Cereus Nocturne

Cereus Nocturne
30 x 30
Pastel on Pumiced Gatorboard

I'm clearly on a white flower kick. I think it's because so many of the night bloomers have been busy. There is nothing like waking up to one of these surprises. This will likely be my last big painting for a bit. Big painting stock is looking better (+3) so time to work on smaller ones. 

I feel I learned quite a bit from my last foray into white and think I took it to heart. I worked mostly with warm pale yellows and one cream. Though I picked more Giraults, once again, my Terry Ludwig are my go to pastels. 

I did the greatest amount of work in one sitting. Once again, it was an intense painting session. It's always wonderful when I'm so engrossed in my work I lose time. THAT is passion about creation!

Here's some progress shots of this one including a shot w/it in a light vs day light.

Daylight

With 4000K Light

Parched

Parched
32 x 40
Pastel on Pumiced Gatorboard

It seems the rainy days we had in spring and early summer are past. We even had a really nice unseasonable cool front the last few days - low 60's in the morning - in July - in Texas!?? But the expected weather is returning and with it the heat. 

Parched is a painting that grew from an idea about parched ground. Based on a fellow artist's post about Golden brand micaceous iron oxide, I was out doing some research. As I did, I came across another medium by Golden called crackle paste. I thought to myself, wouldn't it be really cool to use the crackle paste to create the cracks of dried earth where an agave might sit. I ordered said paste and waited for it to arrive.

Once it arrived, I tried some passes on scraps of gatorboard. Thin applications yielded small hairline cracking. Per instructions, I tried some passes with it applied much more thickly. I was disappointed I didn't get the cracking I wanted. Further, I realized if I had to have it down so thickly, that area would sit higher than my pastel work on the board. Yuck. So...more experiments to do and I ended up drawing out the cracked earth.

Here's the progress shots on "Parched". Interestingly, I posted one in progress shot to Instagram. I was so tired, I couldn't write...and this funny little poem came out. Darn post got over 1.1K likes! What the heck?!? Why that one? Was it the shot or the poem?

Paint I must

Revel in the pastel dust

Though now I have a HEPA filter

So I don't huff dust and get off kilter 

Every painting has an adolescence

Until it finds it's true essence

For now I stop and rest

Until the painting knows what's best

This is the image that got over 1.1K likes - why????

and the final poem to go with the finished piece....

And then I focused on the ground

and all the cracks within I've found

Intricate fissures and plates to capture

to seek the feeling of artist's rapture

When the painting sings to me

I know that she was meant to be

and in a new home will delight

new owner's faces shining bright

Pitaya Nocturna

Pitaya Nocturna
Pastel on Pumiced Panel
32 x 32

White is the lack of color right? Not right. Not true in the very least. White, in my opinion, is one of the most difficult colors to paint. This painting was no different. 

The subject is a night blooming cereus. Some call this pitaya, or dragon fruit. I started with a black pumiced panel per my usual process. The first iteration of the painting was too grey. I used my Maggie Price Essential greys by Terry Ludwig pastels. What I found interesting is how the piece looked with and without light, indoor light vs outdoor light. (comparisons below). I looked at the kelvin rating of my easel lights (the same lights I've used in my festival booth previously before I bought some new ones). The lights were 4000K which is neither yellow or blue. Kind of in the Goldilocks zone. In this scale, I also learned about natural light being more in the blue range. Most incandescent bulbs are warm yellow. Think about the early white LED Christmas lights and how they were way too white/blue. Then came the "warm white" LEDs. 

I let the painting sit for a week, then came in some more palest warm yellow and ivories into the greys. Then worked in my background lighting and finally some blue reflection into the petals. Now I'm pleased with this nocturnal beauty.

Now for the compare on the lighting. Wow.....amazing differences.

Left - Outside Indirect Sunlight
Top Right - Inside with 4000 K Lamp
Bottom Right - Inside Facing Window

After a week of looking at the painting and thinking,  came back in and added warmer palest yellows and ivories along w/the background.

