Pastel painting of ripe pears on a tree in a fruit orchard.

Pastel paintings   18 inches x 26 inches

Yay! My first finished pastel painting for 2012! Much as love the holiday season, I am usually very happy to get back to my normal routine and spend time in my studio.

I’ve been working on more garden paintings and trying to incorporate them into some of my other current series. When I saw these luscious pears at one of our garden sites, I just knew they would work wonderfully in my Orchard Series. This is a pretty large piece, but I felt I needed to go big to capture the feeling of space and depth I was looking for.

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Burgundy Art Spectrum Pastel Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Pastel cityscape painting of a small street in Umbria, Italy. SOLD

Pastel painting of an extreme close up view of ripe apples on a tree.

Early Christmas Present!

I was notified last week that I had TWO pastel paintings juried into the International Association of Pastel Societies Exhibit. A real thrill and a great end to the year!

It’s an amazing exhibit filled with gorgeous artworks. You can see the full show here.

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

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

Pastel painting of an extreme close up of oranges on a tree in sunny Italy.

Pastel painting 28  inches x 14 inches

I’ve been talking about the pastel paintings I’ve been working on for my upcoming show at the River Gallery for months now, but haven’t posted any. Y’all probably don’t think they even exist. I thought I’d post one that I just finished last week as a little preview of the exhibition.

I’ve been working on a lot of paintings of Italian buildings and scenery but had the urge to explore some of the beautiful orange trees in the Umbrian region I visited last year. I especially wanted to capture the feeling of bright sunlight hitting the fruit. This piece is reminiscent of some of my earlier Orchard paintings but with a Mediterranean twist! The pebbly surface of the rust-colored primer I worked on, helped to give the texture that you see in the old stone wall.

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

Orchard 1 - Pastel painting of an extreme close up view of an apple tree in the fall.

Pastel painting 20 inches x 20 inches    SOLD   (but giclee prints are available)

I am sooooo excited! I just found out that one of my pastel orchard painting was accepted in the Pastel Society of America Exhibition. I’ve entered a few times, hoping to be part of this worldwide pastel experience, and am so honored to have an acceptance! Orchard 1 will be shown at the National Arts Club in New York City from September 6 – October 1, 2011. John and I are hoping to attend the Materials Fair and Awards Ceremony and Dinner.

With this acceptance, I will be able to apply for the use of the coveted “PSA” after my signature on all pastel paintings. (“Signature artist members are privileged to use the PSA initials after their name, a meaningful designation for the art community and for potential art buyers.”)  But that process may also include some rejections along the way. Just part of the ongoing art journey…

Pastel painting of a garden sculpture in the spring.

Pastel painting 10 inches x 13 inches

Wednesday was another day in the continuing saga of constant rain in Michigan. We were supposed to have a plein air meet that morning, but it was drizzling and I was the only one who showed up. I started this pastel painting of a statue in the park but the rain forced me back into the car twice. I finally left the garden painting unfinished and gave up for the day. Maybe I will try to work back into it on another day…

I’ve been working in the studio for months on pastel paintings from my last trip to Italy. Although I am keeping them under wraps til the show at River Gallery in Chelsea, Michigan in November and December, I thought I would post a work-in-progress demonstration of one of the the landscape paintings.

I started out by painting an archival illustration board with Art Spectrum Terra Cotta Pastel Primer. Its my favorite color to work from and painting the gritty surface on myself allows me to add a little texture. The random strokes of the pumice mixture creates high and low areas on the board and gives the pastel a more painterly feel when I apply it. I sketched my rough drawing in Nupastel bottle green and added other basic shapes in. Then I sprayed with a workable fixative.

Slowly adding more colors and elements with Nupastel and Rembrandt pastels. I usually don’t spray anymore after this point.

Really getting into the meat of the piece. Focusing on the center of interest, the highlighted tree and brick wall in the distance. As you can see, I work on all areas of the composition at the same time, as apposed to finishing one area completely and moving on to the next. I feel that the painting is a constant work in progress and every stroke affects the other areas.

Pushing both the lights and darks to create the vision I have in my mind. Although I start with a photograph for reference, the finished piece rarely looks like it. I also work from the memory of the place and what attracted me to it. This scene was behind the monastery where we stayed and I visited it often. The vibrant light in the shaded orchard was electrifying.

Last finishing touches. I often leave some of the Terra cotta color shining through in my pastel landscape paintings. The contrast of the complementary green and reddish orange makes for a vibrating exiting color scheme.

If you haven’t visited FineArtAmerica.com yet, you should give it a look. It’s a great website full of all types of art: photography, sculpture, paintings, drawings, ceramics, glass and more. There are thousands of artists represented, each with a unique outlook on art and life.

I recently posted some of my favorite paintings on the site and have made them available for purchase as originals or prints.  The print prices are very reasonable and the quality is excellent. Orders usually ship within 2 weeks. You can go to my page by clicking here or typing in Jill Stefani Wagner in the search box at FineArtAmerica.com.

In my area, you will find pages of watercolor and pastel paintings. Simply click on one and you will see the formats and sizes available: stretched canvas, framed and unframed prints, even note cards!

If you are looking for

Pastel painting of a close-up view of ripe apples on a tree in autumn.

Pastel painting 25.5 inches x 12.5 inches    $850   (Giclee prints are available)

Spent a bit of time in the studio this week to finish up a pastel painting that has been languishing on my easel for months. This is part of my Orchard Series that I started early this year.  I’ve finished 4 of them so far and am really happy with the results.

As some of you may already know, I am obsessed with what I call “micro landscapes”– extreme closeup views of various scenes in nature. (See my RiverStones and TreeScape Series) I like painting recognizable subjects that are cropped so tightly, they almost become abstract in composition. I hope to add 4 or 5 more paintings to the series this year. The first two will be exhibited in an exhibit at Tvedten Fine Art beginning in late July.

Pastel painting of an extreme close up of ripe apples on a tree in the fall.

Pastel painting 25.5 inches x 12.5 inches  $850   (Giclee prints are available)

Please contact me if you are interested in similar art work.

I’m continuing to work on my new series of orchard pastel paintings. Although I really enjoyed creating in a square format for the first two works, I felt that a horizontal composition might work better. I started with some photographs I had taken last fall. I cropped the image tightly in photoshop, added some apples, took out some leaves, and generally fussed with the elements till I felt that they made a pleasing composition. The color palette is very similar to the first paintings, but completely unlike the actual photo. I pushed the vibrancy in some areas and toned it down in others. I figure that photos are great for reference, but that I have no responsibility to copy them exactly…