Forest Walk Pastel Landscape 8x10

'Deep Dark Woods' 8x10 pastel

Walking in the woods of Yellowstone very late in the afternoon was a bit unnerving especially since we had just heard about the Grizzly Bear attack that had ocurred the day before. But we wanted to walk to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone from our lodge room and we figured we had enough daylight. What we didn't figure was how dark it was deep in the woods. The only light we had were the beams of the setting sun as they made trails of light across the forest floor. So we sang and chatted and jingled our Bear Bell and we got to the other side of the woods without seeing a bear!

Diane Townsend Metallic Pastels

'Barn Trees III' 12x12 pastel

My challenge was to do a painting only using metallic or iridescent pastels. I used my set of 12 Diane Townsend Metallics. I love these pastels! Normally when I use a metallic pastel I will only use it for an accent so it was different to use them for the whole painting. The photo doesn't really show off the metallic glow. I first did an underpainting with gouache so I had a nice rich base to paint on. This was a fun experiment!

Cottonwood Trees Plein Air Painting

'Three Friends' 5x7 pastel

Today I'd like to share another one of my plein air paintings from my trip out west. I call this one 'Three Friends' in honor of my fellow VIP travelers Jayne and Holly. Marsha, you were right about this one! These trees could be seen from our deck on the ranch. I just remember being very hot. I wish I had my umbrella for that trip!
This painting and more from my trip are available from my sale page. Email me at kemstudios@yahoo.com if interested.

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Price: $45 USD
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Poppy Power!

'Poppy Power' 8x10 pastel shown with 3 mini poppy paintings each 2.5 x 3.5

A fun time in the studio today painting these poppies. I saw these pretty poppies in a garden in Crested Butte Colorado. They had more varieties of poppies in the garden than I had ever seen...including huge pale pink poppies that I want to paint some day.

I have also been working on a new blog for my sister and me. We have a little ebay store where we are selling the interesting stuff we find on our shopping adventures . We love poking around thrift stores and estate sales and we have had some great laughs. I thought it would be fun to document and share our adventures. You can read all about it on the new blog at www.recyclesisters.blogspot.com

Miniature Pastel Landscapes

I didn't have a chance to paint today but I have some ideas simmering. I am sharing a couple of my mini landscapes. They are 2.5 x 3.5 inches and they are based on photos I took in Yankee Boy Basin in Ouray Colorado. They are available this week by ebay auction here.

Grand Teton Wildflowers 18x24

'A Promise of a Beautiful Day' 18x24 pastel

Here is the finished Grand Teton wildflower painting. If you have been following my progress with this painting on my blog, I worked on it last night in my Back to Basics class. We have been working for the past 3 weeks planning a large painting. Most of my students haven't painted lareger than 11x14 so this was a bit intimidating to go large. I am proud to say that everyone did a fantastic job so hopefully they will be encouraged to paint more big paintings!

Color Studies for Larger Painting

Last week in my Back to Basics class we continued with our plans for doing a large pastel painting. The first week we worked out thumbnail and value sketches and last week we talked about color. We used our reference photo and tried four different color schemes. It was a fun exercise and hopefully was helpful in planning our paintings.

Playing with the Landscape

'Ranch Evening' 12x12 pastel

Today was playtime in the studio. I painted 4 versions of this scene and I have 2 more in the works. In each one I tried different ideas to break away from my usual approach and to have some fun. For this one I did a bold underpainting with Cretacolor pure pigments. Next week I begin my monthly Pastel Master Class and our focus for the first class will be playing with the landscape and trying techniques to help make an ordinary reference photo into an interesting painting. I can't wait!

Raven Studies 2.5 x 3.5 pastels

I did these little studies for possible larger raven paintings. I have many reference photos of 'our' raven...the one we saw in Grand Teton National Park....and I want to paint the many poses he gave us. These studies are just 2.5 x 3.5 but they seem so much bigger somehow. You can see that I am in a playful mood with color these days!

Something Sweet Today....Cupcake Paintings!

