Pastel Color Study

I have no experience at all doing pastels so I will do several of these until I learn to do them right. This is a color study for the painting I will start after I finish my current charcoal drawing. I have come across a problem with not being able to find the same kind of peaches. The ones in the charcoal drawing are imported and I was finding them in the grocery store everyday but this week I have not been able to find any. The peaches is the pastel sketch are our Mexican variety which is small, firm and very tasty but maybe not as pretty in form as the imported ones. The color is very pretty so I will use them as a color study in the meantime.

I have learned that if you are going to paint something that will take you quite a bit of time to finish, it is not very convenient to to do plants, flowers or any perishables of any kind, if you are painting from life and it is not Alla Prima or Plein Air.

In this study I am adding the colors that belong to the wicker platter, tissue paper and shawl besides the peaches.

The Importance of a Thumbnail

I have started my new charcoal piece and was very satisfied with how easy the ideas for the thumbnails sketches flowed this time. The only thing is that when I started my piece I got carried away with my set up and forgot to use my thumbnail sketch as a guide. Half way through my piece I noticed that my plate with peaches did not show its priority in the whole drawing and that would change the whole meaning of the piece. In my thumbnail sketch the plate and size of the peaches are much larger and they are meant to be the focal point in the drawing, while in this study they take a minor place and are a little over powered by the dark shadow to the right. I am satisfied with the study as it is, so I will not change it or continue to work on it, instead I will start a new one with the same theme following my thumbnail sketch a little more closely. If all goes well with this piece it will eventually become a big painting in oil, and that is something that really has me all excited as it will call for some pastel studies of the peaches. Something new for me but something I am looking forward to immensely.

Espiritu Ascendente

This piece is dedicated to my granddaughter Pao who as some of you know, left us two years ago at age five. She was born brain damaged and was deprived of verbal communication and voluntary movement but she had the capability of offering a smile with a radiance I have never seen in anyone else.

This smile, like her giggles would make me feel and understand how such a simple action could give you moments of complete happiness. No other smile has ever been the same.

The flower symbolizes her as I think she left us that day, radiant and turning to a light that only she was capable of seeing. The lace is characteristic of her fragility, beauty and her Latin heritage. The cloth is the baby sheet she spent many hours on in my house when she was brought to visit me frequently. I can feel her sweet angelic smile as I have worked on this and now that I am posting it.

I have chosen a Spanish title that translated means, Ascending Spirit. Spanish because, as the lace, reflects her Latin heritage and I think it is the title that best describes this piece. The flower, her symbol, has a slight turn upward as if it were lifting itself from the sheet to the light that guides the Spirit.

I thank Michael Newberry from the bottom of my heart for this unforgettable experience that at times was difficult, as he said it would be, but most of the time I had the pleasure of feeling her presence.

Charcoal on Rives 26X16