Orange Vase with figs

I was out most of the day as it was the first Wednesday of the month, which is Foston Studio day.  I had a lovely day, there were six of us today which made it work very well.  I managed to finish (I think) the piece I was working on last month, and I have started another which looks as if it will work OK.  I will post them on my other blog when I have time.

I worked on yesterday's pastel for half-an-hour after dinner tonight, but I had loads of other things to do, and I am rather tired.  The painting still isn't resolved, but it is getting better.  The bowl isn't the right colour, I think maybe dull green.

Orange vase with figs

Another busy day tomorrow, but hopefully I will get some time to paint.

Pastel painting

This is a pastel painting which I worked from a book, 'Painting the Landscape in Pastel' by Albert Handell. This is an excellent book, showing a loose impressionist style of painting which I love. I don't usually work from books, preferring my own photographs whenever possible, however, I am a novice when it comes to using pastels, and need all the help I can get.  I think this is a good beginning, and I intend to work more pastel paintings in the near future.

Pastel painting 12 x 12 inch

I made the ground for this painting by first painting heavy watercolour paper with blue acrylic, making sure the brush marks were random and in different directions.  When that was dry I added a thin coating of Golden Acrylics Micaceous Iron Oxide which has a gritty texture, but is fairly transparent if applied thinly.  When dry this gave a good surface for the pastels.