The State of my Studio

 

This is what my studio looks like currently. Having just moved 2 weeks ago from Denver, Colorado to Bartlesville, Oklahoma has really put a crimp in my painting! I keep reassuring myself that it is only a matter of time and it looks worse than it is...RIGHT?! Another week and I will be back to work painting ferociously!

Saturday Pastel Workshop

Last Saturday, I participated in a one-day pastel workshop led by local Colorado pastel manufacturer Terry Ludwig. There was one thing that I learned very quickly....one can never have TOO many of those little coloured sticks! Unlike with painting, where with a certain amount of skill and patience I can mix any colour I desire to apply to my canvas, pastel painting is limited to the colours in your box. For Christmas I received a 30-piece pastel landscape set, which I HAD thought would be adequate for a newbie such as me...but NOOO...for one who loves colour, I felt that I was on a diet - 30 colours - no more, no less. To be fair, the instructor brought oodles of sticks available for purchase at $3 bucks a stick, and generously treated all students to extras sticks to try out. I snapped up the free sticks, but didn't purchase any additional. I kinda felt that part of the experience of working in pastel is recognizing that sometimes you have to "make do" with what you have. I "painted" 3 landscapes on Saturday. Posted above are two that I was reasonably happy with.

Zion in the Snow

We just returned from a trip to Zion over Thanksgiving weekend. It seems to be tradition for us to visit a national park during the holidays. Last Thanksgiving, we visited Yosemite National Park. In other years we have been to the Grand Canyon and Arches in Utah.

Zion was spectacular! The night that we arrived 8" of fresh snow fell, which made hiking the next day a little challenging, but the quality of the light on the red formations was magical. We ran about with cameras in our hands, (along with everyone else that was in the park) snapping pictures of one stunning view after another. We bought Yaktrax to slip on the bottom of our hiking boots to navigate the icy slippery terrain and hiked the Emerald Pools trails and the Canyon Overlook trail. It is definitely a national park that we would like to return to. I had on my bucket list that I would like to visit ALL of the national parks, but NOW but I would like to see each of them in the different seasons; fall, winter, spring and summer!

Daytripping @ Kenosha Pass

  

Today we drove up HWY 285 to do some leaf-peeping at Kenosha Pass. The Aspens were glorious, some of them covered in leaves a delicious shade of lime green, some aspens had leaves that had turned golden, others more orange in colour. We walked through a grove of aspen, their tall spires rising up on either side of us; I felt like I was in a cathedral as their trunks rose up and formed an arch over our heads. We passed other leaf-peepers with smiles pasted on their faces. There is nothing like a walk in the aspens in the autumn!

Summer Hike in Poudre River Area

The photograph (top) shows my husband and daughter on a meadow hike in the Poudre River area. (they are both way ahead of me, of course, while I try to shoot every thing that I see with my camera). The lower image is a 9" x 12" acyrlic painting on standard width canvas that I completed last week. It is ready to be framed.

Finally Finished!

This is a larger painting (18" x 24") that I have been working on for a while. The top photo I shot back May. Then, I put the painting aside for awhile. When I finally looked at the painting again, I was able to see it with fresh eyes. In the top photo, I felt that the bottom right corner was too busy. I kept removing blossoms until I was happy with the movement through the painting. I also increased the colour saturation of the background and added the impression of a flower on the right middle edge, to redirect the viewer's eye back toward the centre of the canvas. I like the contrast of the bright lime green background with the purply colour of the flowers. At LAST I think it is finally finished!

Painting "down the road"

Notice the similiarities? The first painting I did many years ago, when I had first started painting. The second painting I finished last week. I like the exuberance of the brushstrokes in the second piece. In the first one, the strokes are laid down in a more slow, careful manner.