Eucalyptus Revisited

"Eucalyptus Revisited"
10" x 8"
Pastel on black canvas

I was compelled to tackle the eucalyptus tree I drew with graphite the other day in pastels. The colors were as appealing as the composition. 

I like how the weeds in front lead us to the stream, which takes us back up to the tree and the crop behind it.

Carol

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Sky Over the Desert

"Sky Over the Desert"
6" x 6"
Oil on hardboard

That evening was windier than it had been all day, and the horizon was becoming indistinct. Sand commingled at heights normally reserved for birds of prey, and come morning, the gritty sherbet-colored mix would return to tan. 

It's been a while since I've painted  a simple sky, but I was moved to make one this morning.

Carol

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Storm Cloud

"Storm Cloud"
8" x 6"
Pastel on canvas

The stormy sky in the distance shone in complements — blue on top, orange below.  It was still and dry where I stood, but knew that would soon change.  The cloud was moving toward me. 

This painting was not done on a black canvas, but white, toned with red and blue. You an see some of the purple in the grass in the bottom right.  Purple was my standard toning color until black came along.

Carol

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Sunshine and Shadows

"Sunshine and Shadows
6" x 6"
Pastel on black panel

I found a photograph of a sky I liked and one of a mountain range. I added grassland, then put in a few highlights and shadows to complete my painting. 

I've been asked to try this in a larger format to see what the marks look like, so I will.

Carol

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Trout Stream and Spotted Gum

"Trout Stream and Spotted Gum"
6" x 6"
Graphite on paper

I have it on good authority that this is a trout stream and by the shape of the cluster of trees to the right they are Spotted Gum Trees — Eucalyptus Maculata. This eucalyptus is native to the eastern side of its country and is densely crowned, fast growing and has smooth bark. 

I didn't feel like executing a Zentangle heart today, so this little landscape is my weekend offering.

Carol

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Julie's Strokes

"Julie's Strokes"
6" x 6"
Pastel on black panel

I painted with a group of people the other day.  I had finished one piece and was moving on to another when the woman to my left stepped back from her large canvas. Primary colors, I noted. She stepped up to her canvas and smeared a swath of red orange vertically. I took a red orange pastel and applied a similar stroke. When she used yellow, so did I. She crossed, I crossed, but not in the same place. Within thirty minutes I had completed a painting using Julie's strokes, but with my composition. 

Carol

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Dusk at the Garden

"Dusk at the Garden"
12" x 12"
Pastel on black canvas

The plant materials in this part of the garden were lit very theatrically, as it was very nearly dusk. The sun was streaming in from the side and grazing the tips of the stocks, and other companion plantings in this September landscape. 

I painted eleven canvas panels with black acrylic today and coated them with a couple of layers of clear gesso to create the magical texture I like for pastel. Here is a squiggle painting I worked on while listening mainly to Ray LaMontagne singing "Beg Steal or Borrow."

Carol

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Blue For You

"Blue For You"
12" x 12"
Pastel on black canvas

I photographed this rose on a walk around my neighborhood one morning six months ago to the day. The dew drops were not from rain or overnight dew, but a good morning soaking from the homeowner's garden hose.  I walked my dog past this same address a couple of days ago and found something completely different. The rose bush was banked in deep snow, and was pierced with icicles that had snapped from the second story gutters. Winter in Illinois turns me blue for you. 

Here's another attempt at a rose in pastel — two of my favorite things.

Carol

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Lovin' Little Lilly Lake

"Lovin' Little Lily Lake"
6" x 6"
Pastel on black hardboard

I've painted this lake several times before, but in oil. She's one of my favorite things to photograph (as well as seven stand-alone silos) on my way to and from my critique class.  In the early morning, like I've painted here, she holds very still while I capture her serene smile. 

The morning light over Little Lily Lake never disappoints me. The only disturbing factor might be wind that fuzzes the reflecting shore across the way.

Carol

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Rapids

"Rapids"
  9" x 12"
Pastel on black canvas 

I heard the sound of splashing water before I even saw the blue reflection of sky on its surface. It wasn't a large rapids, but several small ones disrupting an otherwise serenely winding stream at the base of a stack of gigantic Colorado boulders. 

Constructing this landscape was almost as much fun as happening upon it. 

Carol 

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Crescent

"Crescent"
5" x 7"
Pastel on black panel

I've been wanting to try my hand at a few more non-representational paintings. I come from a graphic design background, and it probably shows more here than in, say, my landscapes.  

I cut tape and stenciled the colors on the black panel, rubbed with my fingers, and drew around the roll of tape to make the crescent. I want to do more of these, but in a more sophisticated palette.

Carol

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Castlewood Canyon

"Castlewood Canyon"
12" x 9"
Pastel on black canvas

I wandered around Castlewood Canyon in Colorado to enjoy a completely different kind of landscape from where I live. The rocks were plentiful and large, the trees were not placed in the ground by landscapers. This was nothing like Illinois.  

I managed to make the rocks look solid, so I'm going to try another couple of paintings of the same area.

Carol

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Heartwoods

"Heartwoods"
6" x 6"
Ink on paper

The heart theme continues with my Zentangle series, this time with a landscape theme. Rolling hills and a couple of trees fill the center of the needle-covered heart. 

I have a few more heart ideas to explore before I move on to other themes for my Saturday drawings.

Carol

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Lotus

"Lotus"
6" x 6"
Pastel on black panel

I photographed this lotus a few years ago, but haven't painted her. I'm not sure why, but here she is now. The water these plants grow in at the Botanic Gardens is dark and the pads are jade in color. 

I like the black of the panel showing through, but it really does look more appropriate in person than in the photo of my work.

Carol

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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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Deep Shade

"Deep Shade"
12" x 12"
Oil on wrapped canvas

Morning dusted light across the exposed tips of the newly unfurled rose. Her petticoat, however,  remained nestled in the deep shade of the leafy bush. 

I'm still in rose mode, also enjoying holding a brush again. And my fingertips aren't black with blending  chalky pastel pigments.

Carol

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Apple Blossoms

"Apple Blossoms"
5" x 5"
Pastel on gessoed hardboard

'Tis not the season for apple blossoms, but their color appealed to me after finishing the succulent. I drew them from a photo I took in April over three years ago and imagined the warmth, the sunshine and the fragrance in the air from that day. 

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

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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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