Pastel painting of a blue chair in a garden.

Pastel paintings   5  inches x 7 inches

I had a touch of the flu last week and just didn’t have the strength to consider a large piece. But I was aching to paint in pastel! So I decided to work on a few “little gem” garden paintings. I like switching back and forth between large works and tiny ones. They each teach me something and inform the other. I gave myself an hour time limit on this one and managed to loosen up a bit.

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

Pastel landscape painting of a stone path in a garden.

Pastel painting 9 inches x 12 inches

I found this sweet little path at one of our garden sites and knew I wanted to capture it in a pastel landscape painting. I loved the way the dappled sunlight fell on the rocks and plants. Our garden painting group has already amassed quite a lovely series of images for our summer show. I have posted them on a Picasa website for viewing purposes. Check them out at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/108892146623391728929

Click on the album images and you will be able to see various artists’ paintings of each site. It is really interesting to see the different styles and views that each artist chose.

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Kitty Wallis White Pastel Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Pastel landscape painting of a path in the hills of Umbria, Italy.

Pastel painting     6  inches x 6 inches  SOLD

This little pastel painting of Italy is from the front of the La Romita monastery in Umbria. A wonderful, little bus would come and pick us up here every morning to take us out to exciting new explorations. Very good memories for me!

This year marks a real transition for me. After years of a fulfilling career in advertising, I have sold my agency to my partners and am moving on to become a full-time artist. I’ve reached some of my goals during these last 12 months, including winning an award in the Pastel Society of America Show, and organizing, painting and exhibiting over 45 paintings of Italy at a well attended show. (30 of the artworks are off to new homes!) But the best part of this journey for me is the process. I hope to spend many years painting en plein air and in the studio, stretching my skills and finding new joy in art.

During this holiday season, I reflect on how much I have to be thankful for in both my personal and my art life. I especially appreciate the people who take this journey with me and follow my blog. Thanks so much for your continued interest! Happy holidays and may you have wondrous and art-filled New Year!

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

Plein air watercolor landscape painting of a pathway behind a monastery in Umbria, Italy.

Plein air watercolor painting   10.5  inches x 6.5 inches    SOLD

We stayed in a wonderful old monastery during our workshop in Italy. The grounds surrounding the La Romita School of Art were almost as impressive as the little hill towns we visited every day. Instead of working in our chapel studio in the afternoon, I spent a lot of time wandering the paths and olive orchards nearby. I would find a view I liked, set up, paint a watercolor painting of Italy and then move on to the next interesting scene. Pure heaven…

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Saunders Waterford Watercolor Paper
Medium: DaVinci Watercolors

Plein air gouache landscape painting of sheds at an Italian Monastery.

Plein air gouache painting   6.25 inches x 9.55 inches  $150

This painting is another experiment with gouache, an opaque watercolor medium, on Yupo paper. I brought a small set of gouache paints with me when I went to Umbria last year, but only did a few paintings of Italy with them. This little scene is in the back of the monastery where we made our home base.

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Yupo
Medium: Winsor & Newton’s Designer Gouache

Plein air watercolor landscape painting of a roadside garden

Plein air watercolor painting   9.5 inches x 7 inches

We had a whole gaggle of plein air garden painters at another new site on Wednesday. It was a small area and we were all packed in, gabbing and painting. Pure heaven. This time I decided to switch back to watercolor landscapes. It was sunny and warm again so the colors dried quickly and kept their vibrant hues. I love watercolor painting in this type of weather! This site still had a lot of plants blooming so it was a perfect time to get in a couple more floral paintings. Every day that passes moves us closer to autumn…

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Saunders Waterford Watercolor Paper
Medium: DaVinci Watercolors

Plein air pastel painting of a stairway in a garden

Pastel painting 9 inches x 12 inches

We were given a new garden to paint last week and I stopped by about midday to check it out. It was a lovely home site deep in the woods and their stairway up to the house made a great subject for a garden pastel landscape. Unfortunately, Michigan is inundated with mosquitoes right now and it is downright treacherous to be out plein air painting. I managed to work for about an hour on this piece and was happy with the outcome!

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Kitty Wallis Belgian Mist Pastel Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Plein air pastel landscape painting of a flower urn along a garden path.

Pastel painting 9 inches x 12 inches

Another pastel garden painting! This property is amazing. It has every type of garden you can imagine. Formal shaded areas, large sunny meadows, wild flowers, wooded trails and creekbeds. Everything a Michigan plein air artist could hope for. I’ve painted on their beautiful grounds quite a few times and am starting to feel like one of the family. I always knock on the garden owner’s door to let them know I will be wandering their property. Its too creepy otherwise.

There was so many views to consider, it was almost overwhelming. I settled on this “small” scene since it was so hot and I knew I would not be able to take the heat for more than an hour or so. Plein air painting is not for sissies!

Plein air watercolor landscape painting of a garden path and potting shed.

Plein air watercolor painting   7 inches x 10.5 inches

Last week, my friend, Cecily, and I visited a beautiful garden at a home built in the mid 1850′s by President Millard Fillmore’s brother. The gardens had a wonderful old fashioned feel to them and complimented the old house perfectly.  It was extremely hot, but we planted ourselves in the shade and did a few plein air watercolor paintings. I also took a lot of reference photos of the many flower beds, trellises and out buildings for future pastel garden paintings to be done in my studio this winter.

Plein air pastel landscape painting of a small garden with path and birdhouse.

Pastel painting 5 inches x 7.5 inches   $100

Although I am still knee deep in Italian paintings for my upcoming show, I am starting another fun project. A group of 12 Michigan plein air artists will be visiting 6 gardens in the Ann Arbor area to photograph and paint this summer and fall and next spring. Then in June, during the Ann Arbor Garden Walk, we will exhibit and sell some of the work we’ve done over the last year.

I visited one of our sites the other day, in the blistering heat, and did this small plein air painting. I took lots of photos to work from in my studio during the freezing winter months.

Plein air pastel painting of a path in a park in Michigan with a bridge in the distance.

Pastel painting 12.75 inches x 5 inches

I painted this scene in Gallup Park in Ann Arbor a couple of weeks ago (right after I jumped into the lake to save my first plein air painting of the day). I have been challenging myself lately to stop looking for the “perfect” subject matter for my pastel landscapes, and just paint what i see in front of me. This is probably not the type of scene I would have searched for, but I am pleased with the results. If you’ve seen much of my work, you know I like to work with odd shaped compositions. This extreme horizontal worked well for a panoramic-type view.

Plein air pastel painting of a bird bath in a spring garden.

Pastel painting 8.5 inches x 11.5 inches

Didn’t have time today for a full painting foray in the big world so I decided to do a pastel landscape right in my own backyard. Our bleeding hearts are in full show and I liked how they looked behind our birdbath. People were cutting grass and sawing wood all around me so this garden painting is much more peaceful than the actual experience of creating it was!