Five Queens

"Five Queens"
8 x 10" pastel on panel
Day 27 of 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
Abstracted Landscape

I worked in the studio later today as I wanted to stay down in Lakewood for an art reception tonight at the 40 West Art Gallery. There was a nice buzz of activity at the studios - a reporter from one of the lifestyle magazines in Denver taking a tour, a visitor in studio 8 next door, lights going up on the overhang out front.

After working fairly quickly on today's painting I headed down the block to the gallery and attended a reception for "Point of Departure" produced by the Athena Project whose mission is to empower women and strengthen the Denver community through developing and showcasing women's and girls' artistic contributions, while inviting new audiences into the creative process.

I love my art community!

The Nine

"The Nine"
9 x 12" pastel on panel
Day 26 of 30 in the painting challenge
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I read this morning that nine saguaro cacti were vandalized at the Saguaro National Park in AZ in the last couple of days. When I read it my thoughts were how sad that some would essentially kill living things just for the "fun" of it. Then the story and my thoughts slipped from my mind.

Later today when I faced my painting surface I started making marks and laying in a few colors. Fifteen minutes into it I thought these look like trees...no they look like cactus and the story about the vandalism popped forward in my thoughts. So it become an abstracted landscape with saguaro cactus.

If you look closely you will find nine cactus of varying sizes and shapes. I'm still sad someone would do this to the beautiful saguaro.

Spires and Spaces 25

"Spires and Spaces 25"
8 x 10" pastel on panel
Day 25 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
(Yes, I missed 23 and 24..enjoyed the weekend off)
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I tried a different approach today thinking more landscape/cityscape as my inspiration. I also have been doing some research (with the help of my fellow artist JunieB) on how  to create some depth and atmosphere in the painting of an abstract. 

Rough Migration

"Migration"
4 x 6" pastel on sanded paper
Day 22 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge

Today was rough painting. Maybe it was a long week or any other number of external factors, but the finished painting was about the 5th iteration of applying pastel and brushing it out. I even applied pastel ground twice to the layers underneath. I was trying to paint a "thing" and the "thing" just didn't want to come into being. So in desperation I started laying in my favorite purples and reds, along with my favorite turquoise. At the end I felt like the relief of having a root canal be over and done with. I actually like the finish!

Hopefully, by tomorrow I will forget what a rough painting day it was and I will be ready to start again fresh.

My studio neighbor and friend, Richard, was taking pictures in the different studios today. As you can see one of the iterations of this painting actually was blue.

Red Violet 21

"Red Violet 21"
5 x 7" pastel on sanded paper coated with pastel ground
Day 21 of 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
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Ships matted to a 9 x 12" size

 I was inspired by the artist, Stanley Bielen, this morning (mostly by color and subject matter.) I believe this would be more of a cross between abstract and expressionism or impressionism. Doesn't really matter as it started abstractly as an "L" composition. L means exactly what you might think it means - the forms create an L. So mine is an upside down L.
I've always loved the idea of being able to paint flowers, but I would get so tied up in the literal interpretation that they weren't fun to tackle. Several artists whose work I admire paint the suggestion of flowers with large shapes of color. I enjoyed approaching these the same way...and may be a way for me to be able to paint flowers.

Why Abstract?

"Purple and Turquoise #20"
6 x 6" pastel on Gessobord painted pink and coated with pastel ground
Day 20 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
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A few folks have asked me "what are you into now and what are these?"

I've painted mostly fruits and vegetables for the best part of 5 years. After that length of time you lose your sense of creativity and love of experimentation. It becomes more like manufacturing than a creative pursuit.

The concept of an abstract used to leave me cold. There are some fabulous abstract artists and there are some who just throw paint at a canvas with no thought to value, edges, line, color, texture. I wanted to learn what thought processes go into creating a good abstract.

For the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge I decided I would have a theme. (I think the first couple of days were more of my fruits, but they were pastels. It was about day 4 before I settled on abstracts.) 

As for what I am creating, they are not meant to BE anything more than a color study, but they more often than not begin to look like florals. It's a way to explore color, composition, marks and surfaces. 

I do plan on going back to my oil painting at some point and, yes, the fruits and vegetables. This has been a way to refill my well of creativity and create some excitement for myself. I never want to "paint myself into a corner" to the point I can't allow myself to grow as an artist.

So if these experiments aren't your taste, I totally understand. I didn't get it either, but I've learned so much they do have an importance to me.

Thanks for checking in!

More Red

"Red 19"
6 x 6" pastel on Gessobord panel
Day 19 of 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
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I love red...it makes me happy. This abstract seemed to take on more of a floral impression, most of them seem to. After the 30 day challenge is over I will try some of these paintings in a larger format.
This could be one of them.

Day 18 - January's Blues

"January's Blues"
8 x 8" pastel on orange-toned panel
Day 18 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
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This was a fun painting to work on. I painted a Gessobord panel with Gamblin Fastmatte Alkyd paint which was a lovely orange color. Then I painted on Golden Ground for Pastels. A few gestural lines with black charcoal and then have fun applying the pastels. The ground gave such a great texture.

Red Moons Rising

"Red Moons Rising"
6 x 6" pastel on Gessobord panel
prepared with pastel ground

I should be watching the Bronco game. Nah, I'd rather paint. This is day 17 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge.

Working with abstracts is so energizing. Most days I can't wait to get to the studio to see what will happen.

Experiments with Pastel Ground

"Destiny IV"
6 x 6" pastel on Gessobord over
Golden Ground for Pastels
Created some very interesting textures,
and the pastel went on more smoothly.
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"Pale Rider"
8 x 8" pastel on canvas board over
Golden Ground for Pastels
Created a rough surface and ate up my soft pastels.
Still, a nice effect.

