I bundled up because it was extremely cold today and headed outside for some fresh air. I used a clip board to hold my small sketchbook and a small box of oil pastels. I needed to keep it really simple and easy to pick up pastels as I was wearing enormous mittens and with the freezing temperatures I had to work very quickly. The sun was setting and thus hitting the far trees across the field. I laid down a very thin layer of the lightest blue then used a heavy application of white and rubbed it hard to smear or blend it together. Click on the picture to view it a bit larger.
Just had to share some good news, today I sold one of my bird paintings! I have just recently decided to release this one, I painted it in 1985 and never really wanted to part with it. I met Shirley and she told me it really caught her eye and though I’ve had people desire to buy it before, I just never felt ready to let it go. Well, it’ll have a good home I think, both her and her husband love nature and art. I think she came to the right place then at my gallery as those are two things very important to me!
Shirley with her new painting!
The painting is done with soft pastels for the background and oil pastels for the bird. I was difficult to do the details in oil pastels but I chiseled off the tip of the crayon to make small marks. A light hand and building layers of color is important. Shirley asked about how it feels to part with a painting and commented on how hard it must be. I think an artist has to decide, some of their art they can keep forever or pass down to their loved ones, but it feels good to share what others see as a treasure and beautiful. I love sharing my love of my subjects, birds, horses, trees, nature and people.
Proud owner of a new painting
To see more bird paintings visit my gallery, I have four different sections in the bird gallery- birds of prey, owls, water birds and perching birds. Click here to visit. I also have interesting paintings with birds in my Fantasy Gallery and my Goddesses Gallery.
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After a long night time drive from Muncaster, I arrived at Rydal Water and settled into my room at Cote How Bed and Breakfast. I had only one day to explore as I spent an extra day under Muncaster’s spell. I spent the entire day hiking, taking photos, sketching, talking to people and video taping. Every few steps I had to stop and exclain “wow”…”oh!”…”beautiful!”…I couldn’t stop taking pictures. I wish I had a week so I could really go out to draw and paint. I’ll do work from the photos in the studio and try to return there perhaps to teach a class as we hike around the lake?
After a wonderful breakfast at the Cote How b+b, I came down a path and this is the view of the lake as I approached. The day had a promise of rain; I had my rain gear in my backpack, some snacks bought on the way to Rydal, bottle of water, and extra art supplies. My video camera was hanging from my waist in handy reach, 35mm around my neck, and my art kit hanging from my waist also. Umm…I felt a little like a pack horse but believe me I tried to keep it light! I always try to not carry too much, my back just can’t take it.
Sometimes the path veers away from the lake but always followes along through woods and over hills. Every gate I came to was set in a different scene, mood and lighting. I saw wooden gates and metal, all attached to ancient stone walls with lush green moss on anthing that wasn’t moving!
Once I got out and walked next to the lake, I did a really quick sketch looking across to the other side. I put color notes on the sketch and wrote about some nice walkers I met along the way.
Another gate, this one is for the cows who are lazily lounging along the lake. I put a video clip at the end of this post that shows this view with the wall. Can you see the other side across the water? That’s where I’m eventually headed, this hike today will take me around the entire Rydal Water lake.
Ok…no one said the hike was super easy! This is one part of my walk that took me up the mountain on the other side of the lake. Sometimes I was following a dry creek bed for a path.
After that part of the hike I smartly decided to sit and have lunch, maybe it was a cover so when people walked by they wouldn’t notice my heavy breathing! haha…I sat and did a micron pen sketch of the gate on the path. I added notes about color and things so I could remember later if I do a painting. Just as I finished the sketch my favorite little European Robin landed on the gate! I had to sketch him in.
I’m on the other side of the lake now…looking back and down the valley at the sheep in the fields. They were everywhere, wandering about even on the paths were I was walking.
Along the way I met all kinds of nice people, this is a group of photographers from Scotland. I knew they’d be friendly if I chatted with them, I have friends in Buffalo who go shooting and they love talking shop. As we talked standing along the valley stone wall, a friendly European Robin came and started looking for handouts. One of the group put some crumbs out and we became instant friends with the little bird! Here’s a picture taken with my tiny camera on zoom, not so great for clarity, but it works!
I love when you’re hiking along and if you keep your eyes open, really take notice of what you see, you may see something almost underfoot, literally! I was chatting with an older gentleman while up on the far side of the mountain, a good thing to do to catch your breath. I pointed out a dung beetle crawling along on the ground. I took lots of photos…it’s just great to look at later and notice all the cool things you don’t see at the time. His feet had long ‘toe’ parts, his antennae were a beautiful color with several parts to it, his legs a gorgeous deep purple. When I looked at him from above he was just like the ancient scarabs the Egyptians used in their jewelry. Ok..yes, he’s still a dung beetle, as I studied him…he crawled directly across the path and found..umm…dung! I spared you the picture of that!
This I did while up at the highest point, looking down at the b+b I came from. I stradled a cold, damp stone wall and tried to sit on my coat. I had to hang one leg over the side towards the valley, it was a pretty big drop off. People passed by and I just tried to do my best with my small set of oil pastels, smearing the clouds as the weather changed and mist came in.
This quick sketch was done on the fly…the weather was changing and I was a little worried about how long it would take me to finish my hike. I did take pictures so I could do a little color study later, if I can I’ll post it.
