Evenglow, 8x10-Sold

Evenglow, pastel on board by Adriana Meiss

The Plowshares Festival  of a week ago went very well. Six painting have new homes, including an older piece that I decided to bring with me at the last minute.  I'm happy to say that there were five returned customers, so to those of you reading this, keep your mailing list up to date and never forget to let your customers know of events you are participating in. Most important, when sending a mass email invitation, protect and reassure your customers by putting their email address in the Bcc box .

As it often happens to me, I left framing for the last minute, and this time I found scratches on the glass in many of the small ready-made frames I had purchased. Fortunately I had other pieces to replace them with, but now I'm left with glass that will probably have to be recycled if I'm not able to cut smaller pieces from it...

Contemplation, 5 1/2 x 8"

Contemplation, pastel on paper by Adriana Meiss

   November 2013 will be a month that I'll remember for it's sunsets. There were so many cold days that our group went only twice to paint outdoors. Oh, but the sunsets seemed to compensate for the bad weather. So, it's no surprise that I've been painting sunsets, and there is still no sign of my getting tired of them.

  This one started with the idea of the dark sky and a limited palette.  The scene is a composite of two different places, and although I didn't do a preliminary sketch, somehow it worked. I'm thinking of painting it larger emphasizing the light on the distant hill... This painting will be among the new ones at next week's Plowshares Festival at Nottingham HS. If you are in the Syracuse area, this is an event you should not miss!

Pompey Sunset, 9x12" - A Progression -Sold

Pompey Sunset, pastel on board by Adriana Meiss

This Friday is the opening of the St David Celebration of the Arts, and this is one of my two submissions.

When painting, I often get so immersed in what I'm doing that I forget to take photos of the progress. In this case, I was working with a very dark photo reference which forced me to work slowly and to take shots now and then to see if the painting was working. So, below are the main steps.

1. Getting rid of the white

 1. The main areas were first barely sketched with a light Nupastel. When working on a white board, the first thing I do is to get rid of the white by using broad strokes with the side of the pastel sticks; then I blend the different areas with packaging peanuts.

 

2. color scheme

2. At this stage, I took my time selecting the colors and figuring out how light I could push some of the greens.

3. The foreground, the composition

 3. If I had done a good sketch before starting, I probably wouldn't have had so much trouble with the foreground. This is the point where I can check if the composition is really working: the row of trees in the middle ground had to be shortened.  Looking back, I think that more earth tones would have been nice...well, that will have to be another painting.

Two Small Pastels (5x7")

Sunlit, pastel on Ampersand Pastelboard by Adriana Meiss

   For quite some time I have been thinking of painting the scene above. The arrival of spring finally pushed me to the task. This painting and the one below were intended for an upcoming guild show and sale at the end of the month, but I like them so much that I'm not sure I'm ready to frame them yet.

Golden Hour, pastel on Ampersand Pastelboard by Adriana Meiss

I often tell myself not to fall in love with my own paintings because the best ones are yet to come. Sometimes it's hard to live by your own maxims... What do you do with your best ones?

Sunset in Mauve, 8x6" - Sold

Sunset in Mauve, pastel on paper by Adriana Meiss

     At the end of April the guild I'm in (OAG) will have it's annual spring sale. In my effort to avoid framing like crazy at the last minute, I have been working steadily for the last month, mostly producing small paintings. Some are already framed after having passed the test of seating on a shelf for weeks without any little thing screaming to have it fixed.
    The reference photo for this painting was an irrigation channel from a nearby town, but by changing the vegetation I turned it into a scene that could have been from the Adirondacks.

Aglow, 9x12"

Aglow, pastel on board by Adriana Meiss

This painting is based on the same shed of two posts ago, but his time I wanted to play with the yellows of the sunset on the trees.  The foreground bush was an afterthought as I felt something was needed there to give  more balance to the scene. I'm still debating about it's shadow...

This one will be included in my exhibit next month. My goal is to have 15 new paintings and I'm almost done.  I have 4 large ones almost finished, and one that I haven't started yet that I've been ruminating in my head for some time. In general, I'm happy to see there is cohesion in the selected work.

Moving Storm-Setting Sun, 10x8"

Moving Storm-Setting Sun, pastel on Ampersand Pastelbord by Adriana Meiss

The shed in the painting is an old garage surrounded by conifers, that never fails to attract my attention whenever I drive by.  When I was ready to paint it, I knew I had to modify the reference photo a great deal because of the problems with composition it presented: 1.There was a barrier of trees behind the shed, blocking the sunset. 2. Two thirds of the scene was a solid mass of green, yet I felt it was the right proportion in order to give an idea of distance.

Creating an opening was easy, but what to put behind it? I used my artist license and created more hills, thus giving me the chance to use aerial perspective. The grass, I have to admit, was the the area that took me the longest. I had to look at Richard McKinley's paintings to get an idea on how to deal with it. Sometimes there is nothing like a challenge to get you going!  

Silhouettes , 8"x6"

I feel I'm cheating here. The main reason I started this blog was to force myself to paint during the winter, and here I am, posting another painting done a little while ago. You see, my studio is the entrance of our very old house, and in the winter time we reduce our quarters to conserve energy, so the studio area is basically closed. The only time it is used is to let visitors in or when I feel brave enough to do at least a few minutes of work at the easel. Why don't I move the easel to a warmer area?, you might be thinking. Sure I could, but the main reason I don't is because pastel dust can get everywhere. I think it's safer to keep it confined to one area. I'm hoping Santa will feel sorry for me and get me a nice heater for Christmas. That's all I ask. Really! Well, besides the new Gray set of Terry Ludwigs (my favorite pastels)...

Anyway, this is a scene from my backyard looking west. At the time, I was trying to get good pictures of the colors in the sky and clouds, but after printing the photo I found more interesting the back lit house and trees.