Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Monday morning drawing class

"Fall Pears"
14" x 12" Pastel


The setup

Here is my Monday morning production. I really liked this still life. The lovely pottery vase was nicely complemented by the leaves and pears. I am always amazed that chalk can make a shiny object. With less than three hours to draw and paint this piece, instructor Bob Semans showed me how to quickly create the impression of leaves with simple strokes of the side of the pastel chalk. I like the texture and diffuse minor elements next to the carefully rendered vase and fruit. Unfortunately, I'm not a great photographer so colors and contrast are a bit off in spite of invoking Photoshop.You can see that our instructor is using a light box these days.

My pastels are generally NuPastel  Prismacolor which are rather hard sticks. The reason I chose them, as many in our class did, was because of price. Pastels can be very expensive. Sennelier can be $6.00 a stick! However, a couple years ago I saw that one of the online art suppliers had a modest set of Rembrandt soft pastels for a very reasonable price, so I bought them. I guess I wasn't experienced enough, because they did not work for me then, and I stored them away.

Monday I grabbed that box along with my NuPastels and mostly used the Rembrandt soft pastels. I found them amazingly easy to work with, which must mean I have developed more skill. Friend and accomplished pastelist, Judith, told me she loves Sennelier soft pastels, and  Dakota Art Pastels had a great deal on a box online. Now, we are still talking serious money, but I decided that this is my birthday present to me and ordered them. I triumph over another year of life on December 3, so let's celebrate!

6 comments:

Autumn Leaves said...

Mary, I always love your pastel work. Always beautiful and this is no exception. This is one darned beautiful still life set up. I think one of the prettiest I've ever seen and it would be fun to paint.

Candy said...

Mary, this is absolutely gorgeous! Happy Birthday! I will drink a toast to you and your new pastels on Tuesday:)

Happy Thanksgiving, too!

hmuxo said...

I enjoyed your post so much Mary..
This still life painting is FANTASTIC ... a beautiful piece!!
I start my pastel paintings with NuPastel and finish with Rembrandt soft pastels... I've tried Sennelier but find them too soft.. they have crumbled where I had to return them since they're so expensive. Have a wonderful day!

Mary Paquet said...

Thanks so much, friends. Oh, dear, Hilda. I am going to own a very large collection of Sennelier and I hope I am not disappointed with them. You are a master at pastels.

Great suggestion for starting with the harder pastels and finishing with the softer ones.

artisoo said...

nice drawing!

pattrsnd said...

Beautiful work, Mary!!