Blue Poppy

"Blue Poppy" 5 by 7, Pastel Painting

"Blue Poppy" is a soft pastel painting done with pastels and pencils on Bristol board. I did a little experiment with this painting. I've been having some trouble blending pastels on the Bristol board, particually with the backgrounds, so I decided to try applying some Colourfix primer to the background to see if that would help. I drew the flower first, and then went around it with the primer. It actually worked pretty well. I was able to apply more pastel and it was easier to blend. So that worked well, however, this paper presents a whole new problem for me... It doesn't scan or photograph very well. In fact scanning a painting done on this paper is a lost cause. I photographed "Blue Poppy" and tried to correct the color as much as possible.

So anyway, I don't know how much more I will be using Bristol board in the future. I was playing around with some different papers that I have yesterday and I just may have found a winner! I've had it for months and never even tried it. I'm going to play around with it a little more before I reveal which paper it is :).

I really enjoyed painting this poppy. This painting is very sweet. I don't think I've ever used that word to describe a painting before, but the colors are so nice together (the greens and blues). It's so much prettier in person!!

Have a lovely afternoon! :)

Latest Pastel Paintings

"Evening Reflection" 5 by 7

"Purple Twilight" 5 by 7

I was graciously given permission from Sharon (this is link to her blog: http://mynewenglandlife.blogspot.com/) to use her beautiful photographs as references for my paintings. I chose to do this set of paintings from her pictures.

These paintings were done on heavy watercolor paper that has been primed with Colourfix Pastel Primer. They are 5 by 7 and were done with mostly Sennelier's, but some Mount Vision pastels as well.

These two paintings are now for sale on my Etsy page, for $40 each, and they come framed in a beautiful wooden frame.

Art Spectrum Colourfix Primer

I recently discovered this amazing product, Art Spectrum Colourfix Primer. I am fairly new to soft pastels (transitioning from watercolor) and I have been using Colourfix pastel paper a lot. I really like how pastel applies to the paper and the fact that you can layer a lot of pastels. When I found the Colourfix Primer, I was so excited. The primer can be applied to almost any clean surface. I have gobs and gobs of watercolor paper and I don't plan on giving up on watercolor completely, but I wanted to use some of the paper up. So, I bought the Colourfix Primer and applied it to my watercolor paper (only the paper that was 140lb and heavier). It dried quite quickly, and it's amazing!! The surface is exactly like the Colourfix paper that you can buy. Let's face it, pastel paper can be quite expensive, especially if you paint a lot or depending on the pastel surface that you like. I bought a small container of the primer (in white) and I applied it to probably 35 pieces of watercolor paper and canvas (of various sizes) and I only used up half of the container. So if you think about it, it's much cheaper than buying sheets or pads of pastel paper. The primer comes in many different colors, including clear. Give it a try!