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Monday, September 03, 2018

Check Out This Painting Transformation!

'Summer Song'         8x10         pastel         ©Karen Margulis
available $150
I was looking for a project. I have been enjoying adding texture to Ampersand Pastelbord but I had already used up my stash. I had also repurposed all of the older paintings on Pastelbord in my discard pile. Or so I thought! I was very excited when I came across an older Queen Annes Lace painting done on Pastelbord. It actually was a rework but it really wasn't working. It was the perfect candidate for texture!

The original painting on Ampersand Pastelbord
I took out an old stiff bristle brush and my Liquitex clear gesso. I used the gesso straight from the bottle without diluting it. I didn't brush off the old pastel. Instead I allowed the gesso to mix with the pastel to form a thick paste. It turned the pastel into a putty color which was a nice neutral middle value tone. I left some of the blue sky showing thinking that I would just redo the flowers.

Taking it to the next level.
The wet pastel was which so it occurred to me that I could drag my brush handle through the pastel to create linear marks. Again I was thinking that these marks would be great to suggest the texture of grasses and stems. When this underpainting dried the rich handle left deep grooves. It would be interesting to see what would happen when I added pastel.

After applying clear gesso with a brush and using the handle for texture
Once the wet pastel dried I evaluated it for potential paintings. I changed my mind about redoing the flowers and chose a meadow scene. The texture worked wonders for the meadow! I am really enjoying this exploration of texture and I think I need to order some more Paselbord.

You can see a step by step demo of this painting this week on my patreon page. www.patreon.com/karenmargulis

1 comment:

John A Root said...

Excellent. A good experiment with a happy ending.