Painting My World: August 2011

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Sanibel Island Beach Painting SOLD

'The Shellseekers' 5x7 pastel

Today's painting is a beach scene from Sanibel Island. It was done as a demo for last week's class on painting the beach. I haven't been to Sanibel in a couple of years and I would love to go back. I am working out the details to do a workshop this winter at the Sanibel Shell Museum. I am hoping I can do a road trip and spend some extra time painting and shelling. I'll post details of the workshop when plans are finalized.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Terry Ludwig Mystery Set Painting

'Mystery Nest' 11x14 pastel

Over on Wet Canvas they are doing a challenge with the Terry Ludwig Mystery Pastel sets. The idea is to do a painting using only the pastels in the 14 piece Mystery Box. What is a Mystery Box you may wonder? It is a set Terry is offering for sale through the end of the month for those of us who could not make it to his garage sale in Colorado. You get 14 pastels but you don't get to pick...so it is a complete surprise. My box came today (ordered them Friday so wonderful service!) and I am thrilled with my selection. See the photo above. I looked at them and immediately knew they were perfect for my nest painting. I had already completed an oil underpainting and was just waiting for the right moment to finish. I only used the mystery pastels to complete the painting. We will be doing this challenge in one of my September classes. It will be so much fun!

Nantucket Dunes 8x10 pastel

'Nantucket Dunes' 8x10 pastel

I am home from a weekend at the lake. It was a great time with family celebrating my son;s birthday and engagement. I brought my pastels but didn't get to paint. We had very breezy conditions all weekend. So this week I have to get into the studio and paint! I am having my last summer class this week before my Fall pastel classes begin. We will be having a feedback session with focus on how to rescue a failed painting. This Dune painting was a rescue. It began as a plein air painting of an apple orchard of all things! It just didn't work so I brushed it out and came up with this dune scene from Nantucket Island.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

NJ Shore LifeGuard Stand 5x7 pastel

'Standing Guard' 5x7 pastel

Today I am sharing another beach painting. This time it is a lifeguard stand along the New Jersey Shore. I loved the colors of the umbrella against the clear blue sky. This is a 5x7 pastel on Uart paper.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Island Time! Frozen Drinks on the Beach

'Island Time' 5x7 pastel

It's beach week at this week's pastel class. I like to display paintings related to the class and while I was looking through some of my older works I uncovered a stack of beach and marsh paintings. Most of them are 5x7 and were done in the last couple of years. It was fun to discover them. This one is from a photo I took at the beach on Tortola.I had the best frozen strawberry daiquiri and conch fritters. I love being on Island Time!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

My other Siamese Cat Maya

'Maya's Seat' 8x10 pastel

For last week's demo I decided to paint my other Siamese cat , Maya Blue. She is a petite girl unlike her brother Tobi. And of course she always seeks out the chairs that make her look even more like the princess she is! As usual for my cat paintings, this one is on LaCarte paper.

*** Please visit my website blog for a better look at this painting. www.karenmargulis.com I will soon be phasing out this blog and posting to by website blog. I like the way the painting display on the website!

Monday, August 22, 2011

Sunset over the Marsh 8x10 pastel

'Evening Peace' 8x10 pastel

I revisited my photos from my trip to Creighton Island GA for this painting. Creighton is a private island off the Georgia coast that I had the privilege of visiting a few years ago with a group of artists. Accommodations were spare but we had this for our cabin view. It was a fantastic experience that would be fun to try again!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Koi Pastel on Black Paper 8x10

'Three Koi' 8x10 pastel

Today's painting is another one done on a black surface. This time I used Somerset Black Velvet paper. You can see it has some texture to it and it is very soft. It feels great to paint on and the black makes it fun and dramatic. I would love to have a koi pond in my back yard and I think I will study up on them and plan for it over the winter. It will be my Spring project. I will have a wildflower meadow and a pond right in my own yard!

