Sometimes life just gets in the way -and then there were oil pastels

3" x 5" image

I have not blogged in one heck of a long time -life just got in the way.  What with building projects on our island, redoing 900 square feet of decking in our back yard at Heron's Way, damaging my knee, Mannie breaking her wrist and the subsequent physiotherapy, Mannie and I have had little time for creating art.  Other events also added to our lack of productivity -but enough said.

Today, we ventured into the studio -what a unique place.  Long time no see.  And I spent time readjusting the thermostat as it was not working.  Finally, I got down to work after reconfiguring my work station.

In order to get my hand back to working I am embarking on a series of small art pieces.  Oh, by the way, I got a full set of Sennelier oil pastels for Christmas and I am going to explore this medium in my art works for the year.

 I had gone out a few days ago when the whole world was a little grey and snow had bent most of the trees over into new shapes that seemed to be on the point of cracking.
I took photos and did a small sketch on a 4" x 6" artists' postcard.  I used a Staedler marker to render the sketch.

Today, while in the studio for the first time in a long while, I used the Sennelier pastels to render a drawing/painting of the sketch I had done on yet another 4" x 6" postcard.  Boy, are these pastels buttery.  I drew the image with pencil and used fixative to stop pencil bleeding into the pastel.  I put light coats of underpainting, then blended using light grey and then white.  I pushed white oil pastel onto the card to create that thickness of the heavy snow.

After I have done a number of the smaller pieces, I will do some larger pastel art works for a new art show.