Inside Studio Facing Window

Paraiso Blanco

Paraiso Blanco
32 x 26
Pastel on Pumiced Gatorboard

I'm a Scorpio. While that means a lot of things, one of the attribute we have is seeing things as black and white, right and wrong, good or bad. Nothing in between. So it goes with my painting. From the desert to the tropics...well Orlando, Florida in this case. This beauty will be with me down in Rockport at the 50th (YES 50 years!!) Festival of the Arts

I spied this beautiful white bird of paradise at the Rosen Shingle hotel when I was there for a corporate work conference in 2017. I've been ruminating on this painting for a long time, but could never quite nail the composition I wanted. Enter necessity...sort of. I have a nice custom frame from Passionate Duet because the collector that bought the passion flower painting, was in Kansas so I shipped only the painting and mats. Using this pretty close to 3:2 ratio, I was able to find the composition I wanted. It was a matter of configuration. 

. Here's some progress shots. I paint on black gatorboard. I have ALOT of it. The first box of 32 x 40 I got from ULine came with some damaged pieces..crunched on one corner. They just sent me a whole new box. I tinted my pumice with white and raw sienna acrylic paint. Rolled it out then painted.

Twisted

Twisted
32 x 40
Pastel on Hand Pumiced Gatorboard

Since I'm low on big paintings, I decided to tackle another one. I'm not done with this one quite yet. I see things I want to change...but now I sit and let the painting tell me what it needs. 

I really liked the twists and turns of this agave. I also like the light. I had so much fun w/the light and shadow in Rusted Azure that I tried it again.  I am pretty certain this one will stay w/the name "Twisted", though "Octopus" came to mind too. 

Besides the painting resting for a bit, now it's time for me to rest too. That was some intense painting. I was totally in the zone....I lost ALOT of time. It's kind of like an alien abduction, but I can say where I was.

and the progress shots....

Rusted Azure

Rusted Azure
32 x 32
Pastel on Pumiced Board
SOLD

Apparently, it's the year of the BIG paintings. This spring, it was the big paintings that garnered attention. Ultimately, many found new homes. Some collectors asked to commission specific paintings for their space. Rusted Azure is one of those. 

My collectors really liked the metallic series, but wanted something larger. The wife chose Magnolia Sobre Oro. Her husband liked the painting of magnolias, which have an antique gold background. However, he was really drawn the strong bold coppers of some of my smaller paintings in the metallic series like Copper and Jade and Copper and Cobalt. They just were not the right size for their space. We worked this one up from some of the photos from my April trip to the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden. I really enjoyed working big again. I'll need to work big again to replenish my stock of larger paintings.

Rusted Azure is at the framer now. I'm hoping I'll get to deliver the painting next weekend....and see her in her new home.  

Here's a few progress shots of the piece. 

Desert Firecracker

Desert Firecracker
12 x 9
Pastel on Richeson Sanded Paper

And then there were two paintings after the hiatus. The hiatus that felt like the desert was parched and has now found the drenching rains. I very much enjoyed my visit to the desert in April - the Phoenix/Sonoran Desert to be precise. I'm lucky enough to live close the Chihuahua desert. Often, people ask  me why I am so drawn (ha ha) to agave/succulents. At one time, I didn't know the answer. Then, on a trip to West Texas a few years back, we were driving from Terlingua down to Lajitas, over to Presidio and then up to Marfa. As we came through Presidio, it reminded me of where I grew up - on the border of Texas/Mexico - and then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I grew up in a hot semi arid place. Though we grew citrus, there was also a lot of cactus and mesquite. So, it was there that my unconscious love of all things cacti and agave began.

Thanking a instagram friend of mine, Jeremy Spath @hiddenagave for the resource photo on this one. During his travels, he sees many species of agave that I don't normally see. He's often in the Chihuahua desert and northern Baja. This particular agave is called Agave pelona. Pelona in Spanish means "bald". Being that my Spanish isn't what it used to be (or maybe never was), I looked it up in translator and also came across translations to "broke" or "tough/difficult", as well as one reference to "death". Given how this agave looks, it may look like it's dying, but it certainly is tough! And really - WOW - what colors! This may be my new favorite. Must do more research on this one - will it live in Central Texas - or are we too cold in the winter?