I have not fully cropped this image to show what colour of pastel paper I used. I often use the edges for testing colours as I work on the painting. The paper I used was Sennelier La Carte Pastel paper. It has quite a rough sandpaper texture which grips the pastel really well.
I love to do sky paintings in pastel. This sunset was inspired from my trip to Canada last year.
Yesterday I was able to get out to do a plein air painting. The weather was so pleasant and warm. The subject really appealed to me with the red phone box and washing on the line. As I was painting one of the houses got their fire going so I added the smoke to the chimney.
I enjoyed using bright colours to portray this Fife scene.
This is a small study for a new painting I have started. I used a mid tone blue Art Spectrum Pastel paper. The colour and tone looked good for the subject. I did another study on paler yellow paper which I felt didn’t work so well. These studies are worth doing to resolve some of the decisions that need to made early on in the painting.
This is another painting inspired by my trip last summer to Southampton in Canada. I did the study for this on a windy day with the sand whipping up around me.
I received a delivery of new art materials and just had to use them straight away! The result was this painting. I used my new large brush and some of my new colours of Daler Rowney acrylic inks. I was lost in the activity and swept away by the joy of the moment. Hopefully the energy comes through in the painting.
These are two studies of a new figurative painting I am working on. I normally do studies in a different media from what the final painting will be done in. I find this helps to keep the painting fresh and more enjoyable for me.
My classes at the St Andrews Art Club have started back after the holidays. We have been doing some small colour studies, with the view to producing a larger studio painting. This is my study of a favourite beach in Montrose.
On Saturday we had lots of fresh snow on the ground. The weather was sunny but cold. I braved the outdoors armed with my sketching tools and warm coat and boots. There was little flurries of snow as I painted some landing on the sketch and others in my oil pastel box. This didn’t put me off as I was in awe of the scene before me.