I just felt like having fun today with painting some cupcakes. These cupcakes have been on my mind for awhile and I had a lot of fun putting them down on paper! Each one is just a mini at 2.5 x 3.5 inches. I put them together in a Picasa collage but they would be fun to have them matted and framed this way.

River Wildflowers Plein Air

'Riverside Beauty' 8x10 pastel

This was the last of my plein air paintings from last week's Chattahoochee River Paint-out. I spotted these little wildflowers down by the river bank after I had packed up my easel. So I took my box of pastels and some paper and sat down in the grass and painted the flowers. I had to be quick because at this point it was in the upper 90's in full sun and I was so hot! So this paintng is my quick impression of the flowers!

Two Poppies Pastel Painting

'Simply Poppies' 5x7 pastels

Time for a new poppy painting! These two huge poppies were in a garden in Crested Butte Colorado. They were the size of a salad plate! I tinted my paper with thin black acrylic paint which makes the colors even more vibrant.

Western Ranch Plein Air

'Early Morning on the Ranch' 5x7 pastel

I'd like to share another one of my plein air paintings from my July trip out west. This was the view across the road form where we stayed. It is hard to tell in the photo but I used some iridescent pastels in the field. I didn't know they were iridescent until I used them but I like the effect. I have more plein air paintings available for sale. Here is the link to the sale page if you'd like a closer look.

This Week's Small Paintings 2.5 x 3.5

I am back to painting my small aceo size paintings and this is a selection of this weeks paintings available by ebay auction. These little ones are so much fun to paint. They are perfect to do when I don't have enough time to work on larger paintings and I learn so much working small.

The top painitng is called 'Taos Poppies' . If you'd like a closer look or would like to bid on this pianting or see the others....here is the link to my ebay store.

Aspen Trees & Sage in the Morning Mist

'Aspens in the Mist' 9x12 pastel

In keeping with my Aspen theme, my painting today is a more moody piece. I came across these aspens in Grand Teton National Park. It was early morning after a storm and the mist was thick. I loved all the soft colors in the sky and the greens in the sagebrush. It was a great combination. This same scene looked totally different the next day in the bright sunlight.

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Price: $145 USD
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Aspen Grove Colorado Painting

'The Woods Walk' 11x14 pastel

I had a nice quiet day in the studio and got to paint. It was nice to put everything else on the back burner and just enjoy painting. I have over 5000 reference photos from my trip but this one called out to be painted today. I love aspen trees and saw these on the Wood's Walk in Crested Butte, Colorado. It was an easy stroll through wildflower meadows and aspen groves...just perfect!

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Price: $175 USD
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Loosen Up....One Step at a Time

This is the theme for this month's Back to Basics Pastel Class. I am often asked how to achieve a loose painterly look with pastels and is my belief that it actually comes more easily if you have a plan for your painting. That way you can get in your zone and just paint....responding to your painting intuitively. In my classes we often talk about planning the painting by doing thumbnails and value studies, but too often we don't follow through and actually do them! So for this 4 week session we are breaking down the process one step at a time. Last week we chose our reference photos and came up with our concept for the painting. We did several thumbnail sketches and chose our favorites. From this sketch we then did a small value study with markers. Finally we did a pastel monochromatic value study to check our final composition and design. I made a Planning Worksheet to use for these planning steps. It really doesn't take much time to do. I did mine in about 20 minutes but Hopefully it will allow me to paint 'in the zone' because I have already worked out any potential issues. This week we will focus on COLOR and we will be doing color studies from our reference photos. I'll post mine after class meets tomorrow.

Today's Demo Painting

'Mountain Meadows' 8x10 pastel

Today's painting is the demo I did this morning for a new student. I am always happy to introduce an artist to pastels. It is my goal to help those who want to explore this wonderful medium to get a good start in the basics of pastels. We spent the morning learning about the tools of the trade, ways to apply pastels and finally a demonstration of one way to start a pastel painting. There is so much more of course but she is coming back!

