I thought I would show you the materials and a little bit of the process of creating a pastel painting. Oooo it's so much fun! Here is my setup. The tan paper to the left is Ersta pastel paper, made in Germany, bought on line. Ersta is just like sand paper, it holds the soft pastel pigment as you grind it into the surface.
My subject is to the right, a sunset picture I took last November. All around I'm surrounded with beautiful, beautiful pastels....
Oh such lovely colors! You can never have too many colors, however they're not exactly cheap, so you must cherish them to the last speck of crumb! These are Rembrandt landscape soft pastels, notice how much I like the blues they're almost gone! How can a Chicago artist not like the blues...hahahahaha
Here is the painting, which I've named, Sunset Fire, in progress. I usually start at the top and work my way down. Meanwhile, I start with underneath layers of color and work my way to the top. It's so much fun and I believe anyone with training can do this!
Speaking of training, once a week I will be working under the direction of artist Gary Wick, who creates amazing art. He's just a neat, creative artist whom I admire a lot and a swell guy! Lets hope he can transform me into something!
Just working my way down...adding the sun's highlights to selected clouds. Yellow is the complementary color to purple and orange is the complement to blue, that's why these colors look so good next to each other. Nature has it all figured out!
©2008 Christine Kane ArtTaDa.... the finished painting. Foreground trees silhouette in a mixture of dark blue and dark purple...never black...too harsh. The cloud "holes" were softened lightly with my finger and the highlights in the horizon are left strong. The mood has been translated into paper.
This painting, Sunset Fire, is now available on Christine Kane Art on the autumn pastel page because this picture was taken last autumn.
It is so neat to see my nature friends become artists themselves. We all must have that desire to take what we love and in our own "language" show our version of a moment in time.
Click on links to view art.
Tom with Ohio Nature has attempted his first painting after many years and he did a super job, I love it!
Tom at Monarch's Nature, takes breathtaking photos which is artwork in itself. It's too hard to pick a favorite, but I love his frost photos.
Jennifer at A Passion for Nature has been adding beautiful text to her photos, creating a wonderful piece of art.
Drowsey at DrowseyMonkey has pick up her artistic skills after many years also, such great talent cannot be left unused!
I'm happy to see talent not waisted! I encourage everyone who has had a love for art in their younger days to polish off the brushes and develop your skills where you left off. Don't worry, It's not as hard as you think!