Framing Finishes

"Around the Next Bend"
Pastel image 5 x 5"
Framed size approximately 8 x 8"
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"December Pear"
Pastel image 5 x 5"
Framed size approximately 8 x 8"
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"Lemon Pledge"
Pastel image 5 x 5"
Framed size approximately 8 x 8"
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There's nothing like framing to finish off a painting, especially a pastel painting. My friend, Judy Neiwald, at Belmar Frame and Art did an exceptional job finishing these. And she is tremondously generous to artists. Better yet, she understands how to professionaly frame pastels. 

The frames are wood. The lemon is framed in black, and the little landscape is framed in a dark forest green which really picks up the green in the painting. I love the gray blue wood frame on the pear!

She is now in my general neighborhood of 40 West Studios and I can pop down there and not make it a cross-town trip.

Day 12 and 13 - More Fun with Pastels

"City Folk"
4 x 6" pastel on paper
Day 13 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
SOLD

"Landscape 434"
6 x 8" pastel on paper
Day 12 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge

It was a fun productive day and having a sale at the end of my painting session is just the icing on the cake.

I made a trip to the art store yesterday and got some luscious new reds, yellows and oranges. Mostly Unison and a couple Schminkes. I love the Unisons, the Schminkes are a little too soft for my taste but I will save those for the final touches.

Pear in a Bowl

"Pear in a Bowl"
Day 10 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
5 x 7" pastel on sanded paper

This is a paint over of an older painting which was also a paint over of an even older painting! The paper is pretty loaded with pastel although I brushed most of the pastel off in between paintings.

Again, I wanted to see what I could do with an abstract of an old favorite subject of pears. The drawing is made up. Someone asked me if this was a painting of a pear in the mirror. Hmmm..not really, but I could see that. Someone else said it looked like a negative photo and yet another person said it was "musical pears". I find it really exciting that people see different things.

Reds..They're Roses!

"Reds"
Pastel 5 x 7" pastel on sanded paper
Day 9 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
Click here to purchase matted painting, unframed

Lovely day at the studio today. My friend, JunieB, came to play today. We had a great time painting abstracts.

Day 8 - Willowy

"Willowy"
Day number 8 in the 30 day challenge
5 x 7" pastel on U art sanded paper
Click here to purchase matted painting, unframed

I got a day behind because of inclement weather and I wasn't able to go to the studio yesterday. I'll catch up soon.

I've been intrigued lately by abstract and expressionistic style paintings. I found the work of Debora L. Stewart which I love and then discovered she has books and dvd's available. I bought her video, Abstract Painting Techniques: Flowers in Pastel, yesterday and watched it twice. Very excellent video and quite inspiring.

So off to the studio today to see if I could turn that inspiration into something I liked. I happen to be in an Facebook group with Debora centered around abstracts in pastels. I shared "Willowy" and she replied "beautiful". I'm happy with the painting and I'm super pleased she liked it.

I will be exploring abstracts in pastel for the remainder of the 30 day challenge....and maybe beyond.

Definitely Not Roses

"Definitely Not Roses"
6 x 8" pastel on sanded paper
Day 7 of 30 paintings in 30 days challenge

I've always been fascinated by abstracts. They look so easy and so fun. Well, the fun part is right but easy they aren't. Even though they don't represent a specific subject matter, they still deal with shapes, colors, edges and composition.

There are some basic shapes for abstracts and this one is based on the cruciform design. The idea is not to have your four quarters to be equal in size. The dark shape is the cruciform shape.

I had such a good time and learned so much I am going to finish out my 30 day challenge with the exploration of abstracts.

Almost About Roses

"Almost About Roses"
Day 6 of 30 paintings in 30 days challenge
5 x 7" pastel on Pastelbord

While I liked yesterday's roses, I really wanted more abstraction and more color. So today I started out not in the direction I wanted so about 3/4 of the way in, I took a brush to it and started over again. I was happy with this one.

The nice thing about the 30 day challenge is I'm using it for experimentation. I paint fruits and vegetable normally and that pays the rent, but I'd really like to let my imagination go.

Something About Roses

"Something About Roses"
5 x 7" pastel on Pastelbord
Day #5 of 30 paintings in 30 days challenge

I like the process of layering soft pastels...it's almost like icing a cake. I will probably play with layering and creating more abstract shapes a little more.

Day #3 and #4 of 30 Day Challlenge

"Snow Day"
6 x 8" pastel on paper
#3 of 30 paintings in 30 days challenge

"Memories of a Tree Line"
6 x 8" pastel on paper
# 4 of 30 paintings in 30 days challenge

I needed to do two paintings today as I got a day behind. My granddaughters, Opal and Emma, came to my studio on Saturday, and Emma again on Sunday. We had a grand time seeing all the different arts the other studio residents were making.

 They learned about welding, making art from recycled materials, contemporary art, and Gelli printing. It's a priceless experience for them.

Front Row Seat Starts the 30 Day Painting Challenge

"Front Row Seat"
6 x 9" pastel on paper
Day one painting of #30paintingsin30days
Click on the image to see a larger version

I joined Leslie Saeta's latest challenge which began today, #30paintingsin30days. I figured since I would be painting anyway, why not.  Leslie wrote a day or so ago that she had almost 1,000 artists signed up from all over the world.

I'm not a plein air painter but I do like to paint landscapes and make them up/feel my way along as the painting progresses.

This living shrub had a front row seat to the sunset, soaking up all its glory.