop

Here are the pastel paintings I did

Clouds soft pastels on Rose grey Colorfix board (7”x 16”)

Sea scape soft pastels on Rose grey Colorfix board (14”x 5”)

Practicing Portraits

Yesterday I decided to practice some portraits so got out my pastels a played and did the portrait of the young boy Vincent, and today I did the portrait of the young girl Victoria“Vincent”
Soft Pastels on light blue grey Fabriano pastel paper (8"x 10")

“Victoria”
Soft Pastels on light blue grey Fabriano pastel paper (8"x 10")

Ugly Duckling Not

Thursday again goody time to play with the pastel again, I tried a different pastel paper too I think I will have to practice with it some more the pastel goes on it quite differently, so I will try it some more times before I make a decision one way or the other.

Soft Pastels on light blue grey Fabriano pastel paper (8"x 10")

First Pastel Portrait

Thursday again made time to play with pastels again it is real fun.

This is my first real try at doing a portrait in soft pastels. The likeness is there and I like it.

Soft pastel on blue Mi-Teintes wrong side (10”x8”)

A Day out of Town

Yesterday I got up early and loaded up my van with art stuff and drove south for about 2 hours to a small life style farm block in the country where a friend have her art studio which she opens up to us. A group of artist that meet up once a month to talk, catch up and do some of our art, it is a large studio in a lovely place set in the shadow of the mountain, trees and live stock running around and it has a nice tranquil feel about the place. Spent about 5 hours together had lunch, it’s was a really great time.

Soft pastel on blue Mi-Teintes wrong side (10”x8”)

yellow lilie on blue

Well it’s Thursday again and I’m playing with my soft pastels again. I must admit I do kinda like them more the more that I play with them.

Soft pastel on blue Mi-Teintes wrong side (8”x10”)

Green apples on red

Well its beginning to look like Thursday are going to be play with pastels day and yesterday was no exception

Soft pastel on Mi-Teintes wrong side (10”x8”)

Pastel today

It’s been a good week been play with acrylic washes and acrylic flow painting lovely and messy but today I have been playing with my pastels again I seem to be enjoying them the more I play with them

Soft pastel on Mi-Teintes wrong side (10”x8”)

What a brilliant way to spend a Saturday get up late go to three different art supplies shop talking and buying art supplies come home have lunch, then spend the rest of the day sitting out in the sun in the garden play with my pastel some of the ones I got this morning, Just great

Soft pastel on blue Mi-Teintes wrong side (10”x8”)

Today I have been playing with my soft pastel, started out try different colours back grounds ended up doing this little landscape sketch.

Soft pastel on blue Mi-Teintes wrong side (8”x10”)

Wednesday afternoon are back to normal my art group has started up again. It was nice to catch up with some old faces that I have not seen since the end of last term did not get a lot of work done in the 3 hours plenty of talking. Walking around and laughing I did get to try something.