Blog

Long before my journey with pastels I had a love of oil painting. It was always hard to find a place to do my work because it can be quite messy. Sometimes setting up and cleaning up would take away time from the actual creative process. Now that I thankfully have my own studio space I have more time to just create and try new things.

My work has almost always be realistic as I have never had much fondness for the abstract...until lately. Since I have come back to painting after 7 years of pastels, I have a new found interest in the abstract. There is something about it that gets the creative juices flowing. Since I have been experimenting with the style, I realize why I didn't care for it in the past. I just didn't get it. Don't get me wrong, there are some works out there that I still really just don't understand, but I am finding the appeal. As someone who is viewing an artist's abstract piece, it is very easy to ask the question "What were they thinking??" As an artist, sometimes the answer is that they weren't...thinking. It is more about what they are feeling. And that isn't necessarily even emotionally but actually the way the brush feels, in their hand and on the canvas. It truly is an act of expression. That being said I am starting to play around with some abstract techniques and images. 

The painting  "Red Aspens" still have a very realistic quality about it but is starting to move toward the abstract. It was painted with oils on canvas and was like dipping my toe in to test the waters. The painting "Blue Bamboo" however is definitely moving away from the real. I painted this with oil pastels but it was actually applied by melting the pastels with a hot iron. It was a lot of fun to experiment with the different ways I could affect the painting by moving the iron across it, scraping and creating textures. 

I am really looking forward to experimenting with this technique and others in the near future. But fear not my loyal fans, I will still continue to create my realistic paintings as well.

Until next time, have a great and blessed day.