Philips Pond II

Phillips Pond II 5 x 7 pastel $100

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I have painted this before, but I really felt like a landscape today, so it's a "do over".

I actually did this in a Liz Haywood Sullivan workshop the first time. Watching her demo at the PSA Materials Fair had me jonesin' for a landscape.

Here is the first one from two years ago.

Phillips Pond  9 x 12 pastel $175

Sophie's Shower

Sophie's Shower 10 x 8 pastel

This is my friend Sophie's very cool shower head in her original '30s or 40's bathroom. 

Getting ready for a workshop in CT and I wanted to try some of the paper and pastels I got over the weekend at the PSA Materials Fair. Oh boy, there will be a learning curve! I tried this as a realistic, serious painting and failed miserably. So I hit it with alcohol and decided to just be loose and have fun. I might attempt this again in a realistic way, but for now here is Sophie's Shower.

PSA Awards Dinner

Last night was the annual Awards dinner at the Pastel Society of America. It was a blast.
I saw old friends, and met new ones. It's a great tribe!

Addiction

It's an addiction. We all know it. We admit it. There are no 12 Step Programs. We support each other. Sometimes we are clean, but the PSA Materials Fair is too much and we fall, hard. If you missed it this year, there is always next year and it gets better every year.

The big pastel weekend at the National Arts Club* is culminating tonight with the Awards Banquet.
I will accept my award and earn my first point towards Master Pastelist.

The 44th Annual Exhibition: Enduring Brilliance will be on view all next week.
Go see it, you will not be disappointed:

* National Arts Club
   15 Gramercy Park South (bet Park and Lex)

   New York, NY

Built For Work

Built For Work  14 x 11 pastel

Back to some realism. I was all ready to post this for 3:00 email distribution and I saw that I had forgotten some of the laces. And I am not sure this is truly finished. I need to sit with it for a few days.

These are my nephew Michael's work boots. He is a very hard worker, as evidenced here.

Tomorrow begins big pastel weekend in NYC so probably no blogs until Monday. Maybe I will see you at the National Arts Club— I promise the show is worth it.

Big NYC Weekend at National Arts Club

It's a big weekend in NYC at the National Arts Club:

On Friday 6 - 8 pm:

Do yourself a favor and catch this event. Richard is charming, funny and a wonderful commentator. Get the lowdown on why these fabulous paintings made it into the Pastel Society of America's 44th Annual Exhibition: Enduring Brilliance.

Then on Saturday from 10 - 4:00  it's the Materials Fair. Pick up a few sticks, or a set. Lots of vendors—can you say "eye candy"?

Autumn Crown

Autumn Crown  6 x6 pastel

Day 17 — I am really slacking. Went to the farmer's market today and grabbed a bunch of veggies to paint from life. This one made it to my still life set up at 4:30, and we were going to neighbors for cocktails "early evening". I had to look up what this squash was called. It's a variety of pumpkin, who knew?

I decided to try the scribble method and just have fun and see what happened. Not my usual style, but fun nonetheless. Being with our fab next door neighbors was even more fun.

Here is a progress shot:

Two Patty's

Two Patty's  5 x 7 pastel

Day 14 — Finally back to the 30/30 after hanging my show. Thank you to all my subscribers who came to the opening.

This is a quick painting to try to get back into the swing of things. But as I started it I thought of my girlfriend and decided to see if she was available to go for Happy Hour and $1 oysters. She was— so I had to rush this one. It's kind of fun to have a time limit. I may repost this because the color is really off and I don't have time to fiddle with it in Photoshop.

I'll let you know how the oysters are!

Empty

Empty  20 x 16 pastel

I have missed a few days of the 30/30 Challenge. What was I thinking signing up when I have to hang a solo show? I will paint as many as I can this month but it's a busy month.

Empty is on the third floor of the manse at South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry NY. It was selected for the Pastel Society of America 44th Annual Exhibition: Enduring Brilliance and won the Pastel Societies of the West and Southwest Award!

If you can, stop in to see the show. Even better, come to the Gallery Tour on Friday Sept 23, 6 - 8.
It's informative and fun to hear Richard McKinley talk about each painting.

Day Tripper

Day Tripper  14 x 17 pastel

Day 4 of the 30/30 Challenge. This Scottish Highland lass was from Highland Hollow Farm
in Schoharie NY. 

I named her Day Tripper because the colors are a little more trippy than I usually use,
and the style a bit looser.

Brooklyn Plane II

Brooklyn Plane II  6 x 14  pastel

I painted this plane for the last 30/30 Challenge and it sold, so here is Brooklyn Plane II. Normally I don't like doing "do-overs" but I really enjoyed this one. 

If you like old tools, come see this one and other vintage tools at my show Collection of Collections. There are over 47 paintings in the show depicting a collection of, yup, collections.

Grumpy

Grumpy  5 x 7 pastel

I called it Grumpy because it looks grumpy and bumpy. The cucumbers were one of the few crops that managed to survive the onslaught of groundhogs and other critters. There is a solar electric fence in my gardening future.