Misty morning pond

At the September meeting of the First Coast Pastel Society we had a presentation by Karl Kelly of Mount Vision Pastels, from Tampa, FL. Karl had a mouth-watering array of over 400 colors of pastels available, as well as various boxed sets of pastels. The one I loved was the "Thunderstorm Gray" set, so I had to buy that one - as well as about  different open stock colors that appealed to me.

I just needed a subject to try out all the wonderful colors in that set! I finally pulled out a photo today that was taken right in my own back yard on a very gray and misty morning with a hint of fog rising from the pond.

So this was done entirely with the colors from the Thunderstorm Gray set as well as one open stock dark green. Mount Vision pastels are all hand-made by Karl, and are big and chunky, so no way to get any serious details with them. They also are fairly fragile as I found when one rolled off the table and shattered into 100 pieces!

This is done on a 11x14 sheet of Richeson sanded paper, sort of an ocher color.

Minis at the Arboretum

Yesterday the First Coast Pastel Society had our first plein air outing of the fall season at the Jacksonville Arboretum. We had about 14-15 folks turn out to paint, and the weather was glorious - our first sunny day in weeks I think.

I still don't feel very comfortable with plein air though I go because I love the fun and camaraderie with the group. I bought a 3-pack of Ampersand pastelmat 5x7 boards and thought they were just a perfect size to use for plein air, so I did the two pictures above.

I don't care for either one of them, LOL. but I still had a lovely day chatting with fellow pastelists, and a nice picnic lunch together.

In other news both of my 16x20 acrylics survived the jurying process and are in the "16x20" show at Reddi-Arts. Opening reception this Sunday, should be fun.

Floridian Fall

This is the second 16x20 acrylic I did for the "16x20" show at Reddi-Arts. Acrylics are still a huge struggle but I'm having more fun with them than I expected. Water, as always, is a killer for me regardless of medium. LOL.

However this scene is right here in the local shopping center in Fleming Island, a largish retention pond just behind and a little to the west of the local Wal-Mart - not exactly out in the pristine wilderness. But I have loved these trees ever since I loved to Florida in 2011 as their pretty colors give me a taste of fall arriving.

And it really does seem to be arriving now. Lovely cool and breezy when I walked my dog an hour ago, and supposed to drop down into the 40s tonight. Woo hoo, I love it.

St. Augustine Lighthouse

We had receiving for an art show this morning where every piece had to be 16x20. That is the image size, not counting mat, not counting frame, etc. The actual image had to be exactly 16x20. I never paint that large with my pastels. I work 9x12 or 11x14, and I buy frames in bulk in only those sizes. I didn't *want* to have to go out and buy a large sheet to work on and a large frame, . 

So I decided to try acrylics once again. Michael's had gallery-wrapped 16x20 frames on sale for about $8.60 each so the price was certainly right and no frame required! I was allowed to enter two in the show so I decided to go for it. This is the first one I completed.

[sigh] I still feel like a kindergarten kid when it comes to trying to use acrylics.