Pastel landscape painting of a Italian farm in the rolling hills of Tuscany.

Pastel painting    24  inches x 36 inches  SOLD (Giclees are available)

This is one of my favorite pastel paintings and is the signature piece for my upcoming show. It is very large, by my standards, but it is also very personal piece for me.

Mary Beth Koeze was a good friend of mine and a wonderful art mentor to me. She encouraged me to get back to my art and to always push harder. One of her many words of wisdom to me was “Paint bigger.” Along with our friend Cecily, we painted in Tuscany for 3 weeks, traipsing the countryside, soaking up the scenery. When she passed away recently, I was given some of her really large pastel boards. When I got the nerve up to create this piece on one of those boards, I realized that, for many reasons, it had to be titled “Mary Beth’s Tuscany.”

“Faraway Places: history, objects, spirit & spaces”
Nov. 5th – Dec. 18, 2011
Reception: Nov. 5th 5-8pm
River Gallery, 120 S. Main St., Chelsea MI
www.chelsearivergallery.com

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Art Spectrum Colorfix MultiMedia Painting Board
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Plein air watercolor landscape painting of an old wall in an olive orchard in Italy.

Plein air watercolor painting   10  inches x 7  inches   $150

I’ve done quite a few pastel and watercolor paintings of this view in the olive orchard near La Romita. The light and the scene itself seemed to change completely depending on the time of day. I believe this one was done in the late morning. Below is another version of the same place, from a little farther back, that I did in pastel. This painting was done from a late afternoon photo reference and will be in my upcoming exhibit. I’ve noticed that all of my paintings of Italy seem to be in the same color palette, no matter what the medium…

The top artwork was created with:
Paper: Saunders Waterford Watercolor Paper
Medium: DaVinci Watercolors

The bottom artwork was created with:
Paper: Illustration board with Terra Cotta Art Spectrum Primer
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Plein air gouache landscape painting of sheds at an Italian Monastery.

Plein air gouache painting   6.25 inches x 9.55 inches  $150

This painting is another experiment with gouache, an opaque watercolor medium, on Yupo paper. I brought a small set of gouache paints with me when I went to Umbria last year, but only did a few paintings of Italy with them. This little scene is in the back of the monastery where we made our home base.

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Yupo
Medium: Winsor & Newton’s Designer Gouache

Oh. My. God.

I thought I would NEVER finish framing paintings of Italy.

But at 2:27pm today, I did.

25 large pastels and 16 watercolors. Aaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!

“Faraway Places: history, objects, spirit & spaces”
Nov. 5th – Dec. 18, 2011
Reception: Nov. 5th   5-8pm
River Gallery, 120 S. Main St., Chelsea MI

http://www.chelsearivergallery.com

Plein air watercolor sketch of the Victor Emmanuel Monument in Rome, Italy

Plein air watercolor sketch of the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

Plein air watercolor sketches   4.5  inches x 6 inches

I spent a few days in Rome after my workshop at La Romita School of Art. I was busy revisiting a lot of the sites I had seen in the past and didn’t have time to do finished watercolor paintings. But I did shoot a lot of photos and did little (very rough!) watercolor sketches to capture light and color for later works in my studio. I had a killer cold (as I do again today!) but still wanted to get as much reference as I could for future paintings of Italy

I’m just about done framing over 40 pastel and watercolor paintings for my upcoming exhibit. If you are in the area, I hope you can stop by!

“Faraway Places: history, objects, spirit & spaces”
Nov. 5th – Dec. 18, 2011
Reception: Nov. 5th 5-8pm
River Gallery, 120 S. Main St., Chelsea MI
www.chelsearivergallery.com

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Saunders Waterford Watercolor Paper
Medium: DaVinci Watercolors

Plein air watercolor landscape painting of the Italian hill town of San Gemini

Plein air watercolor painting   6.5  inches x 10.5 inches   $150

Many of the hill towns of Italy are perched precariously on the edges of mini-mountains in the rolling Umbrian landscape. When they were built centuries ago, these castle-like cities were the first line of defense against the town’s enemies. You can see for miles and miles from almost any point on the ancient walls. It is totally breathtaking. For this watercolor painting, I sat on an adjacent hill and painted San Gemini’s outer structure, with the small farms and villas in the distance. This painting of Italy will always remind me of the unbelievable beauty of the country of my heritage…

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Saunders Waterford Watercolor Paper
Medium: DaVinci Watercolors

Plein air pastel landscape painting of light streaming through a line of trees near a garden.

