Pigcture

Soft Pastel, 25x20 cm (8x10") on home made pastel paper
painted after photo by Valri Ary (WetCanvas member)

Donkey ride

soft pastel 20x20 cm (8x8") on blue Canson MT Touch paper
painted after photo by Rosalind Amorin

Minja

 

 Soft pastel on paper. Size 15x20cm (6x8")

I finally bought a book by Ellen Eagle "Pastel Painting Atelier" and spend many evenings studying how she is doing those wonderful portraits. Ellen used to study under the guidance of the great pastel master Harvey Dinnerstain, which I also know as a teacher of other great portrait pastelist Sam Goodsell.

This portrait of my wife is the 6th version of the same pose and I finally liked the combination of the paper texture and the pastel application. The paper was gessoed cardboard, colored with gray green acrilycs. After the acrilyc dryed, 3 layers of Golden pastel primer were used to get the rough surface for pastel.

Ellen Eagle

Ellen Eagle

Harvey Dinnerstain

Sam Goodsell

Plum Bloom

Soft pastel on black Canson MT. Size 20x15cm (8x6")

Venice, Virtual paintout

Soft Pastel, 25x20 cm (10x8") on indigo Canson MT paper.

check out more Virtual Paintout paintings of Venice.

William Mario Chase

PanPastel  15x20cm (6x8") on Canson MT Touch paper.

This is copy of my favorite portrait by William Merritt Chase. It was a quick study in PanPastels with the yellow background done with regular-non-pan soft pastel. The smooth strokes with pans work for me on the face, but I love some background color to peek through pastel layers at least on the background.

The Pastels Girault Arrived

And here they are!!! This beautiful set of 50 top quality Girault Pastels arrived this morning. It is the prize for the first place at Get Dusty for May 2013. I got the Selection by Claude Texier. I did not have a chance to choose, but this set would have been my choice anyways!!! If you are not aware of the works by Claude Texier I invite you to visit her site and enjoy the amazing pastel paintings. I'm a big fan of her works, and now that I have set that she picked for me, all I have to do is to paint :). I haven't had any Giraults so far and I'm looking forward to the new pastel adventures.

Awaiting an Artist

Soft pastel 30x30cm (12x12") on Canson MT Touch paper

This painting "Awaiting an Artist" was the winner at the Get Dusty Competition for May 2013 organized by the Pastel Guild of Europe.

I did a lot of preparation and made many setups for this painting. This was so much not my way of doing painting but the end result was a painting that I still watch and enjoy. I guess the lesson learned from this is to always carefully plan the composition and the colors.

The additional honor was the use of it for the cover of the Pastel Scribbler newsletter for June 2013.

Here is what the jury said:

Great abstract simplicity in the arrangement makes this painting

a real eye catcher. The muted background lets the brighter colours really shine.

The application of pastel is simple and straight forward, using the darkness of

the paper to provide some variety and structure to the areas. The little corner

of tape curling up in the foreground is adding to the realism.

Don't Drink and Paint

Soft pastel 30x30cm (12x12") on Canson MT Touch paper

Eaten in 3 Days

soft pastel, 40x30cm (16x12") on Canson MT Touch

After 3 days of eating nothing but raw very/fruit juices all that is left from the veggies is this painting.