Leaves in the Creek

"Leaves in the Creek"
12" x 12"
Pastel on black gessoed panel

This little creek wound through the garden, filling and emptying many different shaped ponds and tributaries. I captured it here as it turned left and headed to the koi pond. 

I went to the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford over the weekend.  The colors were at their peak and the late afternoon light was perfect for gathering subject matter.

Carol

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Garden Steps

"Garden Steps"
18" x 24"
Pastel on canvas panel

This is my 1000th post to this blog and to Dailypaintworks.com.  I decided to do a significant piece to commemorate the event. It's a shot from the Botanic Gardens I took last week. 

I joined Dailypainters.com about four months later… not to slight that wonderful organization. 

I never, ever expected to be able to continue posting after the first week of doing it. I thought my heart palpitations would never stop, but after a month, I was merely nervous. After a year I had gotten the hang of it, and by five hundred posts I was entirely comfortable.  Thank you dear followers for your comments, your affection and for purchasing pieces when the image has moved you.

Onward!
Carol

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Ned's Lily

"Ned's Lily"
8" x 10"
Pastel on canvas panel

I was given a photo of this lily from Friday's visit to the Garden.  It struck me as gorgeous when I saw it. I wanted to paint it immediately, but I had other subject matter in queue. So tonight when I sat down to paint, this one simply called to me. The puddle of water at the top was especially difficult to create, but I think it looks puddly, don't you?  

I appreciate when friends share their photos with me. I can't always be in the right place at the right time, but if some of us can, it helps!

Carol

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Autumnal Splendor

"Autumnal Splendor"
9" x 12"
Pastel on canvas panel 

This is another image of when the light was magical at the Garden. It was in a similar spot to the painting from yesterday. I'm so happy to have been receptive to the gift of light.  

Our autumn has been colorful, but dampened by many repeated days of gray and overcast. Lots of rain, too.  It's why I'm making such a deal about the light. It was breathtaking.

Carol

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Intensely Autumn

"Intensely Autumn"
14" x 11"
Pastel on canvas panel

I was at the garden early in the morning last week when the colors seemed to be very saturated.  Every plant and blossom fairly glowed as I strolled. The sky looked to be borrowed from a post card, then within a few minutes it all went back to normal. I'm grateful to have experienced seeing a few of my favorite places in the garden during that magical light. 

Carol

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Beets, Balls

"Beets, Balls"
9" x 12"
Pastel on canvas panel

The "exterior decorators" at the Botanic Gardens have inserted pumpkins and squashes in the beds with the autumn pansies, beets, grasses and mums. They're intimately nestled amongst the tootsies of those plants like shoe clips on plain black pumps.  

It was an unexpected delight to see the small gourds in the raised beds. What a clever and colorful idea to mingle them for the unsuspecting visitor.

Carol

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Ornamentals

"Ornamentals"
12" x 12"
Pastel on canvas panel

I spent three hours in the sun at the Botanic Gardens today. I took 322 photos, documenting the colors and textures of the season. I have many more photos than I thought possible to use as subject matter! So I'll begin this autumnal series with cabbages, grasses and mums. 

I met several people today. Kevin and Ned told me about a peony garden in Milwaukee where I can get several years worth of subject matter in one day. Marion and I were moved to tears as we stood in front of the tiny bonsai trees, that like their ginormous cousins, were turning the appropriate colors for their species and dropping tiny leaves.

I doubt that I'll go there again this season, but maybe once snow falls, I'll go back to capture the essence of winter before I'm weary of snow.

 Carol

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Drifted

"Drifted"
6" x 6"
Pastel on hardboard 

I found a photo in a magazine similar to this scene and painted the essence of it.  I've made snow before on a larger ground, and I think, like sky, it is better large, than small with the medium and technique I use. Ya live, ya learn. 

Carol

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Castlewood Canyon Bridge

"Castlewood Canyon Bridge"
12" x 12"
Pastel on canvas panel

You can drive over this part of the canyon under which Cherry Creek trickles.  The snaking ribbon of blue flowing under the starkly contemporary bridge is what attracted me to this scene. And if you know my work at all, architectural elements are seldom included. So this is a unique piece… for me. 

I would have been in this place right about now, but my friend that I visit has come here, instead. I'll go to see her in another season sometime within the coming year.

Carol

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Somewhere in Texas

"Somewhere in Texas"
8" x 8"
Pastel on canvas panel

A while ago I found a photo of this Texas landscape and kept it on my desktop. I only remember that it was in Texas. The colors, the texture, the light all drew me to this spot. I'd love to go there some day to see a place where the land is so many different colors.  

I have about four or five more panels left from the dozen or so I painted black for this landscape series. I may have to prep more, as I'm getting a lot of favorable comments on my squiggle technique.

