Category Archives: waterscape

Colorful in Winter

"Colorful", 11" x 15", soft pastel , 2015 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Even if you live in the city you’ll find wildlife everywhere. “Colorful” is one of my favorite duck images on Chartiers Creek from my walks to Main Street. I took the photo several years ago of the mallard balancing on one leg with morning sun reflecting brightly off off a yellow brick building on the […]

Autumn Along the River, Allegheny River Reflections

Allegheny River Reflections, pastel, 12, x 16 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

This is a view of the Allegheny River in Western Pennsylvania, seen from Tarentum. I took a quick walk through the park along the river on a beautiful autumn day and took as many photos as I could. The hill behind this row of trees is very high and steep and comes down to the […]

Serenity, A Slow Summer Sunset

This sailboat drifted lazily for hours on the calm waters of Lake Arthur in Western Pennsylvania. As the August afternoon tended toward evening, the sky began to grow pink and the shadows darkened and lengthened, and the serene moment seemed to last for hours. Painted en plein air as I sat on one of the […]

Dusk After the Storm, as the Creek Rises and Falls

Dusk After the Storm, 9 x 12, pastel © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

So many storms lately, and I watch the creek rise and fall, one moment 12 inches deep and silently placid but so quickly a rushing torrent several feet deep. A storm overtook us as we paddled canoes and kayaks down Chartiers Creek one evening. We took out and watched it from among trees on the […]

Dusk After the Storm, Canoeing the Creek

A storm overtook us as we paddled canoes and kayaks down Chartiers Creek one evening. We took out and watched it from among trees on the bank as the world turned black then fogged with rain, lightning struck just over the hills around us and the creek ran faster and faster and rose foot by […]

Celebrate Summer in “The Swimming Hole”

"The Swimming Hole", pastel, 11" X 15", 2014

On a hot summer afternoon out on the trail, there is nothing more refreshing to me than wading into the deeper area of a stream and cooling off. This painting was actually visualized during one of the visits with my great nieces and nephews and I knew I’d have to paint it, but it came […]

Emerging Spring, Before the First Flowers

Emerging Spring, pastel on pastelmat, 13.5 x 19.5, 2021 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

A damp, chill and overcast day may not seem to present any amount of inspiration, but those are the days when the spring woods look like this, the heightened intensity of color emerging from dense shadows and mist among the trees have hidden magic. A scene tucked away along my favorite trail, I’ve visualized this […]

Creek Study in Snow

I call this “my private beach” along Chartiers Creek in Carnegie. You can’t keep me away from water, not even in winter. When the creek is low, this area is above water level, ranging from a few inches to several feet wide, right at a bend in the creek. The opposite bank is a steep […]

Big Blue, and My 2016 Trip to Savannah

pastel wildlife painting great blue heron pond lily pads marsh

“Big Blue” is a pastel from one of my photos, one I’ve been wanting to paint for seven years, and I just finished it today. We have a rookery of great blue herons not far from me and I see them all the time flying overhead and fishing in the creek sometimes right in the […]

October Nature Desktop Calendar: Swimming in Gold

Desktop calendar, 1280 x 1024 for square and laptop monitors.

October 2020 was the most incredibly beautiful autumn in many years. Ironically, because of the pandemic, I had the time to run around to the woods and trails and parks to photograph as much as I could, and it was a fairly safe thing to do in that time. And the time was perfect to […]