Cactus Bloom 8x10 pastel

'Desert Beauty' 8x10 pastel

Today's painting is a cactus bloom done from a photo I took while at the last IAPS convention in New Mexico. This year I will have Thursday free so I have arranged to go on a photo tour with a local photographer/artist. I will be rooming with my friends Nancy & Susan and they will also be coming on the tour. One of the things we will do is go to a place where there are some cacti in bloom. I can't wait to get more reference photos! This painting is done on dark gray Pastelmat. I don't use this surface very often but I really to like it! I'll have to remember to order some more.

Daisies in the Garden

'Daisies in the Garden' 5x7 pastel

Today I am sharing another plein air painting done earlier this month at the Smith-Gilbert Garden's Paint Out. I found out that two of my paintings on exhibit at the gardens have sold. I have a few more left to share and they are also available for sale. I am getting packed for my trip to Albuquerque and the IAPS convention. Just a few more errands to do and I am even trying to squeeze in some painting time later. My plan is to try to post a daily report from the convention. Tomorrow I will give you an overview of the classes I have signed up for.

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Large Wildflower Painting

'Sounds of Summer' 18x24 pastel

Here is my latest Queen Anne's Lace painting. I decided to include a bee in this one. When I see a meadow filled with wildflowers it isn't just the visual beauty that is exciting...it is the sounds and the smells....so the buzzing of bees is a big part of what makes a meadow so peaceful for me. It just feels like summer! This painting is on Uart paper with a gouache underpainting.

Taos Poppy 5x7

'Taos Poppy' 5x7 pastel

It felt great to get in the studio and paint today! Even though I have a lot of work to do before my Dad comes to fix a leak in the corner of the studio I had to take a painting break! I am working on removing all of my supplies from the shelves so that they can be moved out of the way for the repairs. I am taking time to organize and sort so it is a long process. I can be such a pack rat!
Just a reminder that my summer pastel classes 'Beat the Heat' will be starting on June 8th from 7-9 pm. The first class is Georgia O'Keeffe Night where we will paint big!! This poppy isn't big at 5x7 but I wanted to try out the composition before I did something larger. I will need some more red pastels!
Be sure to check out my new website with integrated blog at www.karenmargulis.com I think my paintings show better on the new site!

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My Painting in the Pastel Journal!

I just got this month's edition of the Pastel Journal and I was excited to see pictures of the five finalists in the IAPS Poster Competition. Mine is the top right. It is called 'Blue Skies Ahead'. The winner will be announced at the convention next week. They are all wonderful and I wish everyone the best of luck! I am getting my supplies packed today and trying not to forget anything. I leave next Wednesday but I am going up to the mountains for the weekend. We are taking the puppy and I can't wait to see her at the lake!

Plein air Hibiscus #3

'By the Poolside' 5x7 pastel

Today I am sharing the third painting in my plein air hibiscus series. I wish I had done more while I was in Florida. I love this technique and I have some thoughts on how to translate it to other flowers. Now if I only had time to get in the studio and really play!

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A View from Arches National Park SOLD

'Desert Shrubs' 8x10 pastel

One of the stops we made on last summer’s trip out west was Arches National Park in Moab Utah. It was hot…in the triple digits but that didn’t stop us from exploring. This is one of my favorite National Parks and I never tire of the colors of this magical landscape. I loved this little clump of desert plants and took quite a few photos of them. This painting has an oil stain underpainting and is 8×10.

ANNOUNCING MY UPDATED WEBSITE AND NEW BLOG!

I would like to share my updated website with you. Previously my website was hosted by Artspan and while I was happy with it, I wanted to have some more control. I now have a new website and I have decided to have my daily paintings from this blog post to my website. I like how the artwork shows on the new site so I encourage you to have a look and sign up for email updates. I will be posting to both blogs for a few weeks but I do plan to make a permanent change so I hope you will join me over at my website. I will be sure to let you know when the changeover will occur. You can find my new blog/website here www.karenmargulis.com

Another Plein Air Hibiscus Flower SOLD

'Florida Beauty' 7x5 pastel

For today's painting I decided to work on the two plein air hibiscus blooms that I started on my trip to Florida. I had finished the underpainting on location and I added the pastel in the studio. As you can see I didn't add much pastel at all. I really enjoyed doing the watercolor and I didn't want to cover it all up! I did another red hibiscus which I will be posting later.

