Start and Finish!

"Field and Fall Woods in Mist", Pastel, 11 x 16 in

In-Progress

Here's a pastel which I just finished (top photo). Looking back to where it started (bottom photo), I'm surprised to see how much it 'grew', and some of the ways in which it needed to change that I couldn't know until I got going with it- kind of like a trek in to uncharted land. Unlike most of my works (which begin en plein air), this one derived from a photo which my husband took at Camp Woodward. I began the pastel as a demo during the pastel workshop which I taught with the Standing Stone Art League this fall, and the bottom photo shows the wash technique which I wanted to teach (see brush strokes and transparent passages). I like to keep starts loose and simple, to establish energy and related shapes, which can be built upon and refined once present, yet are hard to add on as 'retrofits' late in the process. I liked the mood of calm interest (mist and bright colors), and arc forms, and centered the painting around these elements. Part way through, I extended the arc in the left foreground (lower left field) all the way across the image to 'support' the right side and balance the arcs elsewhere in the painting (in trees, background ridges, and the negative space of the sky). I'm pleased with the 'wholeness' of the finished work, and can look at it a long time and still find more to notice. It's fun and instructive to see 'before and after'!