Pastel

It's been a while since I painted in pastel. I'm not sure why, considering it is my favorite medium but I just seem to put it away. Recently I had the urge to work with pastel again & I'm glad I did. I love the feel of pastels, it is a very sensuous medium.

Here is the image that I have been working on. I loved the lights on the road as we were driving in the rain (I wasn't driving, I was taking the pictures) I still need to work on the sky a bit but I am quite happy with it. I have also started another pastel that I am hoping to finish soon.

Getting ready

I have selected the works to go into the Beacher Cafe, they will be hung tonight. It's been a bit of work getting postcards done, labels for the paintings, & of course finishing the paintings.

this is the one that was originally mainly red. I painted over it, leaving the image of Shanghai that I had printed on organza & applied to the support. I also added some partial stencil images & some dripping paint. I am quite happy with the way it turned out.

This one I scraped into, wrote on in crayon, & dripped on. A little busy but I think it works.
Now all I need to do is get the show hung. I am hoping there will be a total of 14 works but it will depend on the space, I won't really know until I get there.

New work

I have been working even if I haven't been posting (sometimes I forget I am supposed to be posting here, oh well one day I will actually get organized) I have been working on several pieces in my China series. They don't seem to be working as well as I had hoped
Here is the first one

It is getting closer to what I wanted but still not there yet. I'm thinking it might need to be darker.
Here is the 2nd one. I haven't actually done much to this one yet, still trying to decide where to go from here.

I'll keep working & hopefully remember to post more often.

China

I haven't posted for a while because I was away. I've been on a wonderful trip to China. Saw the Terracotta warriors, walked the Great Wall, saw panda bears, all of the things tourists do in China, but it has taken a little while for me to get back to normal. I think I am finally over the jet lag & almost ready to get back into the studio. My last painting will probably be put on hold for awhile because I need to start a series on China, I have some ideas. I'll have to see if they go where I want them to (sometimes they go where they want to not where I had planned on taking them).Hopefully next week will see at least the begining of the new series. Also next week I will be hanging a show at the Corner House restaurant here in Stouffville & the following month at Beacher Cafe in the beaches in Toronto, hmmm maybe I should try to get ready for these shows soon.

Still working

I am still working on this piece that I started a few weeks ago. I added the image of the Italian roof tiles int he bottom left corner & the image of the Colliseum.

After looking at it for awhile I decided I didn't like the colliseum image so I removed it. It is a transfer on sticky plastic so it was easy to remove.

I added the third key in red. Time to go think about this one. I know it still needs something, just not sure what.

Critique

A group of us get together occaisionally to critique each others work. We met Wednesday at The Station Gallery in Whitby. It's always a big help getting others opinions on our art but as we discovered on Wednesday, I think we get more out of the friendships. We have decided this is better, and cheaper than therapy. Some of the artists didn't even bring art to be critiqued. It's just wonderful to get together with others who understand the creative process (or lack thereof), who aren't afraid to laugh at ourselves, and to know that they are there as support if and when we need it.

New work

I have started a new piece. I started with a wood support

I then began to add colour

I than added more colour, some Japanese papers & some handmade papers.

I like where this is going, even though  I am not sure where that is. I'll have to decide what else to add, maybe more colour, not sure yet.