Plein air pastel painting of an old caboose at a train station.

Pastel painting 8 inches x 11 inches

Whoa. Thatsa lotta color! I don’t seem to use much red in my paintings but I think I made up for it in this one! Maybe a bit too much…?

The plein air buddies hit the old train station in Saline a couple of weeks ago. It has been nicely cleaned up and made into a museum by the historical society in town. The vibrant red caboose parked on the tracks was hard to ignore. I started out doing watercolor paintings but experienced a bit of trouble so I switched over to pastel. I was feeling bold and dynamic that day, and I think this pastel painting proves it!

Pastel portrait painting of a woman in a red beret

Pastel painting 10 inches x15 inches   $300

Please contact me if you are interested in similar artwork.

One more pastel figure drawing from our session on Monday afternoon. I tried to incorporate what I learned in the workshop last weekend. I worked on seeing the warm and cool colors and creating a strong underlying structure. With the family “quilt” of watercolor paintings that I have been working on lately, I really feel buried in portraits. I am ready to move on to other projects for a while. I find it helpful to move back and forth between subjects. It keeps me looking closely and stops me from getting too complacent with a certain technique.