"Autumn Colors", 5" x 7", pastel on board, 2022 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Reflections on an October Afternoon, Pastel

“Reflections on an October Afternoon”, 5″ x 7″, pastel on board, original is sold. Prints on paper and canvas are available.



"Autumn Colors", 5" x 7", pastel on board, 2022 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

“Autumn Colors”, 5″ x 7″, pastel on board, 2022 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

I played hooky today and ran off into the woods.

Autumn has been developing most beautifully and I keep trying to find the time to get out there and have a few hours in the woods to paint and photograph and just walk barefoot on the trails at least one last time this year.

A friend who walks the same trails every day shared some photos from the upper trails of yellow trees full of sun and leaves on the trail and that’s one of the places I’d wanted to explore this autumn. We agreed it wasn’t going to last, and when I discovered that my Sales Tax Webinar was not today at noon I felt the big blue sky calling me and packed a sandwich and an apple and some water and made sure I had some pastels and papers in my backpack and I took off.

Four hours later I have this little finished sketch, and I started two others just to save time, and have lots of other photos and ideas. There is nothing like sketching en plein air. Not only are my paintings different, but it also improves my work in studio. One afternoon is not enough, but rain and frost are coming and many leaves will fall.

About the materials

I don’t take all my pastels with me when I paint outdoors because the chance of losing them all is far greater when I’m standing in a stream to paint and I may accidentally drop them all in the water. Instead I have one set of Sennelier soft pastels with a good balance of colors for landscapes, and I have a box of odds and ends of duplicates of all different brands.

Today I discovered I didn’t have any truly dark colors except navy blue, so I made do mixing that navy, a good choice for autumn with its bluish shadows, with other colors.

The panel it’s painted on is a Clayboard textured panel, but not the one intended for pastel. The materials I carry are also odds and ends because I’m usually creating smaller quick sketches and I like a variety of surfaces, from pastel drawing paper to the sanded papers and pre-finished boards. Because the finish is added to a piece of hardboard it’s especially nice to use en plein air because the board holds its own shape without using a backing, like a drawing board to attach it to. I can just hold this panel in one hand and handle my pastels with the other.

SHIPPING

Shipping within the US is included in all the prices listed. All shipping is via Priority Mail. Prints are shipped flat in a rigid envelope. Canvases are shipped in a box to fit with padding. Since this original is small it is also shipped in a box with extra padding.

SIGNED GICLEE PRINTS

The giclees are printed on acid-free hot press art paper for a smooth matte finish using archival inks. Giclee is the highest quality print available because the technique uses a dozen or more ink ports to capture all the nuances of the original painting, including details of the texture, far more sensitive than any other printing medium. Sometimes my giclees look so much like my originals that even I have a difficult time telling them apart when they are in frames.

I don’t keep giclee prints in stock for most of my works. Usually I have giclees printed as they are ordered unless I have an exhibit where I’ll be selling a particular print so there is a wait of up to two weeks before receipt of your print to allow for time to print and ship.

SIGNED DIGITAL PRINTS

Digital prints are made on acid-free matte-finish natural white 100# cover using archival digital inks. While digital prints are not the quality of a giclee in capturing every nuance and detail of color, texture and shading, I am still very pleased with the outcome and usually only I as the artist could tell where detail and color were not as sharp as the original.

SIGNED CANVAS PRINTS

Like giclee prints, I don’t keep canvas prints on hand; at one time they were very popular but not so much lately. No matter how I store or display them in my home gallery or in exhibits or vendor shows, they are easily damaged. I order them as customers order them, and work with two providers, depending on the size of the print, who turn them around quickly.

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