Pastel Painting -Spring

This painting is in my normal style for pastel paintings but the subject is not one which I am really happy with. The background and water are fine but the bank on the LHS contains many individual flowers. I have not drawn/painted them in any botanical detail but still I was not in my comfort zone.

I have attempted to vary the size and tone to create some recession but not sure wether I am happy with the outcome, also it is far too divided into the four zones; forest on the far bank, sky, water and the yellow flowers on the near bank. I have used colour, sparingly, to try and bring some sort of overall belonging to these four zones. I am not however sure that the compostion works. Still, I am always happy to post my failures as well as my imagined successes. Let me know what you think.

New page on Squidoo, Texture with Pastels

I have just published a new article (=lens) on Squidoo. I have posted a number of times on here about pastel paintings and the wonderful texture that it is possible to obtain. I have decided to share this technique more widely and have written the article with examples of my own art work to demonstrate the technique.

The article can be found under the title, Creating Texture With Artist's Pastels.

Of course I have posted all of the examples in this blog before but I have written a much more joined-up article to describe the technique in detail. From an overall initial layer, often in a complementary colour to the process od adding details and texture a little at a time. Sometimes using a little blending, but always fixing the pastels right up to the very light, final stages so that mixing of colours on the paper does not happen.

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I mentioned that I had had difficulty finding another source for the ATC sized canvasses which I have been using lately. Problem solved, the original supplier has now got replcement stocks. I am going to stock up with them, enough to last me for sometime to come.

Snowdrops at Painswick in artists pastel

Another tree painting!

Well, I can't resist. We visited Painswick Roccoco Gardens (Cotswolds, UK) this week and I was knocked out by an "art in the garden" exhibition. Mostly sculpture and installations as you might expect but adult art classes are also run during the year. On the day of our visit, there was a small group of artists working with pastels on the subject of architectural paintings in a garden/natural setting. Not really my subject but it did inspire a little sketching and photographs in the gift shop gave me a perfect subject. Apparently, the gardens has the largest naturalistic planting of snowdrops in the UK. I was hooked.

This is a direct result as soon as I got home (well, I did help to unpack first):-

I think I quite like this one, of course I am still using the side of the pastel to create texture in the bulk of the painting:-

as you can see in this detail of trees. But I can't help thinking I may try this again and use this approach for the snowdrops (a maass of colour) rather thata trying to paint them individually as I have here.

Watch this space!

Spanish Sunset - Pastel Painting

OK, I have painted another pastel, this time not a tree in sight.

It is taken from a book called 30 minute PASTELS. I love the loose style which the author adopts to complete a painting in this short time. Exactly the way I like to paint. I have actually done this once before but the result was not quite as I wanted it. I was at a loose end this week and flipping through one or two books and magazines and came across this particular image. I knew straight away that i had to have another shot at it.

The beauty of this one is the use of the side of the pastel stick to create incredible textures. And of course the redness of it! Makes a fantastically emotive landscape, I feel. The drawing is not as good as it should be but using thick pastel sticks it is difficult to work with any detail.

Anyway here it is for your perusal, I would love to know what you think about it.

The way I approach this sort of painting is to first of all create a background in a suitable colour using the sides of the pastel sticks. I would normally use more than one colour, creating a complementary under-painting which I fix with (shock horror) cheap hair spray. This has two functions:-

• It prevents the "empty canvas" syndrome and subsequent procrastination.
• It provides a marvellous tooth for subsequent layers of pastel.

In this case I had already got a background in my satchel, I had prepared a few earlier without any consideration of what the final paintings may look like. The background in question was simply the perfect colour for this piece.

You will notice that it is not made to be uniform, it could have been far more varied but for this subject as I said it seemed perfect.

I then carefully selected a few pastels; yellows, reds and oranges and stroked the paper with the side of the sticks to create the variation of colour in the sky and the water. Light and loose strokes provide the required texture, which can be seen in the following details.

It is important to use a light touch and to skim the surface. This leaves the background showing through, so it is important to use a background with the right colours. I did say above that I often use a complementary colour (to the top layer) which gives a really sparkling effect. Here though, The colours are from an analogous (hot) colour scheme.


To complete the painting, one or two details; the sun and its reflections are included with a subtle approach - not too much to stand out uneccesarily. The far shore / mountains are created in a very similar way using a dark brown and a soft black.

Finally the two boats are then drawn in a soft black pastel. As I said, the drawing could have been better and if I do it again (as if I would!) I will use a thin stick of soft charcoal so that I can put a little more detail in here. Not too much just a little more detail.



It always feels good to get out of a rut and this painting has certainly pleased me both in its creation and its final appearance. (offers accepted. LOL)