Happy Halloween!

'Chocolate Delight' 4x4 pastel

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween! It's a great excuse for some chocolate! I used to love when my kids went trick or treating. They weren't much for sweets so I had months of candy. I have a terrible sweet tooth! Now I can only hope that I don't get too many trick or treaters so I have leftovers!

Orange Tree Plein Air pastel 5x7

'The Orange Tree' 5x7 pastel

Here is another one of my plein air trees from this weekend. I did all 5x7 vertical paintings because I knew my frames for the silent auction were set up for vertical. I didn't mind the restrictions though and ended up just focusing in on some individual trees that caught my eye. I used the same palette for all of them so when they were all together they made a nice grouping. It was such a fun weekend and I am inspired to get out and do more outdoor painting!

Plein Air in the Beautiful North Georgia Mountains

'Little Red Tree' 5x7 plein air pastel

What a wonderful day I had painting with the Georgia Outdoor Painters at the beautiful Anderson Creek Retreat in the North Georgia Mountains. We were invited to paint on the grounds as part of the Art of Mountain Living Celebration. There was a Bluegrass band and delicious food and wine. We had a display of our paintings and a silent auction of the paintings we completed in the morning. I sold both of my paintings! It was very cold and windy in the morning and I was bundled in many layers. I set up in the sun and painted five 5x7 tree portraits. I sold a red one and a yellow one and I will post the others tomorrow. It was so great to be able to paint outdoors. I forget how much I enjoy it even the 'extreme' plein air we had this morning! I will post details of the day tomorrow!

Cats in the Window pastel 12x24

'Cats in the Window' 12x24 pastel

I realized today that I haven't shared my cat commission paintings from this summer. I had the privilege of painting these wonderful cats as well as 5 individual portraits. It was such a fun project because my client wanted color and gave me free reign with the backgrounds. I started by doing small color studies and once she approved I went from there. This painting is from a photo (how did they ever get that shot!) and I did it in a long and narrow format. It really doesn't show up well on the blog. I have posted all of the paintings on facebook in a public album so please go have a look HERE

I am also accepting pat portrait commissions for the holidays. This is a great time to arrange a pet portrait before the rush. If you would like to see more of my pet paintings please visit my pet blog HERE

More Autumn Color 11x14 pastel

'Autumn Rainbow' 11x14 pastel

I am enjoying my Autumn color series. Today's painting was the demo for my morning class. We did it as a paint along and it was great to see how differently everyone interpreted the same photo. I love the bright colors in the Autumn landscape and everyone wants to paint the red and yellow trees but I prefer the softer colors of Fall when the colors are mixed with more greens and neutrals. I would like to try this same scene in a more muted Fall palette. This one is on Wallis Belgian Mist which definitely has a different look than the two paintings I just did on Pastelmat.

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Another Version of Autumn Trees

'Hillside Color II' 8x10 pastel

I continued today with my series of Autumn Landscapes. This time I tried a vertical composition of the scene I painted yesterday. This is on Pastelmat again this time a peach color which you can see peeking through. What a fun surface to paint on. I just went right in with my softest pastels and they glided on like butter!

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Pastel Workshop in Asheville NC

There are still some openings in my pastel workshop for the Appalachian Pastel Society the weekend of November 12th. The focus will be painting meadows and wildflowers. On Saturday Nov 12 I will be doing a presentation and demo for the monthly meeting of APS. This will be followed by a three hour workshop during which we will explore seeing color in meadows and wildflowers, achieving depth and dealing with green in the landscape. On Sunday I will teach another workshop (full day) exploring wildflowers and meadows in depth...we will explore wet underpainting techniques and more intimate close-ups of wildflowers such as daisies, queen annes lace and poppies. I am looking forward to a great weekend of sharing and painting. Please let me know if you would like more information! kemstudios@yahoo.com

Autumn Trees 5x7 pastel

'Hillside Color' 5x7 pastel

This week I will be concentrating on doing some Fall landscapes. In class this week we will be doing a paint-along with Fall as our theme. This Saturday I will be participating in a plein air paint-out in the North Georgia mountains with a group of wonderful artists. I am looking forward to getting outside and painting. It was so tempting to join my group this weekend. I saw so many great things to paint as I made the rounds to my students. I think that was the hardest part of teaching! This little painting is on black pastelmat paper.

