Calgary Parks

For me, one of the best things about Calgary is its parks. And I love painting them.
I plan to paint at least one park from every quadrant of the city. Here is the first batch, from the S.E. (2) and Center:

 "Beaver Dam Flats Wooden Bridge". Soft pastel on prepared surface. Private collection.

 "Up the path you go". Soft pastel on prepared surface. Private collection.

"Reader Rock Garden". Soft pastel on prepared surface. Private collection.

Isla Iguana I

Another Panama painting, this time Isla Iguana off the coast of Pedasi, on the Pacific side. A coral island with white beaches, birds, hermit crabs and, of course, iguanas. Lovely!
Pastel painting on PastelMat, 24 x 30 cm.

The lookout

During my latest vacation in Panama, I visited the coffee plantation called Finca Lerida, set in the mountains close to the town of Boquete. It has beautiful gardens and a secluded place to take it all in.
Pastel painting on PastelMat 24 x 30 cm

My first Winter scene

I am not a winter person, so I tend to shy away from painting it, but I decided to give it a try.
This is another small pastel painting (18 x 24 cm), painted on PastelMat.

A Little one

Untitled
Pastel painting on Pastelmat, 16 x 27 cm
Private collection

Down The Path

Down the Path
Pastel on PastelMat
28 x 22 cm

Fall fields

Almost abstract...

Fall fields
Pastel on Pastelmat - 22 x 29 cm

Back on track

It has been a while since my last post... I haven't been idle, simply dissatisfied with the quality of the photos I take of my work. After much investigating, trial and error I decided that (to quote one of my teachers) "a little bit of something is better than a whole lot of nothing" and to post the photos I have, even though they are not great. Keep in mind, then, that the originals are much better than the photos.
So, here we go...

Greek Village:
Pastel painting on Pastelmat; 38 x 28 cm

Italian Town

This is my first "big" painting, the largest I have worked on so far.

I have a fondness for medieval towns, they feel so "organic" to me. Spontaneous and unplanned, they grow out of the hillsides at a very human scale, that excludes cars and other modern contraptions. The narrow winding roads, made for people, carts, horses (and the occasional herd of sheep), and the houses that give them shape growing out of the ground at angles that make drawing perspective a nightmare.

I created this painting on PastelMat, using soft pastels. It measures 0.5m x 0.7m.

Underpainting with complementary colours

In this piece I started by using complementary colours throughout the whole painting, maintaining the values in the original reference photo (I used a black and white photocopy to help me see the values better).
So, the sky was different shades of orange, as was the water. The building was green, the shadows were yellow.

The white parts of the clouds were... white. White is not a color - it is light, it has no complementary. Black is not a colour - it is absence of light, it has no complementary either.
When I finished the complementary underpainting, it looked very "interesting", like a Mars landscape... (a "Marscape"?)
So I went back and applied the "real" colour on top, and voila! we are back on Earth - Peggy's Cove, to be precise.

Using complementary colours as an underpainting to a landscape theme adds luminosity to it.
It is painted on sandpaper with soft pastels and measures 0.3 x 0.46m.

Taking classes

There are many ways to learn to paint: from books, videos, regular classes, workshops, to name a few.
I find going to a regular pastel class very beneficial, for a number of reasons. One being that, since I already paid for it, I'm likely to attend and work hard. Another is the group environment, where you get to socialize with fellow students and learn from each other. The obvious one of having a teacher must not be forgotten. I am currently taking classes with Margaret Holland at the Calgary School of Art, and I'm very happy with her instruction.
I use all four aforementioned methods and enjoy them all.

This painting was part of a class project, were we all worked from the same photograph using the same paper (Canson Mi-Teintes). It was interesting to see the results - we each have our own style and the paintings looked very different from one another. Private collection.

Learning from the Masters - take 2

It is a good practise, encouraged in many art schools, to "transcribe" the work of Masters in order to learn from them. For the purpose of learning techniques it is not imperative that you copy the paintings exactly, but that you use the framework of a fully finished painting as a reference point for practising mark making with your pastels.
Van Gogh is one of my favourite painters, and I practise with his work often.
The objective is to develop confidence with the medium, practise techniques as you work, and above all to have fun!

Kinds of Pastels

The pigments used in making pastels are the same as the ones used in watercolour, acrylic or oil paints. What is different is the binder used in each case.
Oil pastels contain an oil based binder that makes them dense and greasy. The marks you make with oil pastels can be softened with turpentine. They come in strong colours of limited tone range, and they can be combined with dry pastel to create some interesting effects.

Wax pastels are similar to oil pastels but less moist, as the binder is waxy instead of oily. They can be dissolved with water to create washes for subtle colour mixes.

"Chalk" pastels are not really made of chalk but most often gum tragacanth, a binder used to thicken natural dyes for painting, printing and more. They come in different hardness (a pigment to binder relation) from hard (in sticks and pencil form) to soft (in stick and "pan" form).

There are several manufacturers of pastels and each has its own characteristics.
As an example: NuPastels are hard, Rembrandt are medium, Schminckes are soft and PanPastels ultra soft. You can purchase them in individual sticks and / or boxed sets. There are many brands to choose from, and it can sometimes feel overwhelming.

If you are just starting out, I would suggest you get 2 sets - 1 of hard pastels and 1 of soft ones. You can buy individual sticks as you see the need.

This piece, titled "Fall Colours" was painted on sandpaper using PanPastels and hard pastels. Private collection.

A bit about Pastels

Why do I love pastels?

I find pastels gratifying because of the immediacy of the results.
They are both a drawing and a painting medium and have most of the qualities of both; I can paint quickly and spontaneously, or take my time for more deliberate, detailed work.
No stretching / preparing papers or canvases, no waiting for paint to dry, no varnishing of the finished product to bring out the true colours.
They are economical to use, never dry out, they are easy to store and transport. They come in a great variety of colours and hardness, and they can be combined on the paper itself - no mixing necessary. As they are opaque, you can overpaint and rectify mistakes easily.

You can leave your work and come back to it when you are ready to continue, it will be exactly as you left it - no drying time or colour changes, no need to put things away when you have to take a break.

Although they are generally assumed to be safe and non-toxic - it is best not to breathe too much dust (use a paper face mask) and to wear latex gloves (or Artguard Barrier Cream) to prevent it from getting into your lungs or bloodstream through your hands.

This piece titled "Light House" was painted on 11" x 15" Canson watercolour paper using PanPastels, hard and soft pastels.

How it all begun

My very first piece in pastels - not a very good photo, I know, it is all I've got right now.

This is the piece that got me hooked on this medium. I was taking a drawing class at the Wildfrlower Art Center, and pastels was on the "menu". I started working on it and loved it! I was using the wrong type of paper, and maybe the wrong tipe of pastels, but I didn't care... I was having a blast!

The painting was made using Faber-Castell Polychromos hard pastels on Strathmore 14" x 17" paper.

This piece is not available for sale as it belongs to a private collector.