One Lonely Blossom

I cannot believe that summer is starting to wind down. There are back to school ads on TV (sorry kids) and this weekend is our first heat wave of the season, in mid August, and that kind of tells you what kind of summer we have had here - if you live in the US - enjoyable!!

I finally started some pastels again, and in order to get back up to speed I am working on a few studies. This sketch is done using some blue paper as the background which seems to make the oranges, peaches and aqua pop out at you. Pastels force color on me and my palette tends to be more subdued when using this medium. Colors I would never have considered start to work their way in which is one of the reasons I like pastels. My main concern was to have the vase show its reflective quality, not in a tight realistic approach but a more painterly style that allows the color to speak. Sometimes this can be a fight until I have been working with pastels for a while and learn to loosen up and let go.

Lazy Summer Afternoon

I have been working on a project recently and this is one of the images from the series. The pieces are small - about 2"x 4"- which means a fairly small brush and reading glasses (Ha Ha!), but the images have been fun to create. Seems like I have been painting a lot of birds lately, and this is an English House Sparrow.

We left one bird feeder up this summer and have been getting a family of Tufted (Titmouses? Titmice? Anyone know the answer?), some Chickadees with a few Goldfinch & Cardinals mixed in to keep it interesting. They only come early in the morning and than about 5 in the afternoon. Boy! what a racket these Tufted (Titmice?) make when they’re happy. Nothing like the feeding frenzy during the winter months but enough activity to interest the cat for a few seconds between naps.