Making Marks

Red Bushes

These bushes are inspired by blueberry fields that are near Silverton. I adore blueberries and really appreciate that I can buy from local growers. In the springtime, the bushes have reddish branches, hence, Red Bushes.

The orange fields in the middle ground are also inspired by local growers who plant fields of flowers (for seeds?). They are stunning.

Now I've shared all of my recent work! Since school is over, I should be able to spend more time in the studio and have more new work to share with you.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Purple Waters

Purple Waters is another 6" x 6" oil pastel. Like many of my recent landscapes, this is inspired by what I see as I drive through the Willamette Vally on my way to work. 

In one small valley in the winter time, there's a spot that collects water. The levels rise and fall depending on weather conditions. Since our spring has been very wet, the seasonal lake is still there, and I wonder when it will be planted (if at all) this year. 

I've got a show coming up on November, so I'm starting to plan what to complete before October. I've made several smaller oil pastel pieces like this one. I think it's time to leap onto the larger canvas where I can explore more color shifts and gradations. I have some 14" x 18" Ray Mar panels, and I think I'll be working on those.That will be a shift from working on gallery wrapped canvas.

What do you like to work on?

Jewelry Interlude 2

Here's my second attempt with simple wire jewelry. I enjoyed the process and am thinking about trying to make some more projects.

One of the reasons I decided to try making jewelry is that I'm switching necklines in some of my clothes. I've been wearing crew neck t-shirts for several years and all of my necklaces go well with that style. Now I'm wearing more v-neck shirts, and I needed necklaces to fit the style.

I still have more wire and supplies. . . we'll see what happens next!

Jewelry Interlude 1

For those of use with basic wire working skills, I found a really neat book, Elegant Wire Jewelry, by Kathy Frey. After reading the directions a couple of times, I was brave enough to go and get supplies to make this little (1.5" long) pendant.

Completing projects like this make me extraordinarily pleased with myself because they are out of my comfort zone. I'll share my second creation soon!

What have you recently done that's out of your comfort zone?

Work in progress - stage 4

Here is my finished piece. The biggest change is in the middle blue section. That area morphed through several iterations until I decided to make it a water feature. After applying more pastel, I used a scraping tool (from the ceramics tool aisle) and carved out water scallops. That design is inspired by traditional Japanese motifs.

I particularly like how the orange field turned out. It has a lot of depth. Also, I like the green and purple grid. That is a sweet color combination.

I'm working toward the goal of having a set of 6 to show at the gallery. This is #4, so I'm well on my way.

Work in progress - stage 3

After drawing the basic contours of a design and laying down the under-painting, I use a variety of tools to blend the pastels: a finger, a paper stump, a blending tool or another pastel color.

You may be able to tell that I changed a color in the middle section. The blue wavy lines were light and dark blue, and now I have decided to try a blue-green color. The greens in the checkered part of the painting seem more blue in the photo.

I've started to develop color variation, such as adding darker green and blue to the lower part of the triangle design, and adding some orange color to the sky, adding yellow to areas in the orange triangles.

I will now spend lots of time looking at value and color contrasts, developing layers of color and tweaking any design issues.

Oil Pastel book

Although this book is out of print, Oil Pastel by Kenneth Leslie is available on the second market. Leslie includes amazing examples (from classic to contemporary themes and images), and he also dissects myriad techniques for applying oil pastel to the substrate.

Leslie's discussion of scraping away the pastel to reveal the under-color really inspired me to look for different tools to do the job. I picked up an inexpensive screwdriver from the hardware store and filed it to a straight edge to use, for example. I also went looking for tools ceramic artists use to score and decorate clay. These simple tips worked so much better for me than what my teacher suggested (a straight-edged razor blade) because I had much more control over the tools.

If you have read Oil Pastel for the Serious Beginner and thought there should be a more contemporary approach to the medium, check out the Leslie book.

Work in progress - stage 2

In stage 1, I developed the underlying structure of the painting, and in stage 2 my goal is to start laying down color.

One of my goals is to create some depth even though my paintings are very abstract. I've learned that creating depth is much more interesting for viewers. A flat plane can be intriguing, but it's often not captivating.

As I apply the first layer of color, I'm sketching out the basic areas and hues. At this point, I use a fairly light layer of color. That allows me to make adjustments in the subsequent layers. However, if I later choose to scrape an area down, the first color will likely remain. (Other substrates, such as paper, might be more flexible, but the acrylic grounds grab and hold the first layer of pastel.)

I do add a few color variations at this point. For example, you can see that I have added some yellow and some red to different parts of the orange field.

Work in progress - stage 1

Here's a picture of a work in progress. I prepare a gallery stretched canvas (12" square) with an acrylic background (shown in a peachy color). I also paint the edges before applying oil pastels.

The background is overpainted with a Golden product called Acrylic Ground for Pastel. I water it down and apply two layers for a nice tooth.

Next I use a colored pencil to draw my images. In this case, I revised the clouds in a lighter color.

Over the next few posts, I'll be showing the work at different stages.

New Work - medium 2

I think "Orange Hill", another 8" x 8" piece, is complete. However, I'm going to live with it for a few more days before making the final decision.

One of my favorite flowers is lavender, which is grown near Silverton. They gave me inspiration for the "Orange Hill" piece.

As I mentioned in the post about Teresa's work, I want to use more out-of-the-ordinary colors in my work, so I purposefully chose to create an orange hill here. I think it works, and I particularly like the dark teal/orange juxtaposition.

What color combos do you like?