View of my Pond

Today was the second day of the Painting Water with Pastels workshop with Richard Lundgren. Our focus today was on painting still water with reflections. Just as yesterday Richard did a fabulous demo painting which made it all look so easy. And yet we all struggled so in class afterwards. LOL. I may need to work on this some more. On the right there are some large branches that are from a tree that is actually out of the picture, but I'm not sure they "read" quite right and I'm not quite sure how to fix them.

At any rate this painting is from a reference photo I took in my own backyard, standing at the edge of the pond I live on and looking towards the west. It was done on my usual, 9x12 Art Spectrum paper. Note to self: I'm almost out of paper, about time to order more!

Matanzas Morning

I'm taking a workshop this weekend with Richard Lundgren, at the St. Augustine Art Association. It's a 2-day workshop, and the subject is Painting Water With Pastel. Today was focused on painting water with movement. Tomorrow the focus will be on still water with reflections. I find water a real struggle at the best of times. Naturally Richard's wave demo painting was fabulous, and he made it seem to effortless.

I used as a reference a photo I took one morning at Fort Matanzas, when I went there with the Audubon Society to post the least tern nesting sites. It was a lovely morning at the beach. But doing this painting was definitely effortFUL and I'm still not sure what I think of it. I don't love it, that's for sure. Water is still a struggle for me. But I have to keep trying if I'm ever going to learn it. As one of the other women in the class said, "well that's what we're here for".

And it was fun. It's only the second time I've ever tried to paint a wave. The first was in a workshop with Maggie Price a couple years ago. 

Done on my usual 9x12 Art Spectrum paper, various pastels.

Prince Edward Island Autumn

I love the fall. Even here in Florida it's beautiful, though more subtle than in the northeastern areas, but I still get some color variations. But tonight my mind was further north. I pulled out a photo I'd taken two years ago in Prince Edward Island, this exact same time of year. I love the rolling hills in PEI, and the colors were just starting to turn. This was done on my usual 9x12 Art Spectrum.

Another St. Johns Sunrise

I had such fun doing the painting of a sunrise over the St. Johns River that I decided to do another one from another reference photo I had taken. Sunrises over the river are just spectacular, and I did have fun doing this one, but I'm not sure I'm quite as happy with the outcome as I was with the previous painting. Still, I'll give it time to set a while and then see what I think. But the colors seems a bit bright (which of course could be adjusted) and the sun just a little too dead-center, which would be harder to modify!

Done on my usual 9x12 Art Spectrum paper, with various pastels.