We're now into late mid winter, but I did this pastel in early winter of 2007 which means late November or early December of that year on a farm near Mineral Springs Road.
The air was fresh and if I remember correctly it was almost warm enough that I didn't need to wear gloves for a good stretch of time at least until my fingers started to become a bit numb.
The air was fresh and if I remember correctly it was almost warm enough that I didn't need to wear gloves for a good stretch of time at least until my fingers started to become a bit numb.
semi soft pastel on watercolor paper
gessoed with pumice 15"X20"
Gorgeous composition, line, shapes etc etc....you are so accomplished at sculpture, painting and pastel. wow!
ReplyDeleteMarcia, do you 'fix' your pastels at all?
So magnificent. You artist you! I am so impressed.
ReplyDeleteXOLoveBarbara
Hi Flora,
ReplyDeleteThank you again for your wonderfully kind comments!
Generally I don't use fixative as it darkens the color. Occasionally, however, if the ground doesn't have enough tooth as with canson mi teintes, I'll use a workable fixative for a charcoal or pastel drawing if I want to continue to work on it.
In this case, however, I used a ground out of the jar by Golden which they make specifically for pastels. But you can also make your own ground by adding medium or fine pumice powder which you can get at Lee Valley Tools to gesso watered down a bit to reduce the amount of glue. This is something you can play around with or fine tune to your own preferences - but the overall consistency of the gesso should be like heavy cream. yum - ha ha
Barbara, you are both a magnificent friend and a magnificent artist!!!!
ReplyDeletelove, Marcia
Marcia, how do you store your pastel drawings so that they retain the pastel? Is that the point of the pumice/gesso? Does it 'catch' the powder?
ReplyDeleteI used soft pastels years ago and still have a huge stash of them, and I did spray fixative on them and had that darkening effect, though mostly I liked it except when it obliterated the whites!!
I love pastel and I love watercolour, but I am almost loathe to use them anymore because of the hassle of framing and storage. What's a girl to do? ;-)
I'm loving your newly posted pastel too!
Hi Flora,
ReplyDeleteSorry to take so long to get back to you but I have a good reference and link for your questions about pastels and storage: http://pastelpointersblog.artistsnetwork.com/Protecting+Unframed+Pastels.aspx
So if you have a huge stash of pastels and as you head into spring - go for it! I know you would get some amazing results with them and they do apparently combine very well with acrylics.
Take care!
Marcia
Extremely beautiful, Marcia!
ReplyDeleteA huge thank you, Linny! Your visit has me grinning from ear to ear - from sea to sea??!
ReplyDeleteThank you - I am a huge admirer of your work!!!!
Hi SKIZO. Thank you, thank you! You are great!!!
ReplyDeleteExtremely cool. This is reminding me of some German Expressionism work.
ReplyDelete