NEW CLASS SCHEDULE

If you are in the Atlanta, Georgia area, I'd love to share my passion with you. I have posted my class and mini workshop for Fall 2010. Here is a link. Send me an email at kemstudios@yahoo.com if you would like more information.

Chattahoochee Pink Plein Air

'Chattahoochee Pink' 8x10 pastel

Here is another plein air pastel I did at this week's paint out. I am happy to share that my friend Marsha Savage won First Place for her pastel. I am very excited for her. It was a well deserved award for a beautiful painting. I had a good time at the paint out even though it was brutaly hot. My umbrella really saved the day. Next year the paint out will be in October!

Raven Pastel Painting

'Raven Heart' 11x14 pastel

This one was hard to photograph! The orange is a bit deeper in real life. I am planning on doing a series of raven paintings and this is my first. I finally got enough reference photos on my trip. We fell in love with this raven in the Willow Flats Overlook parking lot in Grand Teton National Park. He hung out there looking for handouts and we took many photos of him. We had been on a raven 'hunt' since last year in New Mexico and never managed to get this close. We don't have ravens here in Georgia so this was a treat for us. This painting is 11x14 on LaCarte paper.

Plein Air Painting Sale

I wanted to share a slide show of the plein air paintings I did on my recent trip to Jackson Hole. They are available for the sale price of $45 for a 5x7 and $75 for an 8x10. Send me an email at kemstudios@yahoo.com for more information or to arrange a purchase.

Plein air painting from the Chattahoochee River Paint Out

'Morning Mist' 8x10 pastel

I arrived at the river to paint around 8:00am. I was excited to discover a mysterious mist rising from the river. It pushed up behind the trees and was illuminated from behind by the rising sun. I quickly set up my easel so I could try to capture the rising mist before it was gone.

Where the Buffalo Roam...Plein Air in Jackson Hole

'Late Afternoon Light' 8x10 pastel

This was the view from our cabin at the Moulton Ranch in the Grand Teton National Park. Every morning the bison would parade past the ranch and sometimes they would wander back in the afternoon. They were grazing in the distance as I painted this so I put them in. I do need to paint some close-up views of the bison. They were awesome!
This painting as well as my other plein air paintings from Jackson are available on sale for $45 for 5x7's and $75 for the 8x10's. Click on the SALE tab at the top of the page to see all of the paintings.

Plein Air Painting Sale

I am offering a sale on the plein air paintings I did while on my trip out west. They were all done on location in Grand Teton National Park or at Moulton Ranch. I consider these paintings studies because they are done quickly. My goal is to capture the mood and the light in the scene. Even though they are studies, I like them just as much as my studio work because they truly capture the colors and feeling of the scene. I would love for these paintings to have good homes and they are available for $75 each for the 8x10's and $45 each for the 5x7's. Click on the slideshow to see more details in the paintings. Send me an email at kemstudios@yahoo.com if you have any questions!

Dragonfly Plein Air Painting

'Jewel of the River' 8x10 pastel

Today at the paint out I did 6 paintings and this is one of them. I first painted the vista of the river and the trees but then as usual I was drawn to the more intimate scenes in the landscape like this dragonfly in the grasses by the river. There were a lot of these very striking black and white dragonflies. They are Common White Tails but they sure don't look common to me! This one actually perched long enough for me to get a good look and paint him! I can't paint tomorrow because it is move-in day for my daughter's college dorm but I will go back Friday to paint some more.

My New Plein Air Umbrella by Best Brella!

I am participating this week in the Great Chattahoochee River Paint Out and thankfully I got my new umbrella in time. It was so hot and sunny today and I wouldn't have been able to be out there in the sun without the umbrella. I have to give a plug for the Best Brella. It was so easy to set up and adjust. I was able to keep adjusting the angle as the sun moved keeping my set up and me in the shade! This was a test for my plein air set up that I am bringing to the Richard McKinley workshop next month. I am using an Easy-L easel on my old Bogen tripod. I have a small box of pastels in the tray but I can use my Heilman box if I bungee it to the tray. I was in too much of a rush this morning to fuss with it! It all worked great now I just need to get it all out to California!

