New Soft Pastel Painting; Soft Colors

Hello Everyone;
I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend.  My wife and I broke out of Illinois and went on the lamb to Wisconsin on Saturday. We actually went into non essential stores (Hobby Lobby and Michaels) and walked around small towns where life is close to normal again.
Sunday we bought a steel fire pit from Menards (store was packed like I have never seen before) put it together and had a fire Sunday night.
Today we relaxed a bit and, of course, I painted.
Here is another soft pastel painting I completed an hour ago.  I used my last sheet of Le Carte pastel paper from Sennelier.  Well, this may have been the last sheet I had, but I will be ordering more soon.  I was torn between pastel mat and e carte and for me, le carte works best.  Both are wonderful sanded pastel papers, but for some reason, the le carte tends to work better for my style.  As of right now, I am not sure where my artist journey is taking me.  I love painting in oils, watercolors and soft pastels.  Lately, I have been giving the pastels a lot more attention.  When I enter my studio, all three mediums are right there in front of me, but I seem to gravitate towards the pastels.  I have learned through life to not ignore your inner feelings.  Follow that little voice and go with it.  Right now it's pastels, maybe tomorrow oils.  Part of the fun of the journey is the unknown.  Take that step out in faith and see where it takes you.
Have a Blessed day my friends.

New Watercolor Painting; Moving Horizon

Hello Everyone;
Since the rain still has not let up, I decided to do some more painting.  Earlier today, I painted a soft pastel landscape, this evening, a watercolor painting.  I wanted to make an active sky, not necessarily a storm sky, just action within it.  I used 4 colors and a few blends to give a little movement, then I tried to use soft and hard edges in the clouds to give it a little oomph.
Did this painting work?  I have no idea, but I do know this, I had this image in my head and I painted it.  If you never take a risk, then you will never accomplish anything.  Creating art is all about taking risks.  You can never be satisfied with where you are as an artist.  Each artist must continually take risks with their compositions, or color pallet or technique or anything they are comfortable with.  I do not know this for a fact, but I do believe with all of my heart that the best art is accomplished when we go out on a limb and take those risks.  We create something we did not know we had in us.  Please keep in mind though, when you take risks, you must also be willing to accept failures.  Only a small portion of your art will be the "WOW" art.  Inevitably, we will create many more failures then successes.  If we can accept this and keep on taking risks, you will become a successful artist.  Success defined by you, not a board, or art critics in some magazine.  Be yourself and take a chance.
Have a Blessed Day my friends.

New Pastel Painting; Soft Pastures

Hello Everyone;
I hope all are doing well.  Here in the Chicago land area, we have a whole lot of rain.  A little thunder, but nothing severe, just a nice spring growing rain. 
Today's pastel painting deals with a secluded mountain scene I call "Soft Pastures"  I do not name all of my paintings (maybe I should) but when I complete one that speaks to me a bit, I tend to give it a name.  The funny thing is, it does not even have to be a good painting, it just needs to speak to me.  I have named some paintings the public has never seen and never will.  Maybe the painting itself was a disaster, but there was one redeeming element that made it speak to me.  That one element surrounded by garbage could be that one insight you needed to execute a really good painting in the future.  That one tiny bright spot could end up illuminating an entire series of wonderful art pieces.  I guess my point is to listen to that inner artist deep within yourself.  Every artist has that little voice that tells them when to stop a painting, where to add that subtle dash of color, where to soften an edge and so on.  The trick to using your inner artist is to be emotionally level.  When you create art, you need to be in a somewhat calm state of mind. The more at peace you are, the less interference there is inside your head.  Once you learn to clear your mind and listen to your inner artist, you will notice that it speaks to you about many things, not just art.  Once you begin to listen to that inner artist, your life, your art and everything else in your life will begin to work for you instead of against you.  Your inner artist will show you the way to your inner peace.
Have a Blessed Day my friends.

