Pastel painting with my nieces

Pastel on Board

5 x 7 inches

Just a quick little pastel sketch completed while hanging out with my nieces this weekend.  We pulled out the art supplies and PLAYED!

Illustration Friday - Space and the Everson's 60/60 Event

Blue Tree 2

9 x 12 inches

Pastel on Pastelboard

 

 As promised I am posting the artwork that I completed for the Everson Museum of Art's 60/60 event in Syracuse, NY.  Happily the image also worked pretty well for this weeks Illustration Friday topic.  I have painted this tree before in a much larger acrylic on canvas version, so I decided that I was comfortable enough with the image to feel like I could complete a smaller pastel version in a 60 minute time frame. I chose to use pastels so that I wouldn't have to worry about paint drying (or not drying) due to the weather and humidity.  I did take the risk of working with my brand spanking new set of Pan Pastels that I had purchased just that morning.  I have never used them before, and they are absolutely yummy.  They lay down intense color extremely well without using up the tooth of your surface and they blend beautifully.  I also used NuPastels by Prismacolor and a few Rembrandt soft pastels.  The finished painting was raffled off at the end of the event as part the museum fundraiser.

Even though the focal point of the image is the tree, it is its isolation in space that has always drawn me to it.  This is a tree that is in a field near my previous home in Texas.  I drove by it frequently and stopped to take pictures of it throughout every season of the year.  So not only have I photographed it repeatedly, but I also seem compelled to return to it as subject matter in my art.  I supposed it is a self portrait of sorts.  I'll let you sort out the psychological meaning of it all.  Below is the acrylic painting that I completed last year.

Blue Tree

36 x 48 inches

Acrylic on Canvas

Illustration Friday - Secret

Secrets

approximately 28 x 14 inches

mixed media on paper with digital editing

I have a fondness for images that leave a large amount of detail to the imagination.  They hold secrets that can only be whispered in the imagination.  This is a digital enhancement of a large mixed media drawing that I completed about October of last year.  Is there a secret between these girls, or the birds at their feet?  What are the untold details of story, time, and setting?  I feel like I could write a whole book based on this image alone, but I think I will keep it a secret. :)

On a less secretive note: the move from Texas to New York has gone relatively smoothly.  I completed my Masters of Art in Art Education degree in May, and am now in a full swing job hunt for a new teaching gig in NY.  I am just beginning to find time to create some new work, and to dip my toes in the Central New York art scene.  Next Friday I will be participating in an event called 60/60 at the Everson Art Museum in Syracuse.  Sixty artists will create sixty individual works of arts in a 60 minute time period.  The artworks will then be raffled off as a fund raiser for the museum. I am looking forward to the event but I am also a little nervous about completing a finished work in such a short time period. I plan to spend much of this coming week prepping as much as possible and solidifying an idea for the composition.  I'll be sure to post a picture of the finished piece after the event next week

Illustration Friday - Return

Balance 4

acrylic and mixed media collage on canvas

48 x 36 inches

A return to Illustration Friday after a somewhat lengthy absence.  A return to and overdue completion of another piece in my "Balance" series.  In a little over a week I will return to my beloved Texas for my Master of Arts in Art Education final exhibit and presentation at Stephen F Austin State University.  It is a return for me because in the course of this semester I have managed to sell my house and farm in East Texas and move to the charming village of Baldwinsville in Upstate New York.  Big changes all around!