Pastel Plumeria

"Pastel Plumeria"

Image size 3.5" x 7.5"

Pastel

I can't even remember the last time I used pastel as a medium.  I should use my pastels more often since I have collected so many over the years.  I really enjoy painting with pastels, but rarely think to use them.  Maybe doing this small study will get me motivated to break them out more often.

I used a piece of black mat board painted with pumice gel to give it the tooth necessary for a pastel painting.  In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have used a black support for a painting with white flowers.  I really fought with it to bring out the white. 

Plumerias are such great flowers.  I love the shapes of them and, of course, their fragrance.  They bring back memories of Hawaii every time I see them.  I planted about 5 cuttings a few years ago that I got from a dear friend's house.  It's nice to think of her each time I walk past them.

Little Plumeria Study

Little Plumeria Study

Image Size 3.5" x 6"

Watercolor on TerraSkin

It seems like forever since I've painted with watercolor and I've really missed it.  This is a small study on TerraSkin, which I haven't used for a long time either.  I had forgotten how much fun this surface is to paint of and definitely need to use TerraSkin more often.  It's challenging to layer color without lifting the under layers but that is part of the fun!

Budding Plumeria, 30 in 30 - Day 3

Today was a frustrating painting day.  I started a different painting and thought it was finished and then decided that I didn't like it so I painted this one.  I'm not crazy about it either.  It doesn't have the glow that I was trying to achieve, but it is finished so I guess that's good.

January is beginning to look like a very long month.  It's only day three and already I'm spending way too much time each day trying to decide what to paint.  I knew that picking a subject was going to be hard, but I didn't think it would be this hard.

I really like to paint large paintings so picking something to paint small is frustrating.  Looks like tomorrow's painting will be another vegetable or fruit.

Budding Plumeria
Image Size 7.5" x 9"
Watercolor

Fragrant Plumeria

Last spring, I was fortunate to see the work of Joseph Raffael in person.  There was an exhibit at Soka University and it was truly amazing.  His work is beautiful on his website but can't be appreciated fully until you see it in person.  His paintings are HUGE and very intricate.  I could have stayed at the show for days and not tired of looking and finding new things.

I decided to try to paint like him.   I started this right after seeing the show but it then I ignored it until last week.  Most of his paintings have these incredible borders that look like confetti.  The way he paints them (I think) is to put the confetti colors on first and then paint around them.  He had blooms in the background color of the border that I didn't want so I did my background color first, leaving white areas that I could fill in with color and then I used plastic wrap to get more texture.

My intention for the flowers and background was to NOT care about blooms and be very loose and messy.  Well, I started out that way but it was really stressful for me so other than one bloom in the background (which drove me crazy) and the type of border I did, this is nothing like Joseph's work.  I had good intentions.  Maybe if I'd had a glass of wine first it would have turned out differently.  Also, I think the flowers I picked really didn't lend themselves to the broken, textural color that he does so well.

The border on this was fun.  I've always used borders in my silk paintings but rarely in my watercolors although I'm not sure why that is.  I'll probably use borders in the future but I doubt if I'll do the confetti look again.  That just seems to be too much of a signature of Joseph's.

To check out Joseph Raffael's beautiful paintings, click on his name.  He also has videos on his site that are fun to watch.

Inspired by Joseph Raffael
Image size 22" x 30"
Watercolor

Plumeria Vignette

More plumerias.  You're going to get tired of seeing this flower.  I have 2 more plumeria paintings in progress.  This one was done for the Tustin Garden Club.  The plumeria that I posted last month is going to be the cover art for their yearbook and they needed an art piece for the inside.  Usually I do pastels on a sanded surface but this was done on the back side (less textured) of Canson Mi Tiente paper.  I prefer the sanded surface but it's always good to work on different surfaces.  Plumerias are such happy, sweet smelling flowers and they always remind me of summer so I guess that's why I'm so into painting them right now.

Plumeria Vignettes
Image Size 5.5" x 8.5"            

Pastels