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Siamese Cat Pastel with Block in and Palette SOLD

I have posted this painting on my website blog but I thought I'd post it here and include some photos of my initial block-in and the pastels I used for the painting. The painting is 8x10 on Wallis Belgian Mist. I did my initial block in with a black hard pastel. I went right into the painting with a selection of soft pastels which I choose before starting. I layer my colors by value rather than color which accounts for some of the unusual colors that make up the cat's fur. I really enjoy painting cats!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

ACEO mini pastel paintings available this week

I love doing these little pastel paintings. When I get in the mood to do them I spread out a towel and my pastels and a pile of reference photos and paint away. It works well to sit so you don't need to take out your easel. You can do them while watching TV. They are a great way to practice simplifying since you don't have much room for a lot of fussy details. This week I am offering these minis on auction with a starting bid of just $10.

click here to bid on these paintings

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Another Painting on Sandpaper

'Desert Sunset' 5x7 pastel

Now I am on a mission to find a pastel paper that feels the same as this wet/dry black sandpaper. I love how it feels to paint on this surface. It is like buttering toast with nice soft butter and watching it just glide on. And yet you can still get sharp detail if you want. Although the package says it is 600 grit, it seems smoother than the Uart 600 grit. I will try some of the smoother Uart. I usually use the two middle grits. Maybe I really prefer my paper smooth?? Hmmmm experiments are in order! This little painting is from a photo I took of the sunset we experienced in Arches National Park. The colors that evening were awesome! I love the desert!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

One Summer Morning 8x10 pastel SOLD

'One Summer Morning' 8x10 pastel

I love painting on this surface but I shouldn't......it is just regular wet/dry sandpaper in black from the hardware store. It is 600 grit and feels wonderful. It takes the pastels like a dream. I don't even know what I can compare it to. The problem is that it isn't archival so who know how long it would hold up. I think maybe Pastelmat comes pretty close. I think I'll try a painting on pastelmat while the feeling of this sandpaper is fresh in my mind. This is a scene my friends and I came across last summer on our road trip out west. We took an access road to the highway and had to stop for the early morning light on these roadside wildflowers.

Monday, August 15, 2011

White Water Lily on Black Paper

'White on Black' 9x12 pastel

I am experimenting this week with using black....black surfaces and black pastels. I was reading an old art magazine and saw an article about a pastel artist who uses black in the underpainting. It got me thinking about black and how we hear how we shouldn't use black...it is a dead color. And yet this artist's paintings were beautiful! How could I learn to use black to my advantage? I already know that painting on black can make a dramatic painting with colors that pop. My friend Jayne does wonderful work on black paper. Si for class this week we will talk about what I have discovered and have fun using black! This water lily is on black Canson paper.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Poppy Heaven! 16x20 pastel

'Poppy Heaven' 16x20 pastel

I have been wanting to paint these poppies and when my student chose it last week for her painting I knew it was time for me to try it. I started with a watercolor underpainting on Uart paper. (bottom photo) I love the vibrancy of red pastels. I used Terry Ludwigs and some Great American Artwork pastels for this painting. While I had my red pastels out I did a smaller poppy on black velour. I'll post that tomorrow. This week in class we will be working on painting on a black surface so I am having fun preparing for the class!

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Purple Wildflowers

'A Tangle of Purple' 8x10 pastel

It is always a challenge to simplify a close up view of wildflowers while still creating a feeling of the tangle of grasses and flowers. It is so easy to get carried away with painting every stem and leaf. In this painting I wasn't happy with how the foreground was coming along. It was so busy and didn't relate to the purple flowers at the top. So I lightly brushed the bottom half and sprayed some fixative. I then added more purple flowers and greyed some in the distance to create more layers. I'm glad I didn't give up on it!

Friday, August 12, 2011

Sunflower Painting #9 Blue Sunflower

Sunflower Painting #9 Blue Sunflower 6x6 pastel SOLD

I have been working on my Sunflower project and I am sharing #9 today. I intended it to be a sunflower a day but there have been days I haven't been able to get to it....there are also some days like today when I get to paint more than one! So in the end I will get to do 100 no matter how long it takes. I plan to do more of these monochromatic sunflowers. This one is on blue canson paper. I am working this weekend on painting furniture for my new screened porch. I want to paint my second hand wooden chairs different shades of blue....I am inspired by the blue doors of the Taos Pueblo. I'll post pictures when I am finished!

