This lake is located within the community that we live in. It actually doesn’t have a name, as far as I know. Out in the middle there is a small raft that turtles and the occasional alligator sun themselves. Turtle Lake seems like a good name.
The pastel painting was started with a water color underpainting. Just using the maroon color in the land masses and a rosy pink in the sky and lake enables me to then quickly put in the middle values. You might notice that I didn’t use any green. Honestly, I just felt like not using green so this is probably considered a tonalist painting.
Tin Roof – Rusted – oil on panel – knife painting – 11×14
This painting was done in Ft. Pierce as part of an invitational paint out. The last time I was in the neighborhood, this building was completely renovated. It wouldn’t be my choice as a painting subject anymore because all the character was removed.
The title is from that song by the B52’s – “Love Shack”. Of course being in Ft. Pierce it was probably more likely a Drug Shack.
Dad’s 54 Chevy Pickup – pastels on mat board 11×14
In honor of Father’s Day I thought I’d post this pastel of my father’s truck. Don’t be surprised if I post it again next year! It’s not a new painting, but a favorite. He never finished restoring the truck so that I could paint the “after” shot, but he did see and love this painting.
This pastel is done on a maroon piece of acid free mat board that I sanded a bit to give it a little more tooth. When you sand mat board or paper (sometimes it helps to rough up Canson paper before using it too) you should use a very fine sanding block, not regular sand paper. The block is sturdier and won’t make unwanted bends, folds or marks on the paper. Just a gentle once over is enough.
The Official Portrait of the Unofficial Mayor – Pastels on paper – 11×14
In honor of “Uncle Phil” Algozzini who passed away recently at the age of 82. This portrait was done as part of the Hobe Sound Project a few years ago – the exhibit wouldn’t have been complete without him, just as Hobe Sound isn’t complete without him. His portrait is as colorful as he was. He was such a supportive person that he claimed he liked this painting, but it scared one of his nieces. Algozzini’s Hawaiian Shop is on Rt. 1 in Hobe Sound, FL.
There was an interesting article in the June issue of “Pastel Journal” titled “History Reclaimed” about John Pierce Barnes (1893-1954), an impressionist artist, who was discovered recently. The pastel paintings that they show on the Pastel Journal website are stunning. In order to avoid any problems I haven’t included any pictures of his paintings here.
You can read the story in the following link, about how the curator of his paintings, Katherine Stanko, learned that the paintings existed and had been in storage since the artists death or maybe longer.
“THE RESURRECTION OF ARTIST JOHN PIERCE BARNES, RCA Worker and Impressionist Painter” By Hoag Levins is here:
What inspires me the most is how wonderful his color choices were and his bold strokes. Many pastelists blend the heck out of their work and it thrills me to see unblended work from the 1920’s. It is also pretty easy to put together his very simple plein air palette from his work, which, of course, I had to do. It seems to be very limited, which is great for going out on location. Possibly, he had a small landscape set – I don’t know what was available in the ’20’s. I managed to fit all the colors into a small 5″x4″ box – it doesn’t get better than that!
Since I don’t keep the names of my colors, and now realize I have way too many colors, yet, not enough of these colors, I’ve made a color chart of what his palette probably was.
John Pierce Barnes Palette – it looks a little dark here but see below for actual pastel stickspastels for plein air – in a little cigar box
If it would stop raining I’d take them for a test ride.:)
Using All The Crayons 