Pastel painting commission of dowtown Saline, Michigan

Pastel painting 18 inches x 24 inches       SOLD

I was so honored when River Gallery notified me that the art consultants for the new wing of the Saint Joseph Mercy Saline Hospital wanted me to create a large pastel commission of downtown Saline. I shot a lot of photo references and we settled on this storefront scene of the area on South Ann Arbor Street. Its a quaint little row of antique stores, barber and coffee shops and always looks picture perfect. I like painting architecture and I LOVE painting local scenes so this was a dream come true! I’m in the process of framing it and when it is done it will hang in the new community room of the hospital.

Pastel painting of Angell Hall at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor

Pastel painting 5 inches x 7 inches $100 + shipping

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

Ann Arbor is full of beautiful architecture, much of it related to the University of Michigan.  One hot, sunny day last summer, I photographed this view of Angell Hall peeping through an umbrella of trees. I try not to recreate the “official-postcard” scenes of campus in my pastel paintings. In this small piece I wanted to simplify, simplify, simplify to capture only the essential elements of the scene.

Watercolor painting 5.5 inches x 7.5 inches $100 + shipping

Please contact me if you are interested in this artwork.

I forgot to post this last watercolor landscape from my visit to San Luis Rey Mission. I painted this study on traditional cold press paper, not the plastic-like yupo that I had used on the previous mission studies, so it has more of an evident texture. It is really interesting to use different types of paper and see how they effect the look of your watercolors.

For those who are interested….About .com explains the different types of watercolor papers this way:

1. Machine-made watercolor papers come in three surfaces: rough, hot-pressed or HP, and cold-pressed (or NOT).
2. Rough watercolor paper has a prominent tooth, or textured surface. This creates a grainy effect as pools of water collect in the indentations in the paper.
3. Hot-pressed watercolor paper has a fine-grained, smooth surface, with almost no tooth. Paint dries very quickly on it. This makes it ideal for large, even washes of color.
4. Cold-pressed watercolor paper has a slightly textured surface, somewhere in between rough and hot-pressed paper. It’s the paper used most often by watercolor artists.

Watercolor painting 9 inches x 6 inches $100 + shipping

Please contact me if you are interested in this artwork.

This is a quick plein air watercolor sketch of the entrance to the Mission San Luis Rey. I really wanted to paint in the interior courtyards, and while they would let me walk through them for the price of admission, if I wanted to paint them, I had to pay mucho bucks to join the “friends society”. I decided there was more than enough interesting architecture on the outside!

Watercolor painting 9.75 inches x 6.5 inches $100 + shipping

Please contact me if you are interested in this artwork.

I’m going off to exotic places to paint for the next week so I thought I’d post some watercolor landscape paintings that I have done on past trips. This bright little clapboard house hugged the train tracks in beautiful downtown Dillon, Montana. It refused to succumb to its dingy surroundings and the pride of ownership demanded attention!