Two Pastel Paintings, Mace Reeds and The River

I have completed two pastel painting this week, both were paintings which I was not sure of and left them to mature before adding final touches.

The first was from a photograph which had been posted by a friend who graciously gave permission for me to use as a reference for the piece. It is basically a photo of a mace reed bed and I was attracted to it because of the multitude of colours which became obvious as you looked at the photo. Very simple on the surface but became less so as you looked hard at it. Here is the painting:-

The range of greens and yellows/browns is actually impressive. The top border consists of reflections of dead and dying foliage at the edge of the pool. In fact I have tried to put some movement into the reeds by snaking the leaves rather than leaving them stiff and straight.

The second pastel is in fact taken from a watercolour painting I did when holidaying at a small village (three houses and a pub) called Cwym Cych, in North Wales close to Abersoch. The pastel is very high key (for me) and reflects the watercolour. The origjnal was a wet-into-wet piece with very few hard lines, so I was unsure whether it would translate into pastel, but here it is:-

If you look carefully at the piece you may see horizontal lines through the top of the LHS trees and across the sky. It appears that the paper was faulty as I have rubbed out the lines and when adding back the pastel the llines have reappeared. These things are sent to try us.

Autumn - acrylic, miniature paintings

Oh boy, I really am having fun with these aceo / atc sized paintings. It has been so long since I used a brush - except to brush away the pastel dust - and I am feeling a little awkward but I will persevere. I have used a relatively large brush for the paintings in the last couple of posts, hence the lack of details. I have tried using an 00 size brush fo a couple of details in these paintings but have been having problems with the viscosity of the paint - I need more practise.

Anyway take a look and see what you think. I have now done seven of these and am considering trying to sell them on Ebay or Etsy. I have received some complimentary comments on Flickr and Facebook. No one seems to read this blog though, note the lack of comments. That's not quite true I know that I do get readers from the stats supplied by Blogger perhaps these are people who come here from those two sites (Flickr / FB) and feel that one comment is enough, LOL.

Here they are:-

Red Sky At Night

The Way Home

As you can see the detail work, especially, leaves a lot to be desired. I will be practising with that brush which may even be a 000. It does not seem to have much in the way of hairs in it, and my old eyes have difficulty with using it. The images are just about life size, on my screen anyway.

If you would like to see some of my watercolour ACEO / ATC's from a while ago then take a minute to watch this video, well it is actually 7 mins but you dont have to stay until the end. The sountrack is also by me. Composed and created on the PC.