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Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Thoughts Behind a Recycled Painting

'Winter Beach Walk'         9x12       pastel       ©Karen Margulis
available $150
 I just started my yearly studio clean up. I'm a little late but I always like to start the year with a clean and organized studio. Today I began to go through my stacks of paintings from last year. You all know by now that I don't throw anything out. That includes scrap paper! Often I will use a piece of paper to illustrate a point for a student. It is easier to show it than just explain it!

That leaves me with a pile of paper with a few pastel marks. This year I plan to use these 'mini demo scraps' and create recycled paintings. I will share my thoughts behind the process of taking a scrap and turning it into a painting. Enjoy today's installment.

Scrap paper with a mini demo....time to recycle!
 Today's scrap is a mini demo I did for a student illustrating how I paint sand and shadows on the sand. It was on a piece of gray Canson Mi-teintes paper. I decided to stick with the theme of sand and paint a sand dune! I turned the paper to a horizontal format and brushed out the demo as best as I could.

The demo brushed out with a new painting blocked in
I was working from a photo of a dune in North Florida. I liked the moody quality which I wanted to convey. But I also liked the bit of light on the dunes. I blocked in the dune with the edge of a middle value pastel.

my reference photo

  • I selected a few pastels keeping a limited palette of gray-blues, greens and peaches. I started with  dark brown and violet Terry Ludwig pastels and blocked in the dark areas on the dune. This would be the dried grasses.
  • Next I worked on the sky. I wanted to be sure to get the right mood quality so I started with a pale green. I added some pale peach and yellow for the light in the sky and ended with some grayed blues for the clouds at the top of the sky.
  • To keep color harmony in the painting I used the same pastels in the sea and sand. I wanted a connection between the earth and sky.
  • Next it was time to add the light to the edge of the dunes. I used some rich peach pastels to create this light that is breaking through the clouds and illuminating the dunes.
  • The dried grasses at the top of the dunes were created with the edge of a Terry Ludwig pastel. A few touches of orange on some of the grasses were the final touches.
******************Come Paint with me in Florida this February!********************
There are still a couple of spots remaining in my February workshop at the North Port Art Center in Venice Florida. (Feb 11 & 12)This two day workshop will focus on color. It is suitable for artists of any level of experience. I'd love the opportunity to share with you. Here is the link to more information http://northportartcenter.com/product/cooking-with-color-workshop/

2 comments:

theoboy said...

Thank you very much for this interested daily painting. I admire you for your ideas to make only from some strokes such a wonderful painting. I wish I had such creativity like you.
When I `d lived in the USA I `d go to your workshops but Europe is far away. I´ve learnt so much from your blog and videos. Yesterday I bought al package of demos from you. The next days I will try to paint some of them. I hope I can be able to do it.My problem is everything I paint must be accurate even though I´m a beginner in progress.
Now I have to arrange my last pastels in a box.....

Do you always use a limited palette. How many colors are the maximum to use on a picture. Are they some experiences? I think I always take to much.

robertsloan2art said...

This is cool! I admire you for doing something like this on mi-Tientes. I'm pretty good about not wasting scraps of sanded paper but bits of mi-Tientes with exercises tend to go in a folder and get looked at later for ideas.