Pastels with Grunt

I enjoys using pastels for portraits, particularly of the doggy variety, but more of that in another post.  In the hope of injecting my work with a little extra umph, Mum and I did a course in Scotland, organised by the ebullient and talented Margaret Evans of Shinafoot Studios, led by Tony Allain.

Tony is a professional artist from New Zealand who paints spectacular pastel paintings with bold colours and energetic strokes.  I love his work, you can find his website here.

Being a naturally slow and careful worker this was a revelation to me, we produced 4 pieces each day (albeit that some of them could stand a little refinement) but the process was very informative.

Here are a few of the pastel paintings I did, I hope you will agree that they do have a little extra 'grunt'

This is one of my favourite locations on the River Rye, near Malton.  I have painted it in all seasons, and varying states of flood.  It is really hard to get to, I have to stand on a very busy road bridge to take photos, and haven't yet found a spot where I can actually paint plain air, so most of the series has been done in the studio.

This is a newly found location, near Nunnington.  I will definitely be going back there.

This was outside the studio at Unison Pastels in Northumberland (we did an extra day there with Tony later in the week).  It is unusual for me in that I did an on site sketch, then did the little painting from the sketch and memory, without using a photo reference.

These next two were done from reference photos from paintmyphoto.com which is a very useful reference photo resource to work from when I just want a practise subject.  I normal prefer to work from my own photos, but I didn't have anything suitable with me.

 I very much hope that the additional energy obvious in these small works will translate into other media that I use.  I have already done two new dog portraits that I am happy with with much livelier application.  More in my next post…



All these small works approx 10x8" Unison Pastels on Art Spectrum paper.

Can't do one without the other

Faith in pastel

This is Alyssa's little sister Faith, who is four now.  I couldn't do one without doing the other.  I now need a picture of their little brother Sam, who is equally as cute, but in a boyish sort of way, then I will have a full set.

Faith
Pastel on Ingres paper
21 x 28 cms

Painting faces

Alyssa in pastel

My mum has come to visit in the mountains.  It is very hot which makes painting at altitude very tiring so we have been sitting in the shade of the awning on our terrace painting faces.  

My favourite medium for these is pastel, and due to the small size of the works I find pastel pencils ideal.  My biggest problem is keeping the image fresh.  The temptation is to go back in again and again, perfecting, adjusting and generally fiddling.  

I like to be able to see the pastel strokes and the texture of the support, but I do like to get a decent likeness (for me it a portrait isn't worth it's weight in paper if it isn't recogniseable, although there is a huge gulf between being recogniseable and achieving a good likeness!

This is my niece Alyssa, my brother's eldest daughter, aged 7.  She lives in California and will make a perfect Prom Queen in due course.

Alyssa

Pastel on Ingres paper

21 x 28 cms

Another summer hamlet

This is the hamlet of Les Fontanettes, at around 1800m on the lower slopes of La Grande Casse. In the winter it is totally covered in snow, in fact I didn't even know it was there until the snow melted this spring. We spend the winter skiing quite happily over the roofs.
You can see the Aiguille de Vanoise peeping out, Grande Casse is behind that.
The cows are still out on the pastures, hence the posts down the sides of the track, but soon they will be taken down the mountain to their winter homes in sheds in the village.

Patel on Hermes sanded paper.
Approx 33x24 cms.

My work is always for sale.
If you are interested please email me.

Another chilly day

Another chilly day. I had Parsnip (our Jack Russell Terrier) with me and she shivered in the boot most of the day. I have a little hatchback, and if I park in the right direction I can sit in the boot and paint quite happily on my easel and box set up.

This is a view from the car park at the end of the road up towards Roc de la Peche, which is a refuge about 5 kms up into the mountains. It is not a hard walk, and the views and surroundings are well worth the effort. The refuge is open all year although in the snow you have to use snowshoes, and has a lovely restaurant, together with rooms and very good facilities.

The early snow sits well on the higher mountains and shimmers gently into the valleys below. At this high altitude (around 1800m) it lingers for days. There are glimpses of autumn but there are few deciduous trees at this level. Most of the colour is from stems and berries.
Despite the sunshine you need plenty layers.

Pastel on Hermes sanded paper
approx 36x24cms

My work is always for sale. If you are interested please email me.

My new set up

One thing that has hindered me from painting out with pastels in the past is how best to transport them.

I tried various boxes and small assortments but never had enough colours for what I wanted, or the boxes were inconvenient.

A month or so ago I bit the bullet and ordered a Heilman Backpack Box from the USA (on the recommendation of my good friend and excellent pastellist Margaret Evans. It arrived in remarkably good time (about 10 days) then I had the joy of loading it. I was amazed to get most of my stash of colours in, with a bit of careful packing.

This pic is my set up before I started the painting of Grande Casse that I put up earlier.
It is really sturdy, fits happily on top of my (fairly substantial) camera tripod, and the easel support is a great addition. I am really chuffed with it.

It has been up a couple of mountains with me already. I am still working on the minimal packing concept. Not a thing that comes naturally to me, but lugging kilos up high mountain tracks might be good for my weight but not my back.