Category Archives: pastel painting

Atmosphere

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Little Langdale

Little Langdale

To painters, atmosphere has two meanings; the emotions conjured up by the image you are creating or the effect of the weather on the scene.

In this painting of Little Langdale the esoteric atmosphere I was trying to create was of an isolated farmhouse, surrounded by the mountains, abandoned and slowly decaying, there are no animals, the roof is beginning to sag and the wilderness is returning to the fields. All is not lost though, the roof is intact. Perhaps someone will make it a home once again.

The other meaning of the word atmosphere in this painting is created by the use of colour, tone, and detail. These are the three essential ingredients to help you create a sense of recession in your painting, and I make no apology for referring to them time and time again. Keep the distant features cooler in colour, lighter in tone and with less detail than the foreground and middle distance features and you will be well on your way to inviting your viewer into the picture,

You can read more about this aspect of painting and many other tips in my book, Painting with Pastels, published by Search Press. There is also a DVD of the same name to accompany the book and a special offer on the two together.

More Pan Pastels – Monument Valley

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This is another painting that I did with Pan Pastel. This time I used a sheet of white Clairefontaine Pastel Mat paper. This paper has a good tooth which is not quite so ‘sharp’ as sandpaper.

The challenge this time was the warm colour of the distant features, especially the right hand mitten, which would make creating a sense of recession quite difficult. When the painting was almost finished the colours of the two ‘mittens’ was very similar so I loaded the oval sponge with a light coating of white pan pastel and patted it gently over the distant ‘butte’ to push it into the distance.

My family and I travelled to Monument Valley earlier this year to celebrate my 60th birthday. Since a child I have loved cowboy films and many of them were filmed in this very special scenery. To fulfill one of my lifetime ambitions, we hired horses and went riding through the buttes with a Navajo guide. We also went to the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Mesa Verde, so we ticked off several more of my amibitions whilst we were there.

Experimenting

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Twilight Cottage

In order to develop our painting skills, it is a good idea to experiment from time to time, Often this starts with just making a bit of a mess. A while ago I wanted to try using Mixed Media on the sandpaper, Fisher 400 Artpaper, that I love to use for my pastel paintings, as I was aware that it was waterproof, unlike the industrial sandpaper that I used before Fisher 400 was produced.

This painting of Twilight Cottage, started with an ink outline of the building, followed by a watercolour wash of Naples Yellow and Ultramarine in the sky and Cadmium Orange and Cadmium Yellow in the foreground. I let this all mingle and some of the ink drawing ran into the washes.

At first I thought that this was a mistake but when it was dry the dirtyness of the cottage appealed to me and also suggested a low light. So I worked into the painting with pastel, leaving large areas of the watercolour washes showing and added some undergrowth in the foreground with the scraping technique, which involves scraping flakes of pastel onto the painting and pressing them into the surface with a palette knife. This creates a spatter which resembles flowers or seed heads.

You can read how to create the scraping technique in my book, and you can see it demonstrated in film on my DVD,. The book and dvd are entitled Painting with Pastel and are on special offer our website.

Pan Pastels

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Recently, I’ve been experimenting with the new Pan Pastels made by a US company. They come in flat cakes, and are applied with sponges. The finely ground pigment creates vivid colours and soft, subtle nuances of tone. Blending is easy with the various shaped sponges and Sofft ™ tools which come in a range of different shapes and sizes.

You can combine the Pan Pastels with pastel pencils for the fine detail and the use of colour shapers, especially the flat chisels allows you to sharpen endges. If you like painting pastels onto sandpaper, as I do, you will find that the use of the sponges for applying and blending the colours avoids the problem of damaging your fingers of the abrasive surface of the sandpaper.

You also use a lot less pastel and there very little dust. I am delighted with the way this new form of pastel paint forces me to use new techniques and develop my style in a new and exciting direction.

Visit the Pan Pastel website to find out more and visit their facebook page, where you will find more of my work in pan pastels displayed. Comments welcome

Free Demonstrations at Aberlasney Gardens

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Clegyr Boia

Clegyr Boia, Pembrokshire

I am at Aberglasney Gardens in Carmarthenshire tomorrow, 15th September all day where I am taking part in a joint exhibition.

I will be painting off and on during the day. You are welcome to come and watch.

I will also be there on Saturday 17th and Thursday 22nd .
The exhibition continues until 22nd September