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Back from my Workshop!

'Landscape Variation #54 5x7 pastel

Forgive the uncropped post but I just returned home from teaching my first multi-day plein air workshop and I was having trouble loading photos. Then I looked at this one and decided I could share how I hang some work on my studio wall. I use these great thumbtack/clips called paper crickets. They don't damage the paper and you can easily change out your work. I have all of my landscape variation series hanging on my studio wall with these clips.I love them!
I had a great experience this weekend teaching in the mountains. I had a wonderful group of nine students who all worked hard and did great work. We had picture perfect weather and had so much fun sharing, painting, telling stories and laughing! It was wonderful!! I was too busy to take many photos but I will try to get some posted with a full report tomorrow.

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Fall Color 12x12 pastel

'The Color of Fall' 12x12 pastel

I think my favorite Fall color is yellow. I love yellow flowers and bushes and trees. I am drawn to them for some reason. It is such a cheerful color. I am headed to the mountains this weekend and hope to see some Fall color. I will be teaching my first multi-day workshop and I have made out a plan so I hope the weather cooperates! It is supposed to be chilly but sunny. I will give a full report on Monday but I won't have internet access this weekend to do any posting. I hope everyone enjoys the weekend!

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Painting a Green Landscape without Green

'Early Fall' 5x7 pastel

This week I am working on green paintings but this time I am not allowing myself to use a green pastel stick. Instead for anything green, I am creating my own blended greens from other colors. I made a little color chart to see some of the possibilities. The above painting was done with these mixtures and no green sticks. I am going to continue going through my big box and see what other combinations make green!

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California Landscape 8x10 pastel SOLD

'Inverness View' 8x10 pastel

This is another painting in my 'green' landscape series. We have been working on making green paintings more interesting and for this one I used an alcohol wash underpainting with some reds and oranges. I am now working on some green paintings without using any green pastels. What a fun challenge that is! I'll post the results this week.

Painting from a Plein Air Study

'Wishful Thinking' (top) 8x10 pastel
field study 5x7 (bottom)

One of the things that I have been wanting to do is paint from the plein air studies I have done on my travels. It was one of the things Richard McKinley suggested I try when I was at his workshop last fall. I put aside all of my studies but haven't had the chance to take them out and paint from them. So today I decided to give it a try. The bottom photo shows my field study of a cluster of dandelion seed heads. I was actually sitting on the ground painting them on location. For the studio version (top) I did a watercolor underpainting which helped me keep them loose and dreamy. That was fun!

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Autumn Color Pastel Landscape Painting 11x14 SOLD

'Hillside Color' 11x14 pastel

I spend the day cleaning and organizing my studio and made some great progress. I came across this painting from last Fall. I am excited about the rest of the month which gives me a couple of opportunities to get outside and paint. I still have more work to do in the outer studio room but at least now I can walk through it. I am fortunate to have 2 rooms (one large) and a screened in porch all for me and my art! I paint in the big room where I also have my students paint. I am devoting the outer room to storage. I am trying to make it inviting for visitors to view my work as well and it being a place to store finished paintings. I will take some photos when I am finished.

Field of Dreams 8x10 pastel

'Field of Dreams' 8x10 pastel

Today's painting is a demo I did for a private student. I love having the opportunity to introduce an artist to the wonderful world of pastels. She arrived with a set of oil pastels and after using some of my soft pastels I think she is excited to get some of her own. In my introductory lesson we talk about and try the supplies and the various brands of pastel and papers. We then work on the different ways we can apply pastel with some exercises. In the second hour of class we talk about ways to start a pastel painting and I did this demo to show a simple method of starting a painting. I love meeting other artists who want to try a new medium!

Poppies by the Roadside Sold

'Roadside Poppies' 11x14 pastel

I have painted this group of poppies in other formats and sizes but this is a different point of view. I found these poppies growing by the roadside near my parent's home in North Carolina. They added just the right pop of color to a very green landscape. This painting is on Uart with a watercolor underpainting.