Pastel painting 9 inches x 12 inches

Our last garden to paint for the Ann Arbor Garden Walk is just down the street from my house. Last weekend I took a break from framing to do a quick pastel landscape of it. I started with a watercolor underpainting using the technique that Marla Bagetta had taught us at her workshop in Ann Arbor this summer. The scene actually included a bee house and several urns. The original plein air painting included them but I felt they made the composition too busy and decided to eliminate them in the final version.

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Kitty Wallis White Pastel Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Plein air watercolor landscape of a fountain in the main square of a small Italian hill town.

Plein air watercolor painting   6.5  inches x 10.5 inches   $150

Every little town in Italy has a main square with a fountain where the locals gather to relax, play with their children and chat with their neighbors. In the evening, everyone strolls with their family and friends, usually ending up in this central spot. It is such a wonderful, uniting experience which seems to have been lost in our frantic American lives. One day when the rest of our group was enjoying lunch in a nearby trattoria, I sat in the piazza and did a watercolor painting of a fairly simple (by Italian standards) fountain. What’s missing from this painting of Italy is the hundreds of school children I saw, running though the square, excited to get home and relish their big plate of pasta!

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Saunders Waterford Watercolor Paper
Medium: DaVinci Watercolors

Plein air watercolor landscape painting of a winding road in the Umbrian hills of Italy.

Plein air watercolor painting   9.5  inches x 13.5 inches   $300

Perched on our little hillside near Terni, we could view the Italian landscape rolling out into the distance.  This painting of Italy shows the winding road that leads up the 16th century monastery that was our home base. The buildings and surrounding olive orchards were purchased by an artist who has revamped La Romita into a wonderful place to take art workshops and experience the many hill towns in the area. Its been almost a year since my trip there and I am pining to return!

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Saunders Waterford Watercolor Paper
Medium: DaVinci Watercolors

Black and white pastel portrait of a woman.

Pastel painting 12 inches x 18 inches

Its been at lease a month since I have been to my figure drawing session. Between traveling, advertising work, family and framing for the upcoming show, I just haven’t been able to get it together to go to class. When I walked in today, I didn’t even know if I remembered how to draw! I decided to simplify and eliminate the color for this pastel portrait I’ve painted Misty once before, a couple of months ago. She is a great model and was kind enough to come visit us again. Below is my previous portrait of her…

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Canson Mi-Tients Steel Gray Paper
Medium: Black and White Rembrandt Pastels

Pastel landscape painting of an Italian vineyard.

Pastel painting 18  inches x 14 inches   $450

The vineyards seem to go on forever in Italy. I love making orchard paintings here in the states and I guess a grape vineyard is the Italian equivalent.

This pastel painting started out in a vertical format but I didn’t like what was going on in the top of the composition. I hemmed and hawed and finally chopped off half of the piece and reworked everything by adding additional layers of very soft pastels. That’s what I love about this medium, everything is changeable!

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Illustration board with Terra Cotta Art Spectrum Primer
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Plein air watercolor painting of potted flowers in an Italian courtyard

Plein air watercolor painting   6.5  inches x 10.5 inches   $150

One more watercolor painting of our lovely courtyard at the La Romita School of Art in Umbria. The Italians don’t fool around when it comes to flowers! Every doorstep, windowbox and courtyard overflows with color. Never thought I would go to Italy to make paintings of flowers but it almost can’t be avoided once you get there!

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Saunders Waterford Watercolor Paper
Medium: DaVinci Watercolors