Godzilla Pears

The initial title for this was 'Pears in a Field'. Clearly too conservative.

I am regretting missing the Bill Creevy workshop in Albuquerque, so have got out all the old texture-makers that I can find. And playing around. The trees turned out well here.

(About 8" x 11", pastel on prepared paper.)

Work-In-Progress?

This is about 8" x 11" and was intended to be the preliminary pastel/watercolor underpainting for another attempt at a pastel painting of wild field flowers. What has stopped me at this point is that it looks pretty durn great just the way it is. I am loathe to do anything else to it.

Dilemma! Work in progress? Or finished piece?

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Here's another, same size, less precious!

OK then. So much for imaginary flarz. Back to skies!

Field Flarz

This is about 8" x 11", done with pastels and watercolor on paper.

I was inspired by Karen Margulis' challenge: 'See how few strokes it takes to paint a blossom.' Good stuff! See her post Fast and Loose...Ideas for Painting Fresh Flowers

Plein air -- heading out to the field!

Self-portrait on the Road to Tarascon (The Painter on His Way to Work)
Artist: Vincent van Gogh
Date: 1888
Place of Creation: Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, France
Dimensions: 48 x 44 cm (19" x 17-1/2")
Gallery: Destroyed

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Gallery: "Destroyed" in the above provenance information? What's this about? Hmmm!

Wait! "Destroyed by fire in the Second World War; formerly in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, Magdeburg (Germany), Magdeburg, Germany, Europe". (Van Gogh Gallery)

Who might be responsible for this? Answer: the RAF -- "Magdeburg was heavily bombed by the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. The RAF bombing raid on the night of 16 January 1945, destroyed much of the city. The official death toll was 16,000 - however, it is now believed that at most between 2000-4000 citizens were killed." (Wiki)

More: "Thousands of citizens lose their lives during the most devastating air attacks on Magdeburg on 16th January. A deadly bomb attack wipes out the old city centre and reduces 90 percent of the buildings to rubble. 60 percent of the city is destroyed. The factories of the Krupp-Gruson-Werk, the Junkerswerk and the Brabag are affected to a great extent." (The Chronicle of Magdeburg)

Another version of the story holds that: "In 1945 most of the museum's pre-war collection was looted or destroyed when fire was set to its wartime storage at the Neustaßfurt salt mine." (Lootedart.com) Here it seems the museum made some attempt to protect the collection but it backfired. So to speak. (Awwk.) This is one of those last-days-of-Nazi-Germany stories that may never be sorted out.

Mantilla

Historic pic found online, then 'shopped. I like the turquoise hip mantilla. Olé!

Carlson on Linear Perspective for Clouds

This diagram is on page 78 of Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting (1958), by John F. Carlson.

He explains:
"If a mountain or hill should rise in our landscape in such as way as to obstruct our view of the horizon, the arching and receding sky (or clouds) would ignore this temporary "horizon" and proceed back to the real horizon (out of our vision, of course) at its own ratio of convergence. It is this continuance of the sky back of the mountains, with the clouds coming up over it (and following their own perspective), that helps to give a sense of height to the sky and the mountain in our picture, as shown in Diagram No. 22. Of course, we speak of "converging" lines in the sky in only a figurative sense. We can only feel these unseen lines." (Ibid., page 77)

Colorado Forest Scene with Babbling Brook

This is about 6-1/2" x 7", done with pastel on salmon-toned paper.  I am quite happy with the water in this one. Surprise! Who knew?

(After I photographed this piece and loaded it into Photoshop to crop and re-size it, I noticed a number of areas that could bear improvement. And so promptly returned it to the easel for more work. This was an example of how looking at a piece in a different way, in this case on a computer screen, can reveal valuable information. I am vowing to use the old silver PV hand mirror much more often. Looking at a piece upside down and backwards can be even more revealing.)

Casey Klahn: The Colorist

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Casey Klahn is one of my favorite pastelists and general all-around art thinkers. Thanks for this, Casey! I love you!

Springtime Ritual

There are some for whom watching this video induces tears of regret. Aren't those folks the lamest? Jez, get a life!

Sky

This is about 7" x 4", begun with watercolors and finished with pastels, on paper

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See also: How to Paint Better Clouds, from Karen Margulis. Good stuff!

Text

This is about 9" x 10", done with pastel on very textured paper.

Delacroix

A Garden Path at Augerville
by Eugène Delacroix
Owner/Location: Private collection
Dates: circa 1855
Dimensions: Height: 30 cm (11.81 in.), Width: 42 cm (16.54 in.)
Medium: Pastel on paper

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When the Loire Valley Château d'Augerville was owned by Monsieur Antoine Pierre Berryer, an advocate and counselor to the French parliament, one of his frequent guests was Eugène Delacroix. When it was later owned by Madame Alva Belmont, formerly Mrs. William Kissam Vanderbilt, she had the river flowing through the estate widened because she said, as her daughter Consuelo Vanderbilt later wrote, "This river is not wide enough." (Per Wiki)

The Château is now a hotel.

