"Pears On Deck" 8 by 10, Pastel Painting
This painting was completed on Ampersand Pastelbord with pastel sticks (mostly Mount Visions) and a few pastel pencils.
I don't generally post works in progress, but I thought I would today. The picture isn't that great, but you get the idea. I'm working on my first "painting of the month." It was a goal of mine this year to begin doing a painting of month, which is just a larger more detailed piece. This painting is only an 8 by 10, which isn't too large, but I'm low on large pastelbords. 
"Nap Time" 5 by 7, Pastel Painting
"January Snow" 5 by 7, Pastel PaintingHere's my first painting of the year! I decided to start the month with a painting for the Artists Helping Artists monthly challenge. One of my goals for this year is to participate in monthly painting challenges. Next I will be working on one for the Contemporary Fine Art International website.
My uncle was very kind in letting me use his photograph to paint from. He is an award winning photographer and you can view his work here.
Happy New Year!
"Pears" 5 by 7, Pastel Painting
"Can You See Me?" 5 by 7, Pastel PaintingI think it's safe to say that this is my favorite cat portrait so far. It was so much fun to paint. Pets have such cute personalities and it was fun trying to capture that in this painting.
This painting was of course done on Pastelbord and I used a combination of pastel sticks and pencils. This painting is available in my Etsy shop.
Also, I'm having a sale in my Etsy shop this week. 40% off every purchase. Use coupon code "HolidaySale" at checkout. Sale goes until Friday (this painting is not included in the sale).
If you're interested in a pet portrait of your own, just let me know.
"A Day Away" 9 by 12, Pastel PaintingArt Goals for 2011
1. Paint at least 4 times a week (I'd like to be able to dedicate more time but I'm also a full time college student).
2. Keep the computer off while I'm working, or if it's on, let it be for listening to music only.
3. Paint what I want, not what I think others will like.
4. Try to nail down a few subjects that I really enjoy and can improve on.
5. Dedicate a lot of time to painting animals.
6. Overall spend less time on the computer and more time painting.
7. Paint some larger paintings.
8. Dedicate more time to drawing.
9. Experiment with watercolor underpaintings for landscapes and skies (in pastel).
10. Participate in monthly painting challenges.
11. Blog more often (at least 4 times a week).
12. Complete some larger paintings for the gallery.
13. Complete at least 150 paintings this year (this past year I completed approximately 75).
14. Start doing a "painting-of-the-month." (A larger more detailed piece)
15. Continue studying painting books and generally keep myself educated in anything art related.
16. Participate in at least 1 painting competition.
17. Spend more time painting with watercolor.
So there it is. I sort of feel that the list isn't complete, so I may add to it. I hope in publishing my list of goals it will help to keep me focused on them. I'd love to hear any art goals you have for the new year! :)
"A Day Away" is one of the first pastel paintings I ever did and it was completed in February of this year. It's nice to compare my earlier works to my more recent ones and see how I have improved.
I hope you all had a great Christmas!
"Lucky" 5 by 7, Pastel Painting"Lucky" is my latest painting. With the holidays literally around the corner, I wanted to make sure I fit in some painting today. I've been waiting to paint this dog and tried it on this new board. Well, it's Ampersand Pastelbord, but it's in the color "sand" which I have never used before. I ordered it by mistake but thought it would make a great neutral background for pet portraits. I think I was right. I like the way it turned out.
I tried to be a little more loose and expressive with this portrait. I used mostly pastel sticks and pencils just for small details. I also painted standing up again, and I'm really enjoying that. The only problem I have with standing up and painting is that I tend to dance to the music I have playing while trying to paint. :) On the up side, I'm burning calories!
I probably won't be painting the next couple days, but I will be posting my list of goals for 2011.
I hope you all have a very happy holiday!!
"Apple Line Up" 9 by 12, Pastel Painting
An Apple A Day
"Christmas Poinsettia" 5 by 7, Pastel Painting
Apples & Limes, 5 by 7, Pastel PaintingI set up another little still life today. I had a little fun and put one of the limes on top of the apple. I thought setting up my own still lives was going to work out really well, but I'm not so sure. I think I prefer working from photographs. Maybe I'll experiment with setting up the still lives, and photographing them.
This painting was done on pastelbord, and completed with Mount Vision pastels, and a few Carbothello pastel pencils.
Just a little other news, I have been juried into Contemporary Fine Art International, and am now a member. Along with that, I will now be contributing to the Daily Painters of Wisconsin blog as well as the Pastel Artists International blog. So, I'm excited to become a part of this great art community. :)
"Apple & Pears" 5 by 7, Pastel PaintingI set up my very first still life today and painted from it. I can't tell you how much the thought of painting a still life (not from a photograph) has intimidated me. But as I become a little more comfortable with my paintings, I'm willing to challenge myself more. I bought this fruit the other day, just for painting. I can see a few things that I wish I would have done differently, but overall I'm happy with it. And most importantly... it was fun! I can certainly see a lot of possibilities coming out of this! It would definitely be nice not to have to be restricted to using photographs all the time.
Well, I hope where ever you are today that you're warm! We're under another winter storm warning, and I think we've gotten 1 1/2 to 2 feet of snow already. I haven't stepped foot outside and I don't plan to. It's nice to have days like this once in a while. :)
Have a great weekend!
"Apple Tea" 5 by 7, Pastel PaintingI can't even begin to tell you how much fun I had with this painting this morning. I've never painted a background like this before (with the sheet or fabric draped behind). I had a lot of fun with all the loose strokes. I began layering and blending, but as the background started coming together, I decided to leave a few strokes expressive (not blended out). I think this adds a lot to the piece, and I might have to start doing it more often! I've thought for a long time that if I want to paint realistically that I have to blend my pastels, but I don't think that's true.
I was originally drawn to the photograph for this painting by the blue and red combination. I think the colors are just beautiful together. This painting was completed on pastelbord and I used a lot of Mount Vision pastels for the background, and mostly pastel pencils for the tea pot and apple.
I hope you have a nice afternoon!
"In the Garden" 5 by 7, Pastel Painting
"Morning Over a Mountain City" 5 by 7, Pastel Painting
My old wall at the gallery.
I think I may have mentioned in a previous post that I was going to be moving to a bigger wall at the gallery. Well, I did this last week. You can see how small my previous wall was. Now having moved to one that is twice the size, I am able to hang more paintings, as well as have my quilt rack and taller print rack. And I'm happy to announce that after moving to this larger space, I made my first sale! :)
We had a "meet the artist" reception this past Friday and I think the timing was bad because that evening a winter storm started. Us artists far outnumbered the customers, but it was still a lot of fun.
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