Queen Annes Lace

'Summer Memories' 5x7 pastel

Today I am sharing a painting done in the Spring when I was experimenting with a different style. We used charcoal to do a line drawing and then added pastel. It was a lot of fun to do and I would love to try this on a larger scale.

Back from Chicago!

We are back from a wonderful weekend in Chicago celebrating Corey's graduation from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Here is a photo of him standing in front of the Pritzker Pavilion and the poster with his commencement designs. We ate out at some great restaurants went up tthe John Hancock Tower with a $1 Groupon, took a boat tour and did lots of walking! I have a lot of catching up to do and I haven't painted in over a week so that is first on my list for tomorrow!

Headed to Chicago! SOLD

'The Bean' 5x7 pastel

I am headed to Chicago today for my son's graduation from SAIC. We are so excited for him and it will be even more special to attend because Corey designed the Commencement Program and tickets. Actually his designs were chosen for all of the school's end of the year events! He has really worked hard and done well. He is excited to be starting an internship with VSA in Chicago. Here is a little bit about what they do taken from their website:
VSA is an independent branding collective that harnesses the power of ideas to help companies achieve their purpose.Since 1982, our 150-person firm’s creativity has contributed to the success of some of the world’s most respected organizations, through forging a reason for being, inspiring internal audiences and engaging consumers. VSA attacks every challenge in a platform-unlimited, results-driven manner.
I may not be posting for a few days so I will leave you with this painting of the Cloudgate sculpture in Chicago. Also know as the 'Bean' it is a fantastic place for a Chicago photo op!

Rio Chama 8x10 painting

'View of the Rio Chama' 8x10 pastel

Today's painting is one I painted last week for a demo. I did a very bright and bold underpainting with Createx Pure Pigments. I always like to do a bold underpainting. It is always easier to tone a painting down but so much harder to put that color in later! This is a view of the Rio Chama in New Mexico. I took it on my trip to the last IAPS convention. I am in countdown mode for this year's convention. There are only 14 days until the convention and I am getting excited!

A Field of Wildflowers

'Pick Me a Bouquet' 18x24 pastel

I am headed home tomorrow after a week at the beach and will be packing to leave for Chicago on Thursday. My son Corey is graduating from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago on Saturday. It is hard to believe that he is graduating already. It seems only yesterday that we dropped him off at school. We are so proud of all that he accomplished! I will be posting some of my older favorite paintings while I am away. Here is one of my favorites...a big one for me. This is from a photo I took on Nantucket Island.

Hibiscus Bloom 5x7 plein air SOLD

'Tropical Delight' 5x7 pastel

Yesterday I sat out at the pool and painted the hibiscus flowers. There are several bushes with red flowers and also some pink ones. I started out by doing some watercolor underpaintings for three small paintings. If you look closely you can see there isn't too much pastel on top of this red one. I really enjoyed doing the watercolor and for a minute imagined that I would actually enjoy trying just a watercolor painting. I had a bad experience with a watercolor class before I discovered pastel so I never imagined that I would enjoy it so much!

Tree on the Hill 16x20 pastel SOLD

'Tree on the Hill' 16x20 pastel

I have painted this scene a few times. It is from a trip to Maine. We were on a hike in Acadia national Park when I came across this hill covered with orange wildflowers. I love the little tree on the top of the hillside. I painted today outside by the pool but need to load my photos so I can post my paintings.

Happy Daisies Plein air pastel

'Happy Daisies' 5x7 pastel

I took full advantage of the daisies at the gardens last week and painted them in many different ways. For this little one I wondered what it would be like to paint them from a bug's eye view. The sky was a brilliant blue and the daisies looked so happy as they danced in the breeze.

Azaleas and Woodland Path plein air

'May Bloom' 5x7 pastel (top)

'Woodland Path' 8x10 pastel (bottom)

Blogger has been down so I haven't been able to post. I finally got on this afternoon so I am posting two paintings. These are a couple more from my plein air outing last week. The top one has a watercolor underpainitng. I would love to use the woodland path as an inspiration for a larger painting.

