Plein air pastel painting of a house and rolling lawn in late autumn.

Pastel painting 10 inches x 8 inches       $200

Please contact me if you are interested in similar artwork.

I was sure that my plein air days were over for this year but it looks like we will have another nice weekend. I’m planning to go out somewhere exotic for a long session tomorrow but this afternoon I found time to do a pastel landscape painting right from my own backyard.  Almost all the trees are bare but there are a few colorful leaves holding on.

I broke down and bought MORE pastels. Its like a sickness. I have to try all the brands and their different colors. This time I purchased a bunch of Great American pastels in shades that were not already in my collection. I had heard they had a wonderful creamy texture and they do! Its like painting with butter! I swear I am going to produce a cool tshirt that says, in huge letters: “Whoever dies with the most pastels wins.”!

Support a local artist in your community: Give original art for your holiday gifts this year!

Plein air pastel landscape painting of an old farm in Michigan

Pastel painting 8.5 inches x 11 inches   $200

Please contact me if you are interested in similar artwork.

It was a beautiful and sunny on Saturday, so i wandered the dirt roads west of our home looking for a likely subject to paint. I did this pastel landscape sitting under a shade tree on Lindeman Road. The gorgeous old farmhouse looked like it had been build in the mid 1800’s but was beautifully kept up with loving care. Even the crops looked neat.

Plein air pastel painting of a farm and golden field

Pastel painting 11 inches x 5.5 inches   $200

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This is another pastel landscape of the same farm in my last post. Completely different view and format. I spend so much time driving around trying to find the “perfect” scene, but this just goes to show that you can sit yourself on one acre of land and make multiple paintings of the same subject.

I really love doing these types of house portraits and have done quite a few commissions for people who want to have their homes made into pieces of art that they can keep forever. If you, or someone you know would like a similar keepsake, contact me at:

jill@jillwagner art.com

Pastel plein air landscape painting of an old farmstead

Pastel painting 11 inches x 8.5 inches $200

Please contact me if you are interested in similar artwork.

This beautiful old farmstead sits right in the middle of a whole gaggle of subdivisions. It seems to be holding on to its proud farming tradition and had a certain spunky diginity to it. I hadn’t captured it in my watercolor farmscape series yet so I thought I’d give it a try in pastel. While I was painting, the one and only policeman in our township stopped by and sternly asked me what I was doing. I must have looked pretty darn suspicious there, sitting on the side of the road– with my pastels….

Pastel painting of an old farmstead covered in snow.

Pastel painting 10 inches x 10 inches $450

Please contact me if you are interested in similar artwork.

OK. I lied. One more of my new winter pastel paintings. This old farmstead down the road from our house looks gorgeous in the winter sunlight…but not so much in the spring and summer. So I decided to paint it one more time before all the snow melted.

My new absolute favorite pastel paper is Kitty Wallis Belgium Mist. It has a wonderful sandy texture and a warm grey tint that takes pastels beautifully. I also do a lot of my work on Art Spectrum paper–especially Terra Cotta. The warm rust color is a great background for landscapes and florals that are heavy in green tones.

Pastel Painting of an old house and yard covered in snow

Pastel painting 10 inches x 10 inches
$450

Please contact me if you are interested in similar artwork.

The snow has melted for a spell here in southern Michigan. It feels almost like spring–but we experienced Michiganders know better.  We probably have multiple blizzards yet in our future.

I just finished this pastel painting of an old farmhouse down the street after the last big snow storm. I loved how the cool blue shadows played against the warm sunlight on the house. I am really liking experimenting with the small square format in my pastel landscapes….

Watercolor painting of an old log cabin.

Watercolor painting 11 inches x 4.5 inches $100 + shipping

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This is a quick plein air watercolor sketch of the old log cabin at the Toledo Botanical Gardens. I am an absolute sucker for historical settings so this really drew my attention when I went down last year to paint the fowers. It has a garden that is full of crops that the pioneers would have planted in the early 1800s. And the interior of the cabin is full of primitive, wooden furniture.

This landscape was painted on yupo, a plastic-like paper that doesn’t absorb liquid. All of the colors pool together and stay very vibrant on the top surface of the paper.

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!

Watercolor painting 9 inches x 6 inches $100 + shipping

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It was an absolutely beautiful weekend here so I HAD to go out and paint. Everytime I hit the back roads I think that it will be the last time of the season. This pretty farmstead was dripping in light and shadow-my favorite scenario. Roxy sat quietly next to me but suddenly started barking out of control. I looked up and a huge old cow was looking at her from across the road. It was her first time so close to a bovine and I think it freaked her out. With her herding heritage, you’d think she’d try to round it up, but noooooo……

Watercolor painting 9 inches x 4 inches $100 + shipping

Please contact me if you are interested in this artwork.

Sunday morning it was very foggy and grey and I seriously considered not dragging myself out to paint. I love light and shadow and there certainly wasn’t any of that happening out there. But I decided not to be a wimp. I wandered the countryside til I found this neat old place nestled in a hill on a dirt road. Roxy sat with me out in a wet field while I painted.  It was so damp that the watercolor would not dry on the paper! Such is the life of a farm-painting gal!

Watercolor painting 8 inches x 5 inches $100 + shipping

Please contact me if you are interested in this artwork.

This is a watercolor painting of one of the beautiful old houses on our hometown main street. I love this old Victorian home and have also painted a large pastel of just the front porch called Golden Light. The original is still for sale and giclee prints are also available. This old architecture reminds me of a simpler, slower pace of life.

Watercolor painting 8 inches x 5 inches $100 + shipping

Please contact me if you are interested in this artwork.

I saw this flag flapping in breeze in front of an old farmhouse today. I sat in the shade under a huge old oak tree with Roxy at my side. Halfway through the painting, the owner came by and gave me a little background about the area. He told me that this farmhouse, built in 1906, is the second one on this plot of land. The original home was built in the 1840s on 180 acres. Now there is only a crumbling rock foundation left to mark the spot where the pioneer German family homesteaded.

I just love learning the history behind these old places!