Hello Everyone;
I hope all wonderful Mothers had a great day.
For some reason, I am on a soft pastel kick as of late.  I had put them away for long time, and a few weeks ago, for reasons still unknown to me, I pulled them out and began creating art.  I was not only creating art, but I was having a whole lot of fun doing it.  As I have said in previous posts, soft pastels are messy and can be a bit difficult to work with, but the colors are well worth the trouble.  I am finally beginning to see what others have told me through out my life, sometimes the difficult things turn out to be the best.  I am not saying I am a soft pastel artist only.  I love oil painting and watercolors are just so much fun.  I do not see myself giving those up ever.  I have admitted to myself though, I will not put the pastels away again.  I believe they are part of my studio from now on.
I have been looking at You Tube videos of artists using soft pastels in plein air.  That definitely looks like something I will be trying as soon as the weather breaks.  I may take a video of that adventure and post it.  Any how, I hope everyone is creating art in what ever medium you prefer.  I hope you are having fun doing it and I hope all of you will have a Blessed day.

New Soft Pastel Painting; Did I Hit It Or Swing And Miss??????

Hello Everyone;
I need your help on this one.  Just as my title asks, did I hit it or a big swing and miss?  This is the essence of art my friends.  Take chances.  I had this image in my head on my way home from work this afternoon and decided to put it on paper.  The concept is correct, I am just not sure if the execution works.  It is a bit more abstract then I imagined, but the colors seem to work.
Regardless of what becomes of this piece, I will keep it.  I may not list it on my Etsy site, but I will keep to refer back to.  One of the best teachers we have is our own mistakes.  The more mistakes you make, the better your art becomes.  I really do believe that.  Once we get into a comfort zone with our art, it always becomes a bit stale.  It makes no sense.  If we do the same thing over and over we should get better, right?????
Think about it this way.  If you lift weights, the only way to progress is to consistently try and lift more weight.  If we lift 100 lbs only, we actually become weaker.  So, it stands to reason that we should apply that same logic to our art.  We do not have to change who we are as artists.  We do not have to change our style.  We do however, need to challenge ourselves within our style, within our own soul.  Those challenges are not clearly evident to a casual observer of our art, but they do make a profound impact on how we see our art, and most times, how we see ourselves as people.  Striving to be better, leaving that protective box as it were is a bit scary.  To some, down right terrifying.  Our growth as people depends on our willingness to step out in faith and be prepared to conquer whatever is in our way and at the same time accept that defeat is a real possibility.  Never do something or not do something because of fear.  Accept defeat as a learning experience and accept success as a step closer to your goals.  Keep it in perspective and watch yourself grow.
Have a Blessed day my friends.

New Painting; A Dive Into Soft Pastels

Hello Everyone;
Something a bit new for this blog.  This is an original 8" X 10" soft pastel painting.  I used a scrap piece of pastelmat pastel paper I had laying around.  For some reason, pastels have been on my mind lately.  Out of all the mediums there are, I believe soft pastels give the artist the most freedom to create art.  They are a bit messy and they are very delicate.  They must be displayed behind glass and extra care needs to be taken for storage and transport of them.
All that being said, soft pastels are almost pure pigment except for the tiny bit of binder needed to keep them in stick form and usable.  Funny enough, if taken care of, soft pastels are the most archival of all mediums.  They are a dry medium so there is no worry about yellowing, buckling or deterioration due to not applying layers correctly.  My favorite aspect of soft pastels is the intimacy you get as the artist when creating your art.  They are small sticks of vibrant rich color literally at your finger tips when you apply this medium to paper.  I love watercolors, oils and soft pastels the most.  I rarely use other mediums.  Soft pastels are my favorite for a purely artistic expression of color.  Oil paints for a little more realism and watercolors for convenience and fun.  All three are archival and beautiful, but the soft pastels have no brush between you and your support.  I highly recommend them, but before you buy your first stick, please, do your research on you tube.  The paper is more important then the soft pastels (in the beginning) and it can be a bit pricey.  Look on Ebay and Amazon for deals.
Have a Blessed day my friends.