Carol

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Peak and Garden of the Gods

"Peak and Garden of the Gods"
9" x 12"
Pastel on canvas panel

There's a road near both the Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak where you can get a peak at both. In October of last year, this is how it looked. I loved October in Colorado last year. I'll go back again, but not just yet. 

Carol

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Pond Pads

"Pond Pads"
14" x 11"
Pastel on canvas panel

I've painted this scene at least twice before. I love the dark shadows and the reflections in this pond. I've wanted to paint it with pastel, so now I have. It was as fun as I hoped it would be. 

I'm testing old subject matter and new alike, with my black canvas and hard pastels. I'm also wearing nitrile gloves to keep my hands from looking like a car mechanic's.  Oh, what fun!!

Carol

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Trout Stream

"Trout Stream"
8" x 8"
Pastel on canvas panel

I watched a movie last night after I finished painting and posting my missive for the night.  It had some beautiful scenery in it, so I pointed my camera at the TV screen and captured half a dozen images of things I want to paint. This is one of them. 

I've seen trout streams like this in Colorado, but this one happens to have been in Oregon.  I'd love to go to Oregon some day, even if it's just to drive through and take photos. Anyone want to take me on a subject matter trip?

Carol

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Garden Pond

"Garden Pond"
12" x 9"
Pastel on canvas panel

I have yet to see this pond reflect blue. It's always muddy brown as I cross the bridge that spans from the parking lot to the island that is the Chicago Botanic Garden.  I've photoshopped it, posterized it and tried to make it prettier than it is, but nobody would recognize it if it were pristine. Strangely muddy is how I perceive this body of water that surrounds one of the most beautiful places in Chicagoland. 

The closeup flowers hang from containers on the bridge. The flowers in them change with the season. This was the view from August, seven years ago.  I always photograph from this bridge. Every trip to the Garden begins or ends with this vista.

Carol

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The Lieutenant River

"The Lieutenant River"
14" x 11"
Pastel on canvas panel

I was in Old Lyme, Connecticut a few years ago and again before that. This is the Lieutenant River  in the back yard of the Florence Griswold House and Museum where the American Impressionists painted at the same time the movement was in progress in Europe. Many artists summered in the comfort in her large home. They painted during the day and chatted and played games in candlelight after dark.  I've spent hours in this place, channeling the energy of our country's Impressionists who created in this place 110 years ago.

I've painted this before, but not quite like this. I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Carol

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Polished Knob

"Polished Knob"
7" x 5"
Pastel on canvas panel

I visited many old bars, inns and homes in Wisconsin this summer. There were doors that fascinated me, and this was one of them. Imagine my surprise when I saw how shiny the brass knob was when I got up close. Of course it would be well used — being the door to the bathroom. 

I didn't use my squiggle pattern to paint this. Oh, I tried to, but the wood just didn't look… wooden, so I put on some Neil Young and let my hand stroke back and forth to his swaying rhythm.

Carol

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Flaming Tips

"Flaming Tips"
20" x 16"
Pastel on hardboard 

I found this cluster of pots at the Botanic Gardens in August when I was there with friends to paint en plein air. I photographed it for the sunlit leaves and the banana plant in the background. Bananas do not grow in Illinois, unless they're in pots, such as this one was.  

I thought I'd make a palette knife painting of the photo, but I'm in a pastel mood right now, and it suited my need for subject matter, again, on a larger scale than I've been doing. I'm pleased with the outcome.

Carol

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Coleus Carnival

"Coleus Carnival"
24" x 20"
Pastel on black panel

Flanking the front door of the floral shoppe down the road from Mary and Dee's home where I stayed for five days last week was a barrel of coleus and ornamental sweet potato plants. The colors radiated in the sunshine, so I photographed them, hoping to be able to use the image … some day. 

When I saw the image on my computer screen I knew they would be my first large, three day painting in my squiggle style of pastel painting.  I'm very pleased with the results. And I can hardly wait to begin my next large pastel painting. I've become … braver.

Carol

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Downtown Blues and Greens

"Downtown Blues and Greens"
9" x 12"
Pastel on canvas panel

This is the last of the LaCrosse paintings. I had done the ones in warm colors and decided to make one to go in a silver plein air frame I brought with me.  I didn't like it as much as three other pieces, so it stayed behind. 

What has surprised me and some of my followers is that the squiggly marks I make with my pastel also works for non-organic subject matter such as buildings. I'm not as fond of it, used this way, but I rose to the challenge and did what I set out to do.

Carol

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Sedum Garden

"Sedum Garden"
8" x 8"
Pastel on canvas panel

It's the end of the season for Mary's garden, but the sedum were at their peak, so I featured them amongst the sticks and stems of what was a gorgeous display a month ago when I was there. 

This piece is VERY much prettier in person… very tapestry like, but the greens photographed as black.

Carol

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