And this is the last page of my sketchbook for today that I wrote while at the Badger Pub. After my hike I freshened up at the b+b then walked the back path to cross over the bridge to the pub. The dinner was excellent and when 9pm rolled around, we were invited to go out back of the pub to watch the badgers get fed! I counted at least nine of them! It was really cool, my only experience with badgers was when I was a zookeeper, his name was Boris! You had to keep a shovel between you and him to keep from being nipped!
I hope you enjoy the video clip below of the lake from my hike. It was a fantastic walk that has filled my memory with wonderful things. I hope you come along with me on the rest of my journey in England!
This is a little oil pastel I did while eating breakfast on my back deck, I started it the other day and finished it today. Done on canvas paper, I laid down the first layer by drawing sky color and grass and then scrubbing lightly with a bristle brush and mineral spirits. I then sketched in the tree trunks as thinly as I could in greys and light browns. I added clumps of light green for the leaves and then added darker green under to make them stand out. I put the grass colors on, and the dry grass color, which I then used the rubber pastel blender to drag the grass up into the green. I also used the rubber blender to smooth over the tree trunks, this helped to get rid of the canvas texture.
The sky was laid in darker colors at the top and lighter towards the bottom, I put white very heavy where the clouds would be, then I was able to blend into the cloud with sky color a bit. This was all a very ‘back and forth’ process, I thought it was finished then picked up another color and added leaves, then added back to the sky, and so on. I used a paper clip to scratch grass into the field, and then my initials into the painting.
I used my tiny Olympus camera to take pictures of this so I could upload it with my laptop. This is to test how I can update my blog while I’m traveling, so far so good!
Hope you enjoyed todays updates!
This is a 5″ x 5″ little sketch I did with oil pastels from a magazine cover about Northumberland, England. My friend in Northumberland sent me these great magazines so I could get to know the area a little better, as I’ll be visiting it in Sept this year. The difficulty in the sketch was just that it was so small, but I want to do more on a 5″x5″ format so I can get a collection that would look nice hanging together. To do details I used a razorblade to cut angles on the ends of some of my crayons…and used it also to scratch off details on the house. You can especially see it where I signed my initials.
Hope you like it, I can’t wait to get there personally and so lots of nature studies and landscapes!
Late last night I decided to play with my oil pastels while watching 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Well between scenes of Captain Nemo and Kirk Douglas I did a painting 9×12″ on canvas paper. I worked from a photo I took just the other morning when I did the Sunrise, Coffee and PJ’s post. So you’ll see a similarity between the sunrise paintings, but in this one the sun is UP now, more contrast in the clouds and color in the sky.
The canvas paper is something I’ve never used oil pastels on, but it’s supposed to be good because it’s coated with gesso to protect the paper from the oils in the pastels. I liked how easy it was to smear or blend BUT…I did not like how soon everything got too slippery to add more color. I will try the Fredrix brand of canvas paper next to see how that behaves, it’s real canvas in a tablet form. The one I used for my ‘sunrise’ painting is Daler-Rowney oil painting paper. Besides trying out the Fredrix brand I’ll also try gessoing some illustration board and see how that works. I have a feeling I’ll like it without the weave and still be able to play around with linseed oil or turpintine if I want. This isn’t something I have ever used with my oil pastel paintings, but I would like to try it more and you can’t use these mediums if you are working on regular paper. I hope you liked my Sunrise!
At around 7:30 this morning I was making my coffee in the studio. My studio looks out over fields and faces east, so I usually get great views of the sunrise. I grabbed an 8×10″ sketchbook and my oil pastels and did a quick little landscape while still in my pajamas! Hey you gotta do it when you can and gorgeous sunrises don’t stick around!
I first quickly laid on light greys for the clouds shapes because the wind moved them so fast. Then I built up the greys and blues and added light blue for the light parts of the sky. With oil pastels it’s hard to get a very light blue so you have to add lots of white. I put the blue on very light then rub white on top and smear it with my fingertips. The heavier you put oil pastels on, the nicer it is to blend, but you have to plan ahead. It’s not like blending paints, you can’t really go back and alter colors very much. After the sun broke through the clouds it was too hard to look at, so I worked on the ground and trees to finish it.
I scanned the colors I used for you to see them alone.
This is a sketch in oil crayons I did while looking out my studio window in December.I have made up a small kit of easy to carry art supplies and am giving the oil crayons a go. It’s been years since I’ve used them but am looking for transportable color. I always liked using them as you can smear them like oil paint, thought it’s a bit harder to do! But they won’t smudge all over in a sketch book like soft pastels can. They are a bit hard to get detail with if your sketching with them, but you can if you take your time and sharpen the end with a blade.
Anyhow….to keep my small kit small…I broke the oil crayons in half, half for my kit, half in a baggie to keep in studio. This way I can try out colors, see what works, what doesn’t.
This little ditty I did outside, while bundled up in snow bib overalls, boots with wool socks, down coat, wool hat, scarf over half my face and leather gloves. I did the painting (6″x 8″) with Oil Pastels that I cut in half so I could fit more in my little field kit. Do you know how hard it is to paint/draw with a one inch chunk of crayon while wearing bulky gloves and fffffrrrreeeeezzzing to death?? I actually worked as quickly as possible, laying down some outlines for the shadows and other shapes with pale grey, then drew in some shadow and tree color so I could finish it inside later. I took some pics with my Canon 20D…even looking at those later, you can’t see the colors in the tree as well. That is why it’s so important to work from life!
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