Jenny Lake Grand Teton National Park Painting

'Glow on the Lake' 16x20 pastel

For this painting I did an underpainting using Cretacolor Pure Pigments to do a wash. The colors were much more vibrant and intense than watercolor and I was excited by the cool drips in the underpainting. This was a scene I saw on a hike at Jenny Lake.....this was the same hike that I saw the BEAR but that is another story! It was very late afternoon and at one point I looked across the lake and the trees were just glowing with this yellow light....everything else was dark. It was an awesome sight!

New ACEO Mini Pastel Paintings

I have some new aceo size paintings to share. Each one is just 2.5 x 3.5 and they are available for auction in my Ebay store. I love doing these small paintings. It is actually very relaxing and a fun way to play with colors and composition. If you'd like a closer look, check them out here in my ebay store.

Wildflowers and Bees Pastel Painting

'Summer Song' 11x14 pastel

Can you spot the bumblebee in this painting? I call this one Summer Song because I can hear the buzzing of the insects and feel the summer warmth when I look at the painting. The little bee on the flower reminds me of the sounds of a warm summer day.

Mo the Cat of Moulton Ranch

'Mo' 5x7 pastel plein air

Mo was the ranch cat at the Moulton Ranch Cabins. His job was to keep the mice in check and while we were there he was showing off his skills! One afternoon he decided to take a rest next to me in the grass. I was painting in the shade of the cabin and Mo graced me with his presence long enough for me to paint his portrait.

Colorado Wildflowers 8x10 pastel

'Summer Hillside' 8x10 pastel

Here is my first painting done from my trip reference photos. On the long drive home we talked about what image we would choose to paint first. Holly had several paintings in mind and Jayne knew what she wanted to try first but I really had no idea. There were so many images that called to me. Today I went through my photos and chose the first 6 that spoke to me. I have two larger paintings started with some watercolor underpaintings and while I waited for them to dry I painted this hillside of wildflowers. This is a scene from the jeep ride we took to Yankee Boy Basin in Ouray Colorado. It was a spectacular drive and I have many many paintings in mind from just this little drive up into the mountains.

On another note, I did work out the details and will be attending the PSA Exhibition in New York City. I had a voucher for free roundtrip flight that is expiring so I put it to good use! Now to get my painting ready to ship to the show!

Buy this painting on PayPal
Price: $145 USD
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Purple Mountains Majesty 5x7 pastel

'Purple Mountains Majesty' 5x7 pastel

Today I am sharing another one of my plein air paintings from the Moulton Ranch. I actually had two paintings I wanted to start today but a nasty computer virus took up my time. Luckily I was able to get it fixed. Whew! My son comes home from Chicago for a visit tomorrow so I probably won't get much painting done until next week when I am participating in a Paint-out. I will be more than ready by then!

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Price: $95 USD
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Exciting News....My painting is in the PSA Exhibition!

I am very excited to share that my painting 'Early Morning Poppies' has been accepted into the Pastel Society of America's 38th Annual Exhibition in New York City. I got the acceptance letter in the mail today and I was so surprised when I opened it because it was so thin! I am honored to have my painting chosen and I am now trying to see about taking my daughter to the opening. I have a free roundtrip air ticket I can use and my aunt lives right off Times Square so it may just work out!

Plein Air At Moulton Ranch in the Tetons

'Barn Tree' 8x10 plein air pastel

I am home from my great Western Adventure and downloaded all 5,700 photos! For those of you following my trip blog I apoligize for cutting it short but the internet access was very spotty to none during the last part of the trip. It was nice to be unplugged for a bit but I am anxious to get back to posting! I didn't have the chance to paint everyday (too busy exploring) but I did manage to paint 24 paintings which I will be sharing this week. I loved the trees out in Jackson....these big cottonwood trees lined the waterways and were so much fun to paint. I would love to do a series on this tree!