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| Long Road Home 2, Pastel in progress, 10 x 13" |
White scenes require a lot of white and yukky colors--grayed down greens and pinks and yellows and violets. The three sets I bought for the class last summer are not doing it for me. They are full of brilliant hues that are nowhere to be seen in a winter scene. Indeed, the pastels I'm using the most is a box of cool toned grays I bought decades ago on a whim. They seem to be pulling the landscape together. While I was working, I was wondering if there was a box of warm grays? I could use it.
Today's pastel session pointed out how truly expensive pastel painting can be. Predetermining the palette and ordering sticks of these yukky colors for one relatively simple, relatively small landscape seems to be the way to use the medium. My white is disappearing before my eyes--as are all those cool grays I've had for years.
Pastel powder really dries out and shrinks my fingers thinner just holding it. As I looked at my puckered phalanges that looked like I'd been in the pool too long, I was thinking what about saving all the powder and rubbing it on my belly? Would that shrink that too? I might be on to the hottest slimming agent since Spanx?
I'm also on to the piano, my other love. I downloaded eighteen pages of sheet music for Beethoven's Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, Pathetique. It should keep me on the keys the rest of my life. I like the second movement. It seems easier to play. You will too. --Is it possible I selected this piece for this post, because I really have had it with the events that have occurred since I stepped off the plane from Cancun? You betcha.
Dear Linda, two evenings before bed I am writing to you.
ReplyDeleteThey were hard days from December 15 onwards, but without, however, going to Cancun.
After the x-ray after MRI, bone scan after confirming necrosis.
Coup de theater! Nothing is lost , the body seems to have compensated, by Danilo himself, this necrosis, and now living "as if" he had done a prosthesis, he can go on living , without doing anything!
My fractured vertebra was just an error in the computer ...
We have problems with the bone and joints, but are not what they seemed....
I understand what you mean when you use the colors. When I prepare colors Liquitex Heavybody squeezing tubes series more expensive (a type of red is here with us 19euro and 80 cents ...). Yet without the right material and artistic works not defy eternity.
The pigment pastels is so pure that I was taught how to use it to produce outstanding color- watercolors.
It 'a manufactured material with a valuable pigments exceptional standard.
Perhaps practice with white chalk, charcoal and sanguine would be cheaper, according to Leonardo?
Dear Linda is a great pleasure for me,
chat with you, in the wake of the moment, the input you give me with your post.
The second work in pastel is very impressive and goes well with the first creating a resonance, nice to see together.
I am so glad that you and Danilo are okay. I'm sorry though that we didn't meet you in Cancun--maybe the first two weeks in December next year? We'd love it. It's nice going into winter with a sunny high. Who knows what the snows will bring?
DeleteI read about making pastels this afternoon,but I have no desire to get that deep into it. I also don't really intend to give up on the medium. I think that preplanning a palette and buying by the color is a good way to go. I still think pastels are a pleasing alternative to oils. When this kind of investigatory, albeit side step, mood comes over me, I know that something is percolating. I'll be patient till what it is becomes clear.
This pastel and the last are simply lets try out the medium on a realistic subject to see how layering and mixing the right values on the actual surface goes. The subject I chose is not an easy one given all the half tones.
I like your snow scenes. The feeling is present. I wear mechanics cream ("glove") to protect my hands.
ReplyDeleteYour poor auto! Glad you are okay.
Thanks Casey. Aha. There is more to know. Mechanics cream. Thank you. I also picked up on the fact that frequent wiping of the sticks is necessary for clean marks. That didn't come up in class. And a box of just white is a must have. A box of grays is a plus too. The three manufacturers I bought have slightly different whites. Rembrandt's are the whitest. As I said, a box of warm grays would be helpful too for these realistically colored scenes. --But then, look who I'm telling. :-))
DeleteI like the energy of this one. It is almost like you moving along the road. Nice.
ReplyDeleteWe were. Thanks Roger. Curves do add movement. While I would like to hype up the color, I am also liking the challenge to keep the cool as low key as it was that day and in the photo. These are still, would you believe, too colorful. :-))
DeleteWhat a lovely piece - I love the perspective and the way the eye is drawn to the distance as the road leads away. I see what you mean about the colours you need to use. I haven't used pastels since my school days but I remember well the drying out effect you are talking about - I laughed at the idea of rubbing it on your belly - let me know if it works though, eh?!
ReplyDeleteIt's going to take me a while to sweep up enough of the dust to make a difference. I better get busy. :-))
DeleteThanks, the colorlessness of winter is challenging. Forcing the colors creates an impression that this artist likes winter. I do not. As we were hit by another snow storm today, I took another shot out the window at the colorless world. The truth should be painted more harshly. We need another Christmas.
Splendido! Sei riuscita a rendere il movimento,è fantastico!
ReplyDeleteCiao,buon fine settimana!!
Thank you Franz. Encouragement is always welcome. I am, however, sorry I was out on this road last week to take the photograph that inspired this rendering. :-))
DeletePainting and Playing the piano! You rock Linda!
ReplyDeleteI play the guitar! Electric and acoustic! Not well but playing music gives me great joy!
Love the excitement and so much more in your last two pieces.
"You gotta have art!"
Michael
I'm impressed Michael. Acoustical guitar. Wow. A rocker. (I played my son's when he went off to school. i had a blast). I don't play the piano well either, but I love that the trying keeps my hands agile. Music is such a lovely way to lift the spirits.
DeleteWe do have to have art.
I have some Belgium Mist Wallis paper...have you tried that? I love the look you achieved...very wintery
ReplyDeleteNo. Is it difficult to find. Wallis paper seems to be a regular back order. --Not as wintery as it was. Pastels don't seem to include the blackish colors--black brown, blue, green--or enough grayed colors. I guess those aren't pastel enough? :-))
DeleteLove it, it's brilliance and glow, and that it is warm and cosy rather than cold. Weird! And is there anything you can't do! I love to listen to music but I can't play an instrument. My first husband tried in vain to teach me the guitar! All thumbs!
ReplyDeleteI took piano lessons as a kid for eight years because my mom thought I should play the piano. I gave it up as a teen, but had a good background and did like taking my aggression out on the keyboard. When I got married, I took the piano with me and used it over the years the same way. Then I sold it. The style of it didn't go with my new decor. Biggest decorating mistake. I missed having the outlet. Then, on the way home from a client call, I heard about a piano sale that was going on. I went over and bought one and had to figure out how to tell Honey it was being delivered the next Tuesday. I did and I was pleasantly surprised. He thought I hadn't gotten a good enough one. Long story short, we cancelled my purchase and bought the same maker piano I had as a kid. It was delivered the next week on my sixtieth birthday. I couldn't play a note.
DeleteMy fingers had locked up with age. They needed to practice. I went out and bought all the piano books I owned when I was twelve, sat down and learned them all over again. I can now play as well as when I gave it up, which isn't all that great, but I get a lot more pleasure out of it and it is an excellent outlet.
Thanks. The painting bothers me a bit being that warm. I think I cooled it down this morning, but haven't photographed it yet, so I don't know.
Yes please do rub some of that on your belly and let me know how it turns out okay?? ;))
ReplyDeleteI love this piece, it has a great sense of movement. It reminds me of driving through our canyons here in a snow storm in the early fall. Very emotive work, full of sensory triggers. I really love it.
Thanks Crystal. It is so bleak and cold and ugly to me, I think the painting is successful. Very odd. I was thinking today that landscape artists mostly only paint pastoral, picturesque paintings--scenes we would all like to step into and stay a while. I have no desire to step into this one. You're right with the word 'emotive.'
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