Long Time Between Posts

Every little town in the Sacred Valley and Coca Canyon have the most beautiful cloths.  I am going to try to paint several of the photos I took of these amazing women. 

Water color painting from a photo I took in the Sacred Valley near Machu Picchu  I also did a little outdoor painting of it while we were there.  The town is Ollantaytambo and is the last orginal Inca village.  This was a view from my window.

300lb Arches  

I have been absent for quite a while.  In the meantime I have been painting using watercolors as my underpainting for my pastel painting.  Also I have private lessons with Karen Margulis for two days that was spectacular.  Unfortunately I didn't take any photos and the ones I did take when I got back didn't come out.  But here is a painting I did on 9x12 Uart 400 with a watercolor under painting and then my pastels.  I probably am not done because I keep tweaking it.  But it was fun doing it.

It was a tutorial I found on Artists Network by Richard McKinley.  

I have been obsessed with learning how to use pastels and getting the right colors and types of pastels.  I really like Terry Ludwig, Mount Vision, Diane Townsend, Schmicke, Sennilier etc.  I love the feel of painting with pastels but I will never give up my watercolors.  I love doing the underpainting with the watercolors.

You would think with all of these colors I would be able to find any color I needed....but not the case.  But I am going to work with these colors for a while to see what I really need.  In the beginning I was researching and then trying different companies and different sets.  Make some mistakes.....right off the bat I can tell I have too many reds.  This box is the Dakota Deluxe Large from Dakota Pastels.

Art Classes

I have been very busy taking 3 art classes a week.  I just love it and am grateful I am able to do it.  My favorite and wonderful watercolor class that I have been a part of for 3 years .....I am painting with the class ....Dogwoods.

My next class after watercolor is Pastel painting.  I am a true beginner but this is a picture of my 3rd class.  We were painting draped fabric trying to get the folds, highlights and shadows.  It was fun but I think I overdid it.

Last painting was just a fun try at a still life at home.  I really enjoyed trying to paint looser and bigger.  

Second Pastel Class

My second class in pastels went a lot better than my first.  You can read and read about pastel painting, watch youtube videos and play around a little with the pastels but you actually need to be in a class where you have to paint with them to really get the gist of how to use pastel sticks.  Completely and totally different than watercolor painting.  I was in a panic in the first class but the second one I actually enjoyed.  I stepped outside my comfort zone to really try to be loose and large and it worked.  Thanks to a very enthusiastic teacher who gently prodded me to step outside the box.  

Again this is the first painting that I actually did in class....came home and ruined it further by trying to figure out how to paint cloth folds.  This was done on sanded paper with Nupastels which are considered hard pastels and a little touch of the teachers soft pastels for highlights.  

My second class painting is on a half sheet of sanded paper with Nupastels and touches of Terry Ludwig pastels for highlights.  I feel like I just started kindergarten and did my first picture.  But I learned so much in one class.  Large and loose is my new motto for pastels...at least in the beginning.  This painting is twice the size of my first attempt which made it much easier to get used to using pastel sticks.

My little chickadee!

I forgot to post my last class painting.  We had a photo from our teacher of a Chickadee.  My favorite little bird.  I loved painting him....

I am back again after a long break.  I haven't stopped painting and I now am interested in pastels.  I will never stop watercolor painting but I am interested (obsessed) with pastels.   I have tentatively copied or done step by step instruction by Karen Margulis and really enjoyed it.  Not to say that I actually knew what I was doing Karen has several tutorials that are easy to follow and her paintings are beautiful.  Her blog is full of information about pastels.

This little picture of my female cardinal freezing outside my window during the first Polar Vortex.  Watercolor 300lb Arches Cold Pressed

Vase I painted at the same time I was painting the flowers.

This is my favorite painting.  I love it so much I might paint it again.  I took a photo of this vase that I remember her having it literally since I was a toddler.  I placed the vase on my table near our sliding door and it was a perfect place to put it.  The post below is what I posted 3 years ago.

It has been quite along time since I have blogged.  I am still painting with Cathy Hillegas at Mt St Francis Indiana.  Soon to be moving to a new classroom.  Cathy is a wonderful teacher who has really improved my painting skills.  I decided to paint a vase that was my mothers and my first painting of glass.  It was quite an experience.  At the same time I started and finished a painting of wedding flowers for my godson.  Both were very challenging.  But I am very happy with the results.  I don't have a picture of the finished flowers but I do of the vase.  Cathy is making a giclee print of the painting of the flowers.  

This is the painting of a vase that belonged to my mother and I really wanted to paint it.  It was quite a lesson in painting glass.  I really should do it again because I learned so much doing this painting.  I painted this with Winsor Newton watercolor paints on Arches 300lb paper.