Barbara with a dahlia behind her ear.

On a recent trip to Pennsylvania two of my friends volunteered to sit for their portraits. This is the more successful of the two charcoal drawings. I'll try again to capture some of the charm & style of my other friend. My friends are good sports, besides being smart, confident darling women. This drawing took about 45 minutes.

Svelte Model with Big Hat

As I approached The River Gallery School of Art on the last day of the summer portraiture classes,  I saw a stylish woman wearing a cute black dress and a huge hat, carrying a big shiny black hat box. She strolled quickly down the sidewalk in front of me. I was hoping she was our model that day. This is one of the two charcoal drawings I made of her. Some people are just so very interesting to draw.

Yellowstone NP photograph by rodrica tilley

On another front, I just returned from Montana where I completed three more Fifty State Paintings. It was a fabulous week amongst the mountain tops, wolves, mountain bluebirds, elk, bison and wildflowers of Yellowstone Park. Aside from a little smoke in the air it was a perfect week for plein air painting. Check it out here and join the mailing list for that blog while you are there. Only 15 more states, so you won't be swamped with emails.

Dozing model

Yes, the afternoon was hot and we were all sleepy. How do models ever stay awake, anyway? I was  almost nodding off and I was standing at my easel, moving around....a little. This is another vine charcoal on some mystery drawing paper that I found in my studio, made during my weekly portrait class at River Gallery School of Art.

Little Bitty Pretty One

I returned to my stuffy little studio after a few days of travel painting wondering what I would paint next. As I opened my door this is what I saw. One of my homely little prickly cacti had turned into a butterfly and it was begging for all my attention...Right Now! 

I might be working on a new series: Windowsill Bloomers. Stay tuned.

Portraiture Class

The River Gallery School of Art offered 5 afternoons in July of portrait class with Jason Alden instructing. The class is full at eight students and our feverish labors are taxing the "air conditioner". We are all struggling with our own goals and abilities. The school does not promote one style of work over another. It encourages students to explore various styles and mediums and find their own individual method of expression. That said, we all worked in charcoal on newsprint yesterday. We were being encouraged to see the overall structure, proportion and direction of the face, skull, neck. This is my 35 minute drawing of the model's head. Having a few hours perspective on it makes me see some things I could have done better, but I still like it. I think I am falling in love with portrait work again after many years away. Do I have any sitters?

Retreat Waters

These quiet waters are on the property of Brattleboro Retreat, a 620 acre mental health and addictions treatment hospital. It is the shallows just where the West River joins the Connecticut River. The public uses these vast and picturesque waters year-round; canoeing, kayaking, ice fishing, cross country skiing. And it has been the subject of many a painting and photograph, which did not stop me from joining a small group of plein air painters on a recent Wednesday morning. We were invited to set up our easels on the lawn of a private residence high above the water. In good spirits at such a fine day we each made a very different painting of the same place.

I am an intense plein air painter. I spent two hours working on this from 9:30 until 11:30. By that time it was a very different scene than it had been when I began. That is my signal to pack up. After hundreds of paintings done out of doors, I am not leisurely about getting my subject painted as quickly as possible. I have trained myself to work fast and search for the essence of the scene. I work the whole picture at once. No dawdling; just enough detail to convey what I think is essential about the light and place. After two hours you might just as well go home or start another painting. This day I was happy to save my remaining energy for an afternoon of gardening.

This painting is for sale. Contact me if you are interested.

Pastel Papers

A reader of this blog asks if I could recommend an inexpensive pastel paper to use while learning the art. No. All sanded pastel papers are expensive..and those who know less should buy better papers. It will make learning way easier. 

There are basically three kinds of pastel papers:

1. traditional part rag papers...like  Canson Mi-tientes and Fabriano ...less than $2 a sheet

2. pumice coated papers like Wallis, Art Spectrum, UArt, Pastelmat, Richeson, Sabretooth, Sennelier, Ampersand and others

3. Velour paper. 

I only use sand- (or coated) papers and at sometime I have used every one of them. None are cheap, BUT some are reusable. We all have mediocre pastel paintings. I routinely wash mine off with gamsol and an old bristle brush. This leaves me with a "toned" sheet of perfectly good flat paper.  Read what Dakota Art Pastels has to say here. You may choke on paying $24 for a 2' x 3' piece of paper, but maybe you can share with classmates/friends...and trust me, paper is not the place to stint. It goes on sale, then I stock up. Get a pack. Put it in a safe, dry place and stop thinking of it as something you might ruin. Use it and re-use it. It is a beautiful tool. The invention of this paper changed pastel work from drawing to painting.

You can coat your own watercolor or printmaking papers...especially if you want to avoid actual painting (we all have those days) but I don't think the product will be as good and not much cheaper.

I have friends who use only velour paper and Cassatt and Degas only had Fabriano type papers. I sure am glad they used good quality paper and your great grandchildren may be glad you did,too.

I have no financial interest in this company, but they stock all things pastel and they know artists like sample packs. (scroll down) They also send out pastel sticks in assorted sample packs. And you can learn a great deal from reading their catalogue.

My figure-in-a-scene paintings were done on recycled Wallis Museum papers and boards and if I don't like them I can recycle them again. But right now I like them. What about you?