Tag Archives: pastel

A Small Still Life, Small Roses

Just one little sliver of sunlight crept through the blind and that was all it took to illuminate these old roses in a tiny glass vase. I stood in my kitchen and sketched this as quickly as possible before the light changed. These are roses that I grow, an unbelievably bright pink pasture rose and […]

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Colorful Spring Sky, April Cloud Study

Once the weather turns warm and sunny the world begins coloring up nicely, and so it did one April afternoon. I decided to take some time to paint the clouds, literally and figuratively, standing out in my back yard with my pastel for about ten minutes—and by that time the skies were completely different. The […]

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Forest Bathing, the Misty Spring Woods

About Forest Bathing A view of the misty spring woods. I’ve always loved this ravine just off the Panhandle Trail for the angle of light that enters it, that deep “V” shape creating colorful highlights and rich shadows and always mossy logs with a little sparkle of water that meanders down the center. And in […]

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Spring Cleaning, a Little Magic and Memories

I regularly passed the backyard of an old farmhouse near me and was drawn at first by the forsythia, which was right on the edge of the road as I drove past, then as I slowed down I saw the colorful hanging laundry, always a favorite subject. That hazy spring sunlight with long shadows on […]

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Avoiding the Photographer, Not So Cleverly Hidden

I welcomed 2022 with a new painting, “Avoiding the Photographer”. The girls—two does from the small herd that lives in our back yards—were hiding behind my scruffy little hemlock while I was hovering around in the snow in the back yard trying to get their photo on a snowy, sunny morning the previous February. It’s […]

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This Shining Night, a Moonlit Snowy Night

Sunset comes early and dusk and nightfall quickly follow near the winter solstice. Christmas is among the shortest days of the year, and on this particular year I headed west on the trail, hoping to capture a beautiful sunset as heavy clouds gathered, then parted, and snow squalls and flurries filled the air. The timing […]

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Snowbird, Winter Wild Bird Pastel

There’s a bird, and there’s snow, and this also happens to be a “snowbird”, or a dark-eyed junco, clinging to a forsythia branch in my backyard. Their small rounded shape with white bellies have always looked to me as if they were dipped into paint. “Snowbird” is one of a set of four paintings of […]

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May Nature Desktop Calendar: The Garden Gate

About The Garden Gate For someone who is a gardener and spends a lot of time in her yard–what a special place! If I can’t have it in my yard, at least I can paint it. The arbor sporting ivy, the old rhododendron crowning the entrance and the gate, mysteriously left ajar and leading to […]

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April Nature Desktop Calendar: Forest Bathing

About Forest Bathing A view of the misty spring woods. I’ve always loved this ravine just off the Panhandle Trail for the angle of light that enters it, that deep “V” shape creating colorful highlights and rich shadows and always mossy logs with a little sparkle of water that meanders down the center. And in […]

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March Nature Desktop Calendar: Winter Still Life

That deeply angled winter sunlight reaches farther into the windows than summer sunlight, into the corner with the fruit bowl. I’ve been looking at the late afternoon sun hitting this vintage flow blue ceramic bowl where I keep my apples and enjoying the shapes of the apples, the reflections on the bowl with its uneven […]

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