Another Day

"Another Day"
12" x 12"
Pastel on gessoed canvas panel
The night had been long, lonely, and cold. I looked forward to morning beginning another day. And what a beauty it was. Those of you who struggle through the night, remember that tomorrow is another day, and it has the potential to be ... colorful.

 I had color notes from a few other paintings to use as inspiration for this painting, nothing concrete to look at. The place originated in my heart.

Carol

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Ginger Blossom's Pergola

"Ginger Blossom's Pergola"
9" x 12"
Pastel on gessoed hardboard
It was July when I painted at Ginger Blossom's place. I was standing in the shade of one of her large trees, painting a pastoral landscape in the opposite direction of this architectural delight. Several of my friends painted this, but I wasn't up for the straight lines of six columns, nor the crossbeams, either. And I don't know what made me want to explore them tonight, except the light.  

Now that it's done, I won't be painting much architecture in the next few weeks. Except for house portraits. Even though I started painting decades ago with watercolor barns, I'm not fond of straight lines. Give me a curve any day.

Carol

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Miss Squiggle

"Miss Squiggle"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard
I wanted to paint a rose tonight, but  as luck would have it, my evening got peppered with interruptions. I put on Schubert's Symphony No. 9 in C Major, about one hour exactly and squeezed paint onto my palette.  The music guided my progress. I put down values of pink, added warmth, smeared on the greens and then picked up my rubber tipped shader and squiggled to the last movement, the Allegro Vivace!  Can you tell?  Yikes!  Talk about making a mark… 

This is not my usual kind of rose, nor has it been a usual kind of day.  Miss Squiggle, here, has cheered me up.

Carol

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Festival Rose

"Festival Rose"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard 
I found her blooming in a park that coincided with a festival whose celebrants wore many of these same colors.  I was surprised that she hadn't been snipped and tucked behind an ear, or clamped between teeth while dancing.  

It's harder to paint small roses than large ones. There just isn't as much room to vary the colors from one edge of a petal to the other. And I use about the same brushes to do both.

Carol

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Slipping Into Old Patterns

"Slipping Into Old Patterns"
6" x 6"
Graphite on paper
 
The title seemed like a fitting one, so soon after the new year, what with mid January around the corner.  I'm sure a lot of us have slipped into old patterns as resolutions have gone by the wayside. No biggie. Tomorrow's another day. 

I had time on Saturday to draw while I was waiting. I am not trained in portraiture, but wanted to make an attempt at it, so instead of making a serious stab, I opted for whimsy. It occupied my time and gave me pleasure, too.

Carol

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Pearly White

"Pearly White"
5" x 5"
$75
I loved the papery wrinkles on the petals of this hibiscus. They resembled the tissue that cradles oranges from damage when they're shipped. I saw a painting with that very tissue paper when I visited the Art and Appetite show at the Art Institute in Chicago on Thursday. Click here to see for yourself.  

She's not a rose, but she's pretty soft, delicate and feminine.

Carol

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Coral Rose

"Coral Rose"
12" x 9"
Oil on wrapped canvas






















I had photographed all of the woman's white roses when she invited me to come to her backyard to see her pride and joy. Sprawled against the backdrop of her painted stucco house grew a bush covered with outrageously beautiful coral roses. I shot one picture and my battery died. This was it. The only one I was able to document.  Sadly, she has since moved and I've not been invited through the gate to see if she took the coral rosebush with her. 

 Carol

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Ornamental Grass

"Ornamental Grass"
5" x 5"
Pastel on gessoed panel
Ornamental grasses waved in front of the blue and red salvia at the Botanic Gardens that day in August last year. A gusty breeze kept tossing them into the shot, so I made sure to include them in this particular composition. 

I'm back to doing a few small pastels while I work on a large oil painting.

Also, I don't believe I mentioned that I'm participating in a "Thirty paintings in Thirty days" event on Leslie Saeta's website. Check it out if you're interested.

Carol

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Tangled Up In Blue

"Tangled Up In Blue"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas
Miss Rose's rumpled interior indicated that she had unfurled her petals quickly, like an amateur stripper eager for her big reveal. By later in the day when she'd be wrinkle-free, the gorgeous blue of the sky would no longer be interested in tinting her outstretched petals. 

I'm in a Bob Dylan and rose kind of mood.

