Pastel

Something you won't see too much here on the bloggityblog. A pastel, 16x20 from a smaller pastel study on my site. Why? You might ask. A gallery in Nashville is having a show, unbeknownst to me, she went through my site and picked a few paintings for this show themed around a regional river.. Two I had, but this one I didn't have because I only had done the small study, around 6"x6" and had sold it long ago. I think I could have sold that study about 15 times for the number of requests I received for it. So I told her I would gladly do a larger version for the event because it's been a while since I had worked in pastel. Not because the bloom is off the rose for me but because the galleries didn't really want them, even in the best of times. I didn't take it personally, I'm a good pastelist, worked with them for almost 30 years now. But oil is more portable and there's no matting and most importantly, no glass. Pastel is a lovely, fragile medium that gets it's depth mostly from the way the pigments are layered (something I have worked into my oil painting process) to arrive at a color. I work them the same way I do oil wet into wet. Now I have to ship it today and will spend the rest of the day packing the hell out of it. And of course I hope it arrives without damage.

FYI FedEx now has an art box which is made to ship single paintings. It's pretty cool and if you ship it ground, very affordable. Also the box is free or darn near.