A Foggy Maine Day

'A Walk in the Fog' 8x10 pastel

Another very green painting today! This one is on Canson moonstone color paper and I used a pink and purple dry underpainting. I have a new poppy wildflower painting started and I am excited about working on it. I did a watercolor underpainting and need to let it dry. I have decided to expand this week's class on painting with Green to two weeks. There is so much to share!

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A New Cat Painting

'Jennie's Bath' 8x10 pastel

I have painted from the same photo of my cat Jennie a few times and it is always fun to see the differences. My weekend student chose the photo to paint so I did this as a demo of my techniques for painting animals. I wish I had taken a photo of her painting. She really had fun with color and created a wonderful interpretation of Jennie! I will be having several of my cat paintings hanging in a new Cat Clinic in Canada...I am getting them framed and ready to ship and when I have photos I will be posting them.

Change of Seasons 8x10 pastel sold

'Change of Seasons' 8x10 pastel

I love this time of year when there is a little chill to the air and the wind blows the leaves. It is invigorating to me. I am looking forward to the rest of this month because I have some great outside painting planned. I have a plein air workshop that I am teaching in the North Carolina mountains coming up. The class is full with a waiting list so hopefully I will plan another one for spring. I am also participating in a plein air event near Ellijay, GA at the end of the month. I need to get my supplies ready! Today's painting is on Wallis Belgian Mist.

Colorado Meadow

'Colorado Meadow' 8x10 pastel

This painting is the second in my series of 'mostly green' paintings. It is a view of a meadow near Nathrop Colorado. Even though this summer meadow was green, I saw so many subtle colors. This painting focuses on the aspen trees. I would like to do another version with more focus on the meadow. For this painting I did a dry underpainting of red and pinks. It is on Uart paper.

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A Study in Green...Mountain Landscape

'Mountain Road' 8x10 pastel

I have started a new series of paintings that are primarily green. I have chosen some reference photos of landscapes that are very green. This is a color that can be difficult to handle but living here in the Southeast we have a lot of green to deal with. I am exploring ways to make greens more varied and interesting. For this painting done on Canson Moonstone, I put down a layer of orange and red and added the greens last. These complements help make the greens more exciting to look at. I’ve got three ‘green’ paintings finished so far but there is still plenty to learn and explore.

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Marsh View 9x18 mystery pastels

'Marsh View' 9x18 pastel

I still have more mystery pastel paintings to share! I painted 9 last week because I was having so much fun. I think it was easy because I had a marsh theme and already chose a pile of photos that inspired me. It was also simplified for me because I had a preselected limited palette so I didn't have to worry about the colors I wanted to use. For this painting I chose a long narrow format which suits the wide open space of the marsh. This painting is on Wallis Belgian Mist and I did use some fixative in the beginning layers.

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Warm vs Cool Paper

'The Empty Lot I & II' 5x7 pastel

Do you give any though to the color or value of the paper you use for your pastel paintings? Or do you use the paper that is on top of the pile? I do both but when I really want to be sure to capture a certain mood or feeling in a painting I will choose a paper color or tone my paper a color that will help me convey the mood. Here I have done two paintings with the same few pastels. The top version is on cool blue paper and the bottom painting is on orange Canson paper. Can you see the subtle difference in mood between the two? One is cooler and more serious while the other is sunnier and happy. Now I want to try some other paper colors to see what happens!

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More with my Mystery Pastels

'Afternoon Walk' 8x10 pastel

Today I am sharing another one of the paintings I did with my 14 piece mystery set from Terry Ludwig. If you follow my blog you may have seen that last Monday I did 8 paintings only using this set which I call a random limited palette. I had so much fun with it that I ordered the Mt Vision 'chippy' set. They arrived this weekend and I am anxious to try them out! Today was a day of errands so no time to paint but hopefully I have all day tomorrow to play!

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New Wildflowers

'Remembering Summer' 8x10 pastel

Today's painting started out as a demo for a private student. I was showing her how to start a painting with an alcohol wash. I got my lesson across but I wasn't happy with the painting. The foreground area was boring and had too many fat leaves. So another lesson for my student....when to brush out an area you aren't happy with! I brushed out the foreground and sprayed some fixative and reworked it. After my student left I continued rearranging the flowers until I was satisfied. I don't like to give up on a painting even if it was just a demonstration. It is a challenge for me to rescue it and turn it into something that makes me smile!