Wonderful to Paint Outdoors!

Alice Kelsey painting at Spring Creek

With the sudden onrush of spring, I've taken off to paint outdoors, and it feels great! I love the feel of the elements- sun and wind and a touch of chill, and exploring on foot until I come upon places that speak to me. Right now, there's way too many to keep up with! I've been painting with a friend, and fellow artist Jeanne McKinney at area streams, and we've been out a dawn a few times to catch that special morning light and atmosphere. Even while searching for a motif, I saw many special things that I miss on an average day- a sliver of a moon beaming above darkness, a bald eagle, kindly people interested in art and flyfishing, a spring so forceful that it made bubbly rushing sounds underground about twenty yards before it emerged.. We also hiked in several miles to a remote mountain stream and old growth hemlock- a special place. I brought several 'starts' back to the studio, and am pleased to see the essence of these places in the images.

In Between (Seasons and Creating)

Alice Kelsey sketching crocuses (and cat watching)

I saw crocuses blooming right off our back porch yesterday, and was happy to see these bright, colorful harbingers of spring! I was eager to paint them, and yet couldn't quite put all of the elements together. Here's how it went.

It was rather cold, so I put on a bunch of layers, and started sketching. I saw luscious color, and wanted to try to 'get it', so I grabbed my pastel box, and started a pastel sketch. Then it started to snow heavily, getting the pastels all wet (which dissolves them), so I retreated indoors and waited until the squall left. I then layered on clothes and collected pastels again, and returned to painting outdoors. Next there were cat problems- our barn cat (see in upper left corner of photo) kept climbing all over me purring, and walking around obstructing my view of the crocuses. So I put the cat in the house! And then it started to snow heavily again! The more that I looked at the crocuses, the more that I saw a fantastic hard-to-name purpley-violet spiced with the aliveness of something growing..... and yet I couldn't find it in my pastels. And I admired the delicate forms of the plants, yet couldn't find a way to convey this with hands which felt cold and clumsy, and my focus scattered and dissipated in so many logistical challenges.

So right now I feel 'in-between'- an inspiration which fills me, yet I do not yet know how to put down on paper or canvas. I'll go out with the crocuses again today, and am thankful for the sun. And I'll put the cat in the house! And maybe I'll take oils to search for that color. I guess that there are these shifting times, stepping back and forth, in the natural world as well as creative process. I hope to continue growing!

Thinking of Spring

Here's a pastel which I finished today, featuring one of my favorite finds of spring- apple blossoms! I know that we're not quite there today, but I was happy to pull out an image which I started last spring from blossoms from an old variety apple tree that came with our farm. It's one of those tall, older varieties, that creates a nice sculptural form at the edge of our pasture. It was joyful to remember this tree and spring while working on this piece today!

Exploring and Sketching at Black Moshannon!

Black Moshannon State Park

Yesterday, I loaded up my backpack with pastels and easel, lunch, and a luxury item of a thermos of hot coffee, and went hiking in Black Moshannon State Park.

I feel renewed and curious about this unique place. The bog ecosystem seems to suspend season and time- traversing moss-coated, lumpy,  rhododendron- lined sections seemed like being in a rain forest- wet and lush, more water than land. In other sections, there was snow and ice, and deciduous trees more typical of central PA. As I walked further into the interior, I passed by springs swelling from the ground, vigorous enough to create small streams heading for the lake.

Reaching a quiet inner rhythm after a while, I realized that much of my connections with the place were with sound and touch, rather than my usually predominant visual sense. I heard the wind sweep the treetops, musical bubbly trickles in the springs, and my footsteps squish in mud and moss, crunch on winter berry, and silent on sandy stretches. Warmth beamed from the sun and coolness from snow. Time seemed hard to finger.... saturated and savored richly in the moment, yet somehow evaporating before I knew it.... I guess much like the wetland itself! I did a few pencil sketches, yet the greatest treasure from the journey was the touch and sounds of the earth here where they are so close to the surface to share in, and fill my heart and spirit.

Handmade Pastel Palettes

Here's a photo of a wonderful gift from my husband! He used his woodworking skills and ingenuity to create five shallow wooden boxes to hold my pastels for in-progress paintings. This temporary storage system allows me to keep a 'palette' for each painting that I'm working on, saving the time and sometimes challenging hunt for finding just the right color for a given work. It also suits my style of creating, often working in bursts over weeks to months on each painting, resting the work until I'm clear what it needs. The curly maple box (foreground) and walnut box (on left) each contain pastel pieces which I am using for paintings this week. The boxes stack (see three stacked boxes at top of photo), an are easy to store on a shelf away from my working surface- also helpful since my studio space is small. Another nice design feature that Tim invented is the use of different woods for each box- easy to tell apart, and pretty to boot! Thanks, Tim!

Paintings Off to New Home!

I spent much of the morning today packing two paintings snugly in foam-padded Airfloat crates, and delivering them in to the hands of FedEx to ship to their new home! One of the paintings, pictured above, was recently included in a national juried exhibition in VA. I'm really happy that the works were selected to become parts of the lives of others and reach farther out in the world!

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'!