oil pastels
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Saturday, May 6th, 2006
Texas Paintbrush, Fort Worth, Texas, 14H x 11W inches oil pastels on paper, framed with 3 inch white double mat and white wood frame with crackle finish, total size 26H x 22W inches. Impressionistic style using soft, blended technique with the pastels, portrays the feeling of walking in a dry sandy field on a warm Spring day in northern Texas. Sold.
Southern Spring – Scurvy Pea
Friday, May 5th, 2006
Southern Spring – Scurvy Peas, Grapevine, Texas USA. During April, chubby spikes of deep red and red-brown clover-like herbs called Scurvy Pea sweep across dry fallow fields and roadsides in the southern United States (Genus Psoralia cuspidata), 14H x 11W inches oil pastels on paper, framed with 3 inch white double mat and white wood frame with crackle finish, total size 26H x 22W inches. 3 days of sculpting; oil pastels were applied, removed, reapplied and reworked. Sold.
Southern Utah
Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006
Red Rocks in Southern Utah, 14H x 11W inches oil pastels on paper, 3-inch-wide white double mat and 26H x 22W inch white custom-built white wood frame with crackle finish.
Part of the Paper Places series. I find driving anywhere preferable to flying because of scenery like the landscape in Southern Utah. The colors and patterns are stunning!
Goldenrod
Sunday, April 23rd, 2006
Goldenrod, late Summer in Southern Alberta, 14H x 11W inches oil pastels on paper, 3-inch-wide white double mat and 26H x 22W inch white custom-built white wood frame with crackle finish.
This piece exemplifies the individuality of each in the Paper Places series; not attempting depth or realism so much here as playing with design, contrasting colors and texture.
Silent Witness
Friday, April 21st, 2006
Silent Witness, Juniper at Grand Canyon, Arizona USA, 14H x 11W inches oil pastels on paper, Paper Places series, 3-inch-wide white double mat and 26H x 22W inch white custom-built white wood frame with crackle finish.
Arkansas July 6:45 a.m.
Tuesday, April 18th, 2006
Hwy 30 through Arkansas, July 6:45 a.m.,14H x 11W inches oil pastels on paper, Paper Places series, 3-inch-wide white double mat, 26H x 22W inch white custom wood frame with crackle finish, sold.
Driving back to Texas on our annual 2 1/2 day trip to eastern Ontario, I enjoy being on the road before sunrise. On lengthy journeys it’s best to take advantage of every splendor along the way, then the trip doesn’t seem to take so long.
Eucalyptus Tree
Sunday, April 16th, 2006
Eucalyptus Tree, Queen Mary’s Falls, Queensland, Australia, 14H x 11W inches oil pastels on paper, Paper Places series. 3 inch wide white double mat and 26H x 22W inch white custom-built white wood frame with crackle finish.
Post-dated note: This drawing earned a spot in American Art Jury’s 2007 Spring/Summer online exhibition and gallery http://www.artjury.com
Galahs in Traffic, reworked
Friday, April 14th, 2006
Galahs in Traffic, 14H x 11W inches oil pastels on paper, has 3-inch-wide white double mat and 26H x 22W inch white custom-built white wood frame with crackle finish.
Flocks of Galahs fly head on into cars on the highway while driving to the Kangaroo Island ferry, South Australia. A tragic phenomenon – many lay dead on the side of the road, for miles. This is a busy highway, and next to stopping, it was almost impossible to miss them.
This started out to be a drawing of the Norfolk Island Pines growing in the south-central coastal regions of Australia. It’s not unusual for me to completely re-work oil pastel drawings after a day or two of work, when they could be called finished. Sometimes after a period of study, radical changes are in order, as in this case. After two days of work, while recalling the horrifying scene that day, it was clear that the style in the first stage of the drawing was stagnant and ordinary. Adding the blurry, in-your-face Galah is much more effective. See the first version here.
Post-dated note in 2007: Galahs in Traffic placed in Artjury.com’s 2007 Fall/Winter Juried Online Exhibition.
Post-dated note, 2022: Accepted in the J. Mane Gallery’s Fins, Feathers and Fur 2020 exhibition.
Galahs in Traffic, version 1
Wednesday, April 12th, 2006
Galahs in Traffic, version 1 – this drawing started out to be a portrait of the Norfolk Island Pines growing in this coastal area of South Australia. Many of the oil pastel pieces in the Paper Places series have a first stage at the end of a day or two worth of work where it could be called finished, then after studying for a few days, months or even years, if it’s not dynamic enough it may need to be changed.
This is an area unlike any other, where flocks of Galahs flew directly into the traffic on the main highway leading to the Kangaroo Island ferry. Dead Galahs lay along the side of the road for miles. After two days of work and recalling the horrifying feelings of seeing all those dead birds, it’s clear that the drawing as it is in the stage above, is stagnant and kind of ordinary even though it could be called finished. The style needs reworking because of the subject matter and what takes place there every day.
Gold In The Mountains 02
Sunday, April 2nd, 2006
Gold In The Mountains 02, Kananaskas Valley, Alberta, Canada, 11H x 14W oil pastels on paper, 3-inch-wide white double mat and 26H x 22W inch white custom-built white wood frame with crackle finish.
Aspen / Poplar trees in the Rocky Mountains during Autumn display large yellow-gold leaf masses, represented here with strokes in a diagonal direction. Textures in varying directions add interest, as in tree trunks marked vertically across the entire page, grounding the drawing as a whole with regard to composition. The green-black portion displays the vertical growth of evergreens. Horizontal strokes were appropriate for the mountain, with the golden glow of distant poplars softening its nature and place it back in distance.