Anchored

This is what I have been working on for the past few days. I got the photo from the reference image library on Wet Canvas but I loved the somewhat threatening sky while the cliff and the boat were still in sunlight. 12 x 16 on La Carte paper.

New Hampshire Fall

recently we went on a Fall Foliage Studio tour, which involved visiting several artists in their studios and viewing their works. We really enjoyed this although we actually only got to about six of the studios due to lack of time. All this took place in and around Keene in New Hampshire which is about and hour and a half from us, and this picture is from a photo that I took that day.

SOLD

Old Cellars Beach

I took this photo several years ago when walking on the cliffs with my sister and brother in law. Old Cellars Beach is in Noss Mayo, Devon at the entrance to the Yealm Estuary. This whole area is one of great natural beauty and I had already done a painting of it for my sister but felt I wanted to do it again in a larger format. This one is 16" x 20".

Road to the Mountain

This is from a photo of Heber, in Utah taken by someone else, but I loved it and asked permission to use it to paint from. I always love any photo that has a path that draws the eye and as soon as I saw this I knew I wanted to paint it.

Fall by the River

I took this photo about a year ago when my sister and brother in law were visiting from England. We took a trip to Maine to view foliage and stopped at this spot on the way.

Evening Light

I can't remember where I got this photo, but I loved the sky and was itching to have a go at it. I did it on some masonite (hardboard) that we had purchased and cut into smaller sizes, which I then coated with a ground pumice mixture to create a rough surface which is ideal for pastel painting. However, I wasn't happy with this board as I think I should have given it a couple more coats - it was quite difficult to work with especially the area of the grass. It seemed too slick and wouldn't really grab the pastel.

Tulips for Two

This picture was really fun to work on. Usually I don't get to use such bright colors, especially red, which doesn't appear in landscapes too often. There were more people in the photo that I took this from, but two were all I could cope with and I think it may have been too busy with more. I didn't take the photo myself, but it's of some tulip fields in Oregon.

Grand Marais, Minnesota

Some very dear friends of ours live in Grand Marais, on the northern shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota during the summer months and have asked us many times to visit them there, but so far we haven't made it. So when, I came across this photo in the Wet Canvas reference image library I couldn't resist doing this picture. I found it quite challenging particularly when it came to doing the rocks especially as they are so close to the viewer.

I'm not sure where this is but it was a photograph I came across and thought it would be fun to paint. It's 11 x 14 and done on a paper called La Carte which I have never used before. It's a coated surface that cannot under any circumstances get wet. Even sneezing on it will apparently leave holes in the surface. Because of this I have always been afraid of it, but I had a sample piece and decided to give it a go........ I love it...... and would now like to get more, but probably won't because it's expensive and I have a lot of other papers of different types to use up first.

Actually, last weekend we spent quite a bit of time in the garage with a power saw, cutting up a sheet of masonite (hardboard) into sizes to make painting surfaces, and now I have to do the preparation on them which involves coating them with a pumice mixture. I have ordered the pumice on line and hopefully this process won't be too messy or difficult.

This is from a photo of Eilean Conan Castle in Scotland taken by someone else. I have done this picture twice because I was experimenting with a surface that I hadn't tried before and although I enjoyed doing the picture I hated the surface so I did it again on some pastel board that I am familiar with and enjoy using.