Carol

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Stacked, Stem to Stern

"Stacked, Stem to Stern"
6" x 6"
Pastel on hardboard
I was given a pear ... a beautiful one whose blush originated at her stem and traveled across her plump belly, but dissipated by the time it got to her … stern. She was lovely, but not unique, so I sliced her into thirds, on the diagonal and stacked her in a way that she would be. 

It's pear season where I live — at least that's what Harry and David would have us believe.

Carol

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Pond at the Divide

"Pond at the Divide"
6'" x 6"
Pastel on  gessoed canvas panel
I revisited my photos from a trip to the Continental Divide, near Winter Park, Colorado in 2010 and felt the need to paint this familiar little pond again. I liked it as much in this medium as when I've painted it in oil. 

 I was a guest of Winter Park artist, Karen Vance, at Devil's Thumb Resort on that trip. I worked for Karen's father in his art studio back when Karen and I were each looking for new careers. She moved to Colorado, I stayed in Illinois.

Carol

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Fleshy Curves

"Fleshy Curves"
10" x 8"
Oil on wrapped canvas



















I tucked my pastels away and put my rose coloured glasses back on for this one. It had been a while since I slathered oily paint against the even grain of canvas.  My last rose was shades of grey.  The one before her was squiggled with the tips of my pastels. Tonight I wanted to inhale the fragrance of a live rose, feel her supple petals against my lips and enjoy the range of colours as her fleshy curves rounded in and out of the light. 

 I loved painting her.

Carol

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Sweet Succulent

"Sweet Succulent"
5" x 5"
Pastel 
I found a photo I took of a succulent, you know those reddish ones with magenta and orange tones that make you shake your head in amazement, and decide it would be my next challenge for pastels.  I delighted in matching the colors and defining the edges in the appropriate hues, too.  

The originals of all of my paintings are so much more colorful than the camera picks up. The subtleties are lost here, but they exist. I've said it before, but it's particularly true in this one. 

Carol



Ten Shades of Grey

"Ten Shades of Grey"
6" x 6"
Pastel on sanded paper
I looked at my rose photos today without wearing my rose coloured glasses and chose this one to paint in every one of my ten shades of grey. Ten seemed enough, whatever would I do with, say… fifty?  

I'll be back to painting in oil in a day or so. I finally decided on the subject of a large canvas. It's unlike anything I've painted before, so I'm anticipating a few headaches, especially in the drawing.  Yikes. I must be anticipating time on my hands in the new year.

Carol

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Thaw

"Thaw"
!2" x 12"
Pastel on canvas panel
Remnants of earth poked through the moth-eaten blanket of snow when the temperature lolled above freezing for two consecutive days. 

This scene from near where I live was painted on a black canvas through which the weave and some of the black shone through. I actually forgot to apply clear gesso to the canvas, but I didn't notice any adverse differences until I realized the brush next to the gesso bottle was still pristine. Oops.  My experimentation continues.

Carol

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Foothills

"Foothills"
8" x 20"
Pastel on watercolor board
The peaks in the distance looked like mountains to me, but the locals laughed when I referred to them as such. The big boys soar well above these, but they're also quite a distance from my friend's home. So I settle for the foothills when I visit my girlfriend in Colorado. 

I broke two pieces of my hard pastel as I began this painting. When I picked up one of the broken pieces, I squiggled its side, instead of the tip, on the board. It left a nifty mark. I did the entire painting with the sides of broken pieces.  It has an Impressionistic quality to it. And once again, the subtleties are not captured by the camera. It's pretty translucent and overlapped in reality.

Carol

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Path to the Fence

"Path to the Fence"
5" x 7"
Pastel on gessoed canvas panel
The landscape was a simple one, it was the textures that intrigued me. There were only a few elements, but they were gnarly and nubby and easily represented on this surface.  

I used the clear gesso on a previously painted and sanded down acrylic painting. The rep at the art supply store told me it would be possible, so I tried it. The underlying texture made for interesting new textures for the pastel painting.  I'm liking this medium more as I test its limits.

Carol

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Nautilus

"Nautilus"
6" x 8"
Pastel on canvas panel
A friend sent me a photo of this shell tonight. I had just finished a piece to post for January first, and felt pretty good about it, so before putting away my "toys," I pulled the colours in the shell and painted it.  

I have a nautilus shell similar to this one on a shelf in another room, but mine lacks this much colour. It's more like a standard opal than this "fire opal" kind of presentation.  It was fun to try to capture the essence of the shell.

Carol

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