Pastel cityscape painting of the corner of an old building in Umbria, Italy.

Pastel painting 19  inches x 9 inches

The subject matter of this pastel painting of Italy might have been found in any town in Europe. You can see beautiful, quality craftsmanship in these structures and also the years of careful maintenance and restoration. It seems to me that Europeans value their historical buildings more than we Americans do. Maybe we could take some cues from them and restore our older buildings instead of ripping them down just to replace them with steel and glass behemoths.

Ooops, sorry to get off on a rant…. I am really thankful for sooooo many things in my life! Hope everyone has a MAHVELOUS Thanksgiving!!

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

Plein air watercolor painting of a potted olive tree in an Italian courtyard.

Plein air watercolor painting   9.5  inches x 13.5 inches   $300

Late in the afternoon, after we had visited and painted the hill towns of Umbria, our group of artists would come back to the monastery for a siesta before dinner. Some of us would paint in the studio, an old chapel from the 1600s. I often wandered the grounds and worked outside, trying to capture the light that makes paintings of Italy so special. This little potted olive tree and dramatic, diagonal shadow in our courtyard caught my eye.

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

Pastel painting 14 inches x 24 inches $850  plus shipping

Please contact me if you are interested in this artwork.

MORE Hydrangeas! These Oak Leaf Hydrangeas are quickly becoming my favorite inspiration for floral paintings. I’ve had a really good response from both art lovers and galleries so I thought I would try a few more of them before I move on to other subjects. This pastel painting is done on a clay-colored paper. The color acts as an underpainting and, since a little peaks through the pastel, it unifies the whole piece and makes all the colors “bounce” a little. I love playing with the light filtering through the leaves!

Pastel painting 18 inches x 18 inches   SOLD (but giclees available)

Please contact me if you are interested in this artwork.

My friend Mary Beth Koeze has the most wonderful gardens and she is a fantastic pastel artist. So she has doubly inspired me! I took some reference photos of her Oak Leaf Hydrangeas this summer. I’ve been working on this pastel painting for a week or so and just finished it.

Its always a challenge to know when you should stop and not continue to overwork a painting with useless detail. I read an article about one artist who said your painting is usually finished when you think you are 80% done

I’m going to try and remember that….