Purple Coneflowers 9x12 pastel

'Garden Delight' 9x12 pastel

I enjoyed painting these purple coneflowers. I was using a new surface for me….Colourfix Supertooth Museum. It was a white surface and had a nice feel to it. I loved how it took the watercolor underpainting. The colors appeared so vibrant on the white surface. I almost could have left it alone but I wanted to see how it took the pastel. I was very happy with it and will definitely add it to my list of surfaces I like to use. I really lied the weight of the museum. It didn’t buck at all when it was wet which was wonderful!

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Nantucket Daisies...my latest wildflower painting

'Nantucket Daisies' 11x14 pastel

Just off the easel tonight! I painted these daisies as a demo for my pastel class. We were working on close up and personal wildflowers using wet underpaintings. I love painting daisies!

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Passing Storm...Taos Summer

'Passing Storm' 8x10 pastel SOLD

The summer my friends and I visited Taos, we had some stormy weather. It made for some dramatic skies and colorful grasses. I have painted this scene a few times trying different sizes and formats. This one has a tonal underpainting using a dark blue nupastel with an alcohol wash.

Monday, August 08, 2011

Summer Marsh 9x18

'Summer Marsh' 9x18 pastel

I am in the mood for doing a marsh scene. This is a painting from last summer but I would love to try it larger. I love the greens in the early summer marshes!

Sunday, August 07, 2011

Sunflower Painting #9 A Bright one today!

'Sunflower #9' 6x6 pastel

Today I am sharing my daily sunflower. I did a watercolor underpainting with some very bright colors. I like them so I didn't do much changing when I added pastel. They almost look fluorescent! I have some ideas for this weeks 'crop' of sunflower paintings and I think I will set up my paper to get a head start.

Saturday, August 06, 2011

New Wildflower Painting with Demo

'Flowers from a Friend' 11x14 pastel

Today a friend emailed me a photo he took of the profusion of wildflowers growing where he lives. I was searching for something to paint and his photo was perfect for what I wanted to do. I decided to take photos of my process to share with him and my readers. The slideshow can be seen in the post just after this one. This painting is done on Uart 600 grit with a watercolor underpainting.

Slideshow of my Latest Painting Demo...Flowers from a Friend

If you are not able to see the slideshow. Try visiting my Picasa Web album HERE to see the photos.

Friday, August 05, 2011

A Simple Landscape

'Pink Morning Skies I & II' 8x10 pastel

One of the exercises we did this week for 'Matisse Night' was to choose a Matisse painting and study his color palette. Then we did small color studies using this palette. Next we tried to do a painting in the style of Matisse with these same colors. Finally we used the colors to paint something in our usual style. The idea was to see how a different color palette can inspire us and add something to our repertoire. It was a lot of fun. The above paintings are my quick examples. They were done on canson paper. I really like this combination of colors and I don't think I ever used them together. In case you are wondering the Matisse painting I used as an inspiration is his Goldfish painting.

Thursday, August 04, 2011

White Chocolate Banana Cream Pie

'My Favorite Pie' 8x10 pastel

My pastel class has been painting food pictures for a special project we are working on. Here is my contribution. It is a painting of a slice of White Chocolate banana Cream Pie....my absolute favorite pie. I only make it once a year around the holidays. It makes it special to save it for a once a year treat. I will share more details of our project as we get closer to our deadline.

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Sunflower Painting #8

'Sunflower no. 8' 6x6 pastel

For today's sunflower I chose colors based on another Matisse painting. I am teaching a pastel class and tonight is 'Matisse Night' I like getting inspired to used different color palettes.....putting together colors I might not try and seeing what happens. That is what is great about this challenge. I can try out so many ideas within the boundaries of the 6x6 format and subject matter.

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Something Cool for a Hot Day

'Winter Frost' Landscape variation Pastel 5x7

It's hot here in Hotlanta and I have been staying cool inside the studio. I thought I would share another Landscape variation painting today. This winter scene called out to me today. It looks nice and frosty and that feels good today. It is sad to take these variation paintings down from my wall but I hope they will find good homes. The sunflowers are going up and they look nice and cheerful!

Monday, August 01, 2011

Windswept Meadow 16x20 pastel

'Across the Windswept Meadow' 16x20 pastel

I have painted this area of Nantucket many times but usually much smaller. This painting is 16x20 and it would be fun to paint this place even larger! For this painting I did an alcohol wash underpainting and you can see the oranges and reds peeking through the grass.

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