Orange Bow Tie

This is about 8" x 4", done with pen and ink and watercolor.

Pastel Plein Air Checklist

Pastel Plein Air Checklist
-- rolling backpack
-- tripod with ball head
-- masonite panel with tripod plate attached
-- Heilman Backpack pastel pochade box (filled with various pastels) [Alternative: Heilman Sketchbox Double pastel pochade box; smaller by about half]
-- Easel Butler armature
-- 2 bungee cords
-- packet of pastel paper with glassine interleaves, sandwiched between 2 pieces of foamboard, secured with 6 large binder clips
-- mesh bag to hang tripod counterweight
-- 4-oz. Nalgene wide-mouth bottle of alcohol (for underpainting)
-- 1-oz. spray bottle Spectrafix casein fixative
-- 1-oz. 'Gloves in a Bottle' lotion
-- Sketch kit (pencil, paintbrushes, pen, toothbrush, eraser, lightweight retractable snap-off knife, Compose-It-Grid red tinted ValueFinder, perspective angle finder)
-- washcloth with carabiner attached (plus 1-gal. ziploc bag for packing it when damp; this dampened washcloth hangs from the side of the pochade box and I wipe my fingers on it)
-- 2 small collapsible silicone bowls (for holding in-play pastel sticks)
-- roll of black masking tape
-- Personals (aspirin, lip balm, bug spray, sun screen, surgical gloves, hat, energy bars, paper towels, Leatherman multi-tool, bottle of water, packets of hand-sanitizing wipes, extra pair of reading glasses)

EXTRAS: Quick-E-Seat folding chair, Bestbrella sun umbrella

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MORE From Richard McKinley:

• Plein Air Tips, Part 1
• Pastels At the Ready | Preparation and Essential Tools for Plein Air Painting
• Plein Air Tips, Part 2 - Sun Vs. Shade
• Plein Air Tips, Part 3
• Traveling Even Lighter
• The Perfect Pastel Plein Air Setup: The Search Continues
• Plein Air Positioning
• Downsizing a Palette for Travel
• What is your setup for painting en plein air with pastels?

From WetCanvas:

• Plein Air - Best Practices for Setup? 
• Pastel plein air?help tips hints and ideas how to paint outdoors?

And from ME! ---> Seven Essentials for Plein Air Adventure

Plein air. Ready?

Spring is coming. Are you ready to venture forth?

More on the Lyme Art Colony is here.

(Images and quote courtesy of the Florence Griswold Museum.)

Cheap paper is less perishable than gray matter

Stern Realities?

Stern Realities
Frank Meadow Sutcliffe (England, 1853-1941)
Photogravure: 4.75 x 7.25; printed 1889-1891
Los Angeles County Museum of Art


This doesn't seem all that necessarily 'stern' to me.

Wesson Lesson

This is about 8" x 12", done with pastel, on paper.

Vinnie woulda dug this!

Watch an animated version of van Gogh's Starry Night,  done by Petros Vrellis.

Yes! Animated!

Vinnie would have been so yes to this, I think.

Begone, Winter!

iPhone pic of Tenley Circle bus shelter man, then over-apped.

Sky

Richard McKinley Tips:
-- Blue Skies and Beyond | Painting the Sky with Pastel, Part 1 
-- Pastel Pointers for Painting Clouds | Painting the Sky with Pastel Part 2

Deborah Secor Tips:
-- Chapter Seven - The Sky 
-- Chapter Eight - Clouds

Loriann Signori: tips for painting clouds

I see sky - Maryland Pastel Society demo report
 

Codex Arundel

Page 261 of the Codex Arundel, otherwise known as The Notebook of Leonardo da Vinci. Fully digitized and online at the British Library.

This 2-page spread is annotated with right-ways Italian, so you don't need a mirror to read it. I still can't. But the context of these sketches, judging from those on adjacent pages, is siege warfare and heavy artillery. Could the object on the left be a propellant-driven missile? Were these kinds of pyrotechnical objects known to him, via imports from China?

Tree Mentor

This is a watercolor sketch by Alan Owen, an Englishman, who has a relaxed and intuitive and devoted attitude toward trees that we all ought to envy. I know I do. I want this. More here. Practice makes perfect!

EDIT: It appears that this approach was begin by Edward Wesson. More of his work here. Hmmm.

She's not a tomato

This is about 3" x 4", done with watercolor, gouache, and watercolor pencils.

Halo Head

This is a iPhone photograph of mine that has been 'apped' and 'shopped' so much that it's almost not a photograph anymore.

My latest fav app: Decim8. It's mesmerizing.