Plein air Iris with a watercolor underpainting

'Pretty in Purple' 5x7 pastel

Today I am sharing another one of my recent plein air paintings. One of the things that happened on this paint-out is that my easel leg broke. It actually turned out to be a good thing because I ended up keeping the easel chair height and I sat down to paint (which I never do) Why was this good you might wonder? Well it made me slow down for one thing and really take my time with the watercolor underpainting. You can see the underpainting in the bottom photo. I usually rush this part and get a wet washed out mess. I did about 6 watercolor underpaintings and really felt like I was finally getting it! I had so much fun!

Beat the Heat Summer Pastel Class Schedule

'Sanibel Sea Shells' 12x12 pastel

Announcing my Summer pastel class schedule! I am trying something different this summer with my classes. It is often hard to commit to a weekly class during the summer but it is nice to be able to get together with fellow artists during the summer to keep our creative juices flowing. So this summer I will still offer a class on Wednesday evenings from 7-9 pm but each class will have it's own focus or topic and all of the classes are designed to give you a chance to push beyond your comfort zone and have some fun! You can come to any class you wish, just call or email me as soon as you know you can come. If you would like to see the schedule and class topics click in the link to my class page here. Our first class will be June 8th and it is Georgia O'Keeffe Night!

Egret Oil Painting

'Egret in the Marsh' 5x7 oil

I spent Mother's Day out in the yard doing long overdue clean-up. We are replanting some beds and enlarging others and there are a lot of overgrown areas that need some TLC. We also borrowed my dad's pressure washer and cleaned the driveway. It looks so much better! So there was no time at all to paint this weekend. I didn't even go into the studio and I am posting tonight from my laptop. I am sharing an older oil painting that I did last year. One of these days I want to get out the oils and play with them some more!

More from the Paint-out...Purple Irises

'Early Morning Irises' 8x10 pastel

Another long day at the Smith-Gilbert Gardens at the paint-out. It was also National Public Garden Day and they estimated over 1000 visitors to the garden today! It was a busy place! I managed to paint 4 paintings, all of them daisies. It was easier to stay in one spot with all of the visitors than trying to pack up and move around. This painting was done yesterday. I was very happy that I really let a lot of the watercolor underpainting alone. My goal is not to cover it all up with pastel but to 'dance' with the underpainting as Richard McKinley puts it. I am trying!

Plein Air Paint-out today!

What a gorgeous day here in Georgia. It was the perfect day for painting outside in a beautiful garden. I am happy with my set-up today. It was efficient and organized and so I managed to do 10 paintings. Sadly my easel leg broke half way through the day so I will have to re-evaluate this set-up! Luckily I had a chair attached to my cart so I sat for the rest of the day which wasn't so bad after all! Of course I had to paint the daisies. I did a watercolor underpainting for these two. I was really happy with my watercolor underpaintings today. I don't know what happened but they were vibrant and not washed out as I usually do. Can't wait to go back tomorrow for more!

Marsh View Commission 18x36

Marsh View 18x36 pastel

I wish the photo of this painting showed the scale better. It is one of the largest pastels I have ever painted at 18x36 and it is much more striking in person. This is a commission I just finished for a family who is moving to Savannah. This is the view from their new home! How wonderful that would be. For this commission I did three small studies depicting different moods of the marsh and we settled on this for the larger painting. Since it is so big I mounted the Uart paper on matboard and did a watercolor underpainting. It was a lot of fun to work on!

Desert Dreams New Mexico Landscape

'Desert Dreams' 11x14 pastel

Today's painting is another landscape from New Mexico probably from a 'drive-by' photo. I have so many reference photos taken from the passenger's seat as I travel down the highway. I just love the colors and textures found in the desert. This painting has an oil stain underpainting on Uart paper.

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Price: $175 USD
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September Meadows 8x10 pastel

'September Meadows' 8x10 pastel

I am enjoying working on the underpaintings I prepared last week. I did several oil stain underpaintings while I had my paints out. So now I have a few paintings started and all I need to do is choose the one I want to finish. I already did the planning! Since it has been a few days since i did the underpainting, I am now approaching the subject with fresh eyes and for this painting I really just reacted to the underpainting without being too influenced by the original photo.

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Bathing Cat 5x7 pastel

'Angel's Bath' 5x7 pastel

No time to paint today.....we are undergoing some major yard work...removing some old shrubs and redoing some flower beds. It will be great when finished but I am beat today!! I am sharing a paintng I did a couple of months ago. This is our cat Angel bathing herself.

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