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 landscape painting of sunlight shining through the woods.

Pastel paintings   12.5 inches x 25.5 inches each  $850   (giclee prints also available)

I’ve been painting and framing Italy paintings for so long that I started to miss working on some of my other series. For one of my first new works, I decided to delve back into my Treescape pastel paintings. This piece is hot off the easel! I’ve always loved the atmosphere and sparkling light in deep forests…it feels almost magical…and is an enticing challenge to capture in pigment on paper.

My Treescape series has been popular with both individuals and corporations–especially health care organizations. I’m not sure, but I think they have a soothing effect that is beneficial for both harried business people and worried patients. I love that fact that my art has a positive effect on people…. ahhhhh….!

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

Plein air watercolor landscape painting of the woods on a Montana ranch.

Plein air watercolor painting   6. 5 inches x 10 inches

When we were out west, we all stayed in cozy, lovely cabins situated in private wooded areas on the ranch. One afternoon, I sat on our deck  with a glass of wine and did a plein air watercolor painting of the pine trees near by.

Its hard to explain the solitude at Bonanza Creek. You can see for miles and miles– ranch land, cattle,  forests, sky and mountains. But you don’t see cities, houses, cars, traffic, planes or much “civilization” of any kind. It feels like what our country must have been like hundreds of years ago, before we filled every available space with stuff. It is unfamiliar and overwhelming at first. But once you’ve been there, you pine to return…

The cowgals

Pastel plein air landscape painting of the woods near the Raisin River in Saline, Michigan.

Pastel painting 8.5 inches x 11.5 inches

After painting the landscape at Weller’s that I posted a few days ago, I shifted my position and did a pastel drawing of the scene from a slightly different viewpoint. This scene incorporates more of the river and is in a vertical format. Same woods, rocks and tree but completely different effect.  Its amazing the number of compositions you can create from the same subject matter…

Plein air pastel landscape painting of the Raisin River behind Weller's in Saline, Michigan.

Pastel painting 13 inches x 5 inches

Both our Ann Arbor Women Artists and our Saline Plein Air Group meet throughout the spring, summer and fall at various beautiful spots in Southeast Michigan. I am so thankful for all the work the organizers do to make these outings possible. There’s nothing like working with fellow artists to improve your own skills. A couple of weeks ago we met at Weller’s in Saline. The sunlight streaming thru the woods by the river at the back of the property was electric and hard to ignore. Four of us set up on the lawn to capture the scene. I did a pastel landscape, and the other artists worked in various other mediums including watercolor, oil, and photography.

Just got back from a fantastic week at Bonanza Creek Ranch! I’ll post the few watercolors I managed to do between riding and pushing cattle in a couple of days. Right now, I’m working on re-entry…

Pastel painting 8.5 inches x 11.5 inches

This is the last painting I made in Harbor Springs when we were “up north.” I stopped on a quiet little dirt road far from the tourists when I saw the bright light filtering through the trees. There was NOBODY around. Halfway through the painting a car stopped and a couple stepped out to see my pastel landscape. We chatted for quite a while. Turns out the woman’s brother was a plein air artist –who died of Lyme’s disease! You would think being an artist is a poor-paying but relatively safe career. I guess not. I quickly applied another layer of bug repellant.

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

I have found a wonderful source for creating Giclee prints of my pastel paintings and am now offering a few of my favorite pieces for sale as reproductions. They have been purchased by quite a few health care organizations and other corporate entities to hang as art in their buildings. They are less expensive than purchasing original art and make wonderful gifts.

Wikipedia describes giclees as: Giclée (pronounced “zhee-clay”)  is an invented name for the process of making fine art prints from a digital source using ink-jet printing. The word “giclée” is derived from the French language word “le gicleur” meaning “nozzle”, or more specifically “gicler” meaning “to squirt, spurt, or spray”. It was coined in 1991 by, a printmaker working in the field, to represent any inkjet-based digital print used as fine art. The name was originally applied to fine art prints created on Iris printers in a process invented in the early 1990s but has since come to mean any high quality ink-jet print and is often used in galleries and print shops to denote such prints.

My Giclees are available in many subjects, sizes and formats and are ready to frame. Please take a look at my Giclee Gallery to see all of the prints that are now available.

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

Please contact me if you are interested in this or similar artwork.

I just put the finishing touches on this new pastel painting in my Treescape series. This old oak is down near the pond in our neighborhood. I always notice it when I walk along the water with Roxy, so, early one morning in August, I took a bunch of research photos. It is such an ancient, impressive specimen, I couldn’t resist callling it Forte!

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

Please contact me if you are interested in this artwork.

With fall colors starting to take over, I had to do one more summery piece. I just finished this 4th pastel painting in my Treescape series. I called it “Breeze” because it reminds me so much of the sunny day up north with the leaves rustling in the wind. We were up near Petoskey and Harbor Springs and I was struck by how clean and clear the colors were, especially the new leaves which had just come out.

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

Please contact me if you are interested in this artwork.

I think this is my favorite Treescape pastel painting so far. I really liked being able to capture the light filtering through the leaves of the tree. It has almost an abstract feel to it yet you know exactly what it is. This should be available at one of my galleries soon and I am working on a couple more in the series.

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

Please contact me if you are interested in this artwork.

I just finished this second pastel in my Treescape series and have a bunch more of them floating in my head. I really like the idea of exploring color and emotion using an everyday part of our landscape. I may be crazy but trees, in all their different positions, seem to be carrying on conversations…