Waht a difference a mat makes!

The seagulls are now in their mat and ready to travel to their new home. I think my cousin will be very pleased. I can't wait to see it in the frame.

Flying Away

The seagulls are finished. I took the piece down to my framer yesterday to have a mat and backer cut for it because I didn't have a mat board color that would work. The work itself is about 16x27. It is going to go into a 24x36 frame. This work is done on Colorfix sanded paper in pastels.

Here is a close-up of the gulls. There is color reflected from the sky and the sand in the white and grey of their bodies. According to my research, these are a variety of gull called a Laughing Gull.

One finished piece

This week has been extremely busy, but I have still managed to get a little work in on my paintings and I actually have two finished. Here is the little girl that I started with my student last week. I am very pleased with the way she turned out. The finished size is 9x12.

The work continues

I am making some progress on the seagulls. Here is what they look like after yesterday's work. A little more later today and some time tomorrow and I should be close to finished. This one is more like a painting-a-week!

Lots of work, but little to show!

Lest you think I have been slacking off, let me assure that I am still working. This week I have worked up the drawing for my lesson next week. Today I started the seagull painting that I really need to have finished by the beginning of March. There isn't much to show, but here it is. I am working in pastel on Colorfix paper which is a sanded surface. So far I just have the sky and the sand. Becasue this is a very large piece (16x27), I used the pan pastels and a sponge applicator to lay in the sky and the sand. Now I can move on to my regular soft pastels to begin working on details. Tomorrow I can start on the grasses and next week finish up with the seagulls.

On my easel

Today I have three different meetings to attend so life is getting in the way of doing a completed small piece. But, I still have something to share. My student this morning wanted to start on a portrait of a little girl. This is a not anyone special, it is a little girl she found in a very old Walter Foster book on portraits. The book is so old that the price printed on the cover is $1.00!! In any event, we started on that project this morning. We are working in pastel on Mi-Teintes paper. The size is 9x12. This is as far as we got today. We will work on her again next week. I suspect it will take another two lessons to finish her.

A new week, a new project

Continuing my painting-a-day exercise, I was out running an errand this morning and found a little stuffed chick that chirps when you hold it in the palm of your hand. It was cheap and cute. The challenge was to turn something that is essentially a fuzzy yellow blob with beady black eyes, a plastic beak, and a plastic base with feet that houses the batteries into something that looks like more than just a blob. So today was all about texture. He is about 5x5 and is done in pastel on fine sanded paper.

Friday

The daily painting yesterday was a dud, so I didn't choose to post it. When you are doing a little something like this every day, you are bound to end up with a few stinkers along the way. Today, I went back to one of my favorite subjects--vessels. This is a little white pitcher that was in my cupboard. It is done on velour paper in pastel. The size is about 7x9. The pitcher was sitting on my kitchen table and there are two windows in the room. This is why you see light falling on both sides of the pitcher.

Wednesday's work

While watching the snow fall steadily all day, I needed something to remind me of spring and summer. I found a photo that I took at a farmer's market and I cropped it down to just one element. Today's painting is a basket of turnips. This is pastel on sanded paper. It is a little larger than usual at 9x12.

Tuesday's Painting

I was away over the weekend teaching at a retreat in Ohio, so my daily painting got interrupted. Today I did a pastel painting of a small glass paperweight with a plant and goldfish blown inside. This is pastel on pastel board, 5x7.

Wednesday's experiment

My painting for today is an experiment. I used suede mat board as my surface. The suede mat board is interesting to work on. It certainly holds the pastel, but it is far more difficult to blend. I don't know how often I might choose this surface. This piece is also a little larger. It is about 7x8. Because it is harder to blend, the whole piece seems a little rougher than most and the nap of the suede makes it look all soft-focus. It's nice to know that it can be used and it might be really wonderful for the right subject.

Tuesday's effort

Today my time has been very limited. I started this little piece before my student arrived and finished it after she left. The little clay urn is unglazed and has a lot of clay/mud adhered to it. It is an item that we brought back from Central America and stands about 5-inches high. It is very rustic. The little painting is about 4x6 and is done in pastel on sanded paper.

A new week, a new challenge

My Painting-a -Day personal challenge continues. I have started this week with a little silver teapot. This is pastel on 5x7 sanded paper. Sanded paper is really like very, very fine sandpaper. It is an interesting surface to work on. So far, I think my favorite surface is the pastel board, though.