Plein air pastel painting of a winding, colorful river in Bellaire, Michigan

Pastel painting 8 inches x 11 inches

The last of my pastel landscapes from Northern Michigan. I stopped in Bellaire, at an old dam site, and saw this beautiful river scene. Like many other plein air pastel painters I’m a sucker for dramatic water views. But they can be somewhat difficult to capture on paper. The light and shadows on the water are constantly changing and creating interesting areas to paint. I find that if I stare at the scene for a bit and solidify in my mind what really attracted me to the view, I have a better chance of succeeding. In this case, the striations of color rippling through the water really stood out for me…

The Ann Arbor Women Artists have a wonderful exhibit showing now at the Riverside Arts Center in Ypsilanti, Michigan. I was honored to have 2 pieces accepted. The artist reception is July 9th from 7-9pm. Please stop by if you can!

Pastel painting 17 inches x 11 inches     $650

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Another pastel painting from right here in Saline. This creek is just off the main road going into town. And let me tell ya, I almost got run over while shooting my reference shots from the tiny bridge! (I can see the headline in our local paper: Pastel Artist Expires Shooting Precarious Photographs…) But I just had to do it. The reflections were so beautiful, especially in contrast to the bright snow on the rim of the river. I took about 20 photos and cropped and revised the composition until it felt right for the pastel landscape I had in mind. I’m really happy with the results!

Pastel landscape painting of Mill Creek in Saline, Michigan

Pastel painting 11 inches x 17 inches     $650

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Back from a wonderful trip down south. A little cold and windy but MUCH better than the bitter cold in Michigan right now. I painted a lot of plein air pastel paintings in Florida over the last week and will post them soon.

I finished this pastel landscape just before we left on our trip. Mill Creek wanders through Saline and the city’s parks. In this piece I wanted to capture the contrast between the light-filled, early morning mist and the vibrant patch of sunlight in the foreground.

Pastel landscape painting of a creek in winter.

Pastel painting 11 inches x 17 inches     $650

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OK. I think I’ve crossed over into obsession. I LOVE the little creeks that wander through the countryside in southern Michigan. You can drive right by them and never notice them. But not me. Each time I see a little sparkle on the side of the road, I have to stop and investigate. Sometimes they are a wash, but often they are little gems waiting to be made into pastel landscape paintings. I must have driven by this little trickle a hundred times on the way to my sister Beth’s house. Last week, I finally stopped and photographed it.

I must say, as much as I hate winter, I’m really enjoying painting the season…

Pastel landscape painting of a wandering creek in a grassy field in Michigan.

Pastel painting 11 inches x 14 inches    SOLD

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A couple of weeks ago, I found this small, meandering little creek while I was out walking. It just called out to be captured on paper.

I’m really excited about the pastel landscape painting of it that I finished last night. It closely approaches the original vision I had of the piece when I started out. Sometimes I have a very strong idea of how I want a completed artwork to look and yet it comes out totally different. Sometimes my ideas change midstream and I spark off that, other times I just can’t reach the original dream and have to hope for a better outcome on the next piece. On this pastel, I feel that all my artistic intuitions “played well together” and we came to a good conclusion!

Pastel painting of rocks and reflections in a Michigan river

Pastel painting 12.5 inches x 25.5 inches   $850

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This is my 27th RiverStone pastel painting. I keep coming back to this subject because it speaks to me in a very special way. I originally started this series because my art mentor, Mary Beth Koeze, suggested that I paint one subject over and over, and that I “paint bigger.” These scenes speak to me of a quiet moment in time, away from the hub bub of everyday life. They become almost abstract in their composition, yet I think each one of these pastel paintings has its own, unique personality. The series has been very popular with corporate art clients, especially health care institutions.

Pastel landscape painting of a creek in the woods of Northern Michigan.

Pastel painting 10 inches x 10 inches   $450

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I am  really excited about this recent pastel landscape. I feel like I loosened up and approached the style that I really want to work in.  I feel like I finally dropped the worthless details and concentrated on the color, composition and, of course, THE LIGHT AND SHADOWS. It seems like it would be easy to recreate this feeling every time, but once I get going I get caught up in minutiae and then…..

This beautiful little river is near Harbor Springs, in the woods at Pond Hill Farm. The farm was one of the nature conservancy areas that I painted for Tvedten Fine Art ‘s plein air charity paint out. The bugs were crazy so I couldn’t paint this scene on site, but I took hundreds of photos and used several for reference for this piece.

Plein air pastel landscape of meadows near a wetland in spring

Pastel painting 9 inches x 6 inches $100

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This is my second plein air pastel landscape from this weekend’s outing. Everything in southern Michigan has turned green and lush at last! I took a lot of photos when I was out so I could paint more Treescape pastels in the studio when we get our traditional rainy spring days.

Plein air pastel painting of a wetland creek in early spring

Pastel painting 6 inches x 9.25 inches $100

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Ah…the trials and tribulations of a plein air painter….

I went out Saturday looking for farms to paint and was waylaid by a beautiful wetland area just springing to life. I set up my pastels and new ShadeBuddy umbrella in front of this languid stream and went to work. About half way thru, a huge gust of wind came up and catapulted my umbrella 30 feet into the nearby swamp. I waded in up to my ankles and couldn’t reach it so finally had to walk about a mile around on “no trespassing” land to fish it out. I’m sure the passers by where laughing their dungarees off, but I wasn’t givng up my new purchase!

But in the end, I was very happy with the outcome of this pastel landscape. It really captures the colors and atmosphere of the scene.

Pastel painting of a rushing river

Pastel painting 12.5 inches x 25.5 inches SOLD

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Another in my continuing RiverStone pastel series–but this seemed to take a bit of a different turn than the others. Its inspired by the rushing waters in Montana’s creeks in the spring after the winter thaw. But it also reminds me of northern Michigan rivers. Bright, crisp and clean. I’m currently working on some new floral pastels, this time inspired by our own back yard treasures!