Warner Creek Winter Reflections

   Warner Creek flows south along a rock wall that catches light only in the mornings. The low angle of winter light makes beautiful reflections along the cliff at this time of year. When the trees are leafy, the area is very shady but in winter it is bright and full of color.
   This pastel was started a while ago but I knew it had some problems. After Christmas several unfinished pastels, or ones that I was just not happy with, were taken out, set up where I could look them over and get comments from others as they walked by, and maybe finish. This was one of them.

   The dark areas need some softening. The reflections in the water and beautiful colors in the snow shadows were the reasons I was interested in the scene. The dark cliffs were distracting and the trees were a bit stark. A few careful changes brought it to a place I'm more happy with.

The trees, cliff and bridge are not competing with the water at this point. I might try this scene in oils and see what happens. The exposure on each of these photos is slightly different. Improving my photography skills is on the 'to do' list! 

When Paintings Find a Home

  Thank you Amy from Chicago, for the purchase of two pastel paintings.
   It is heartwarming when someone sees one of my paintings and immediately feels a connection to what they see. Happiness occurs! This makes me feel as happy as the other person does, whether or not they buy the painting.

   It's one pleasure to work through the challenges of creating a painting and it's another pleasure to share a painting and experience the spontaneous pleasure that almost jumps out of the air between the viewer and the painting when the viewer first sees it. It is as if all other artwork fades from their awareness; as they step back or walk away that one image stays with them and the person keeps going back to it. Sometimes it is as if the painting was waiting for those eyes to recognize it. I believe it's true that a painting is not finished until other people see it. When someone falls in love with a painting, in some very real way, they do fall in love. That makes everyone nearby feel good.

   It's also interesting that what I'm attached to of my work is not necessarily what someone else even notices. A painting, like a story, forms through someone's feelings and actions, then goes out into the world and finds its place. For the paintings as well as the people who create these things, one's place has to do with relationships. These two little paintings have found a place in the world, and are now 'finished'.

   My photography skills show their limits here; the camera wasn't quite catching the details or correct colors, but it's another part of painting to learn about.

Painting the Winter Landscape

   A rainy December day with clearing skies brought dramatic lighting to the bare fields along highway 80 north of Richland Center. There were beautiful scenes to paint in every direction. This small study shows early afternoon light flooding the fields. An abandoned farm is spotlit on the hillside and water puddles in the fields reflect the changing sky. A few minutes later this scene was completely changed to dull colors and flat clouds. Color notes taken on site, then the painting was done in the studio.
   Pastel on sanded paper 10" x 8".

A Return to Pastels

Underpainting for River Shadows
Another excellent class with Kay Brathol-Hostvet http://www.kaybratholhostvet.com/ at the lovely, friendly, comfortable Whispering Woodlands  http://www.whispering-woodlands.com/ near Verona. Thanks to Kay for consistently bringing out the best in each student. I learn something every class. This class I wanted to explore how to get light and color into dark shadowy areas, so chose a view on the Kickapoo River of dark cliffs backlit by afternoon light. The water is dark, the cliffs are dark and the trees above are mostly dark. Even in real life that day those areas were quite shadowy. Picking out the colors that are there takes some practice. So I practice by observing and taking notes at the scene. Later at the easel the hard work starts when it's time to figure out how to translate my ideas of what I saw into something two dimensional on paper. This picture is quite a way from being finished. Above is my first effort to get the 'darkest darks' and light areas down.

Some layers of color.

Next I will probably rub off some of it. The red leaves and details in the distance are premature and can wait until the values are adjusted. It's easy to get ahead of the process and this is a good example of that. It's fun to play with pastels. They rub off   leaving a clear shadow of the removed colors making changes easy to do.