Ladies in Red

Some of you might just recognize the derriere of the figure in front, yep, it's yours truly.
I needed this certain pose, so my husband took a shot of me, and voila, there I am.
It was difficult to do all the figures in shades of red,and still show up against the backdrop.. I tend to make the red dirty sometimes while trying to get changes in tonal values for creases in clothing etc. However this is a start, and for the most part I am happy with it's drama. It could easilly have been called 'Drama Queens' also or 'Generation Gap'.. Tee hee.
This is a pastel on Velour Paper.

Line Up

This is another pastel on Velour Paper, it is not quite tweaked yet, still a few details to fine tune, but just had to put it on my blog to prove I have been working all this time. LOL.
The kids were all lined up at the Bob Bullock Museum here in Austin, and I snapped this photo.

This was a real challenge to draw the figures, but that's what art's all about huh, a challenge?

MATCHING CURVES

I recently taught a workshop in Kerrville here in Texas. This lady was in my class, and this photo was actually of her painting.
I used her stance (which I loved) to place her in the art gallery there, where this wonderful sculpture was hanging.

This is a pastel on VELOUR PAPER again, hope you don't get sick of these, I am having too much fun to stop right now.

MUTUAL ADMIRATION

This is another in this series, this time it's all about the hats. I saw this guy in Alaska, in a museum, he was looking at a map on the wall, but I made him looking at art.
As you can tell, I love backviews. This pastel is also on the fabulous velour paper, each one I do seems to get a little easier for me, however I still struggle with the amounts of lights and darks I can raise on this surface, it's a little laborious.
I am also using fixative at times, which immediately gets the colors more intense for me, and unlike the other papers I have used, the pastel maintains this 'glow' after fixing, and does not flatten the colors . NICE..

WAITING FOR COFFEE

I have just finished this one today, and I think I am finally getting the idea of the tones now, and how to use my pastels on this paper. I am so used to dramatic tonal values, and this pastels on this paper are so much softer in appearance.
Velour is soft, almost like a cat's fur, and some pastels just glide, seductively over the surface, while others seems to have no impact at all. One has to be very direct and deliberate with application (I feel), no smudging for instance, which is not my way anyway, thank heavens.. I have enough challenges as it is.

Again, this woman was in the same coffee shop last week, and I secretly took her photo.She had a sort of androgynous body, again, she would likely be horrified to see what I did to her. Don't tell..

LADIES IN WAITING

These women were on a beach in Australia a few years ago.

They both came from different photos, and I made a composit, in fact, one lady was not even preggers! She would likely kill me if she knew what I have done to her body. Oh well.

This was a little tedious to paint, firstly with all these pastels on velour paper I have to sketch them out in my sketchbook , then transfer them to the velour.

With this one I did not (in my opinion) get the scale correct, I have too much space around them, where as I really wanted the figures to show more. Maybe I will redo at least one later.

I really loved the subject of the pregnant bathers though, great fun.

SURFER GIRL

This is the second pastel I have done on the velour paper, my aim is to do a series of figurative pastels. I saw this girl in a cafe last week, snapped her photo, and voila, here she is on the beach.
I am so liking this surface to paint on, however it is very 'tricky'.

A CLOSER LOOK

Here is a small pastel painting I did using my husband as a model and making the background up.

I have wanted to try VELOUR PAPER for pastels for ages, and as I won a prize in the Austin Pastel Show recently, I used part of the money to buy some of this paper.

I LOVE IT !! I have decided to use it for a while, it will take time to get used to the paper's individual properties. For one thing, I have to be very sure of my drawing, as one cannot erase on this surface.

Another thing is trying to find what pastels will go on this surface to build the lights and darks, so far, I find hard prismacolor to begin with are great for my shadows .. I then work up to the softer pastels.

It has been a learning curve and very challenging , but hopefully I will get there in the end.

A great mix of people came to my show, great fun..

The Reception

Well here I am, and the reception for my show at Nth West Hills Gallery and I want to thank everyone for coming, and helping to make the show a success.

Nth West Hills Gallery Show

It's all about color with me, and phew, you certainly need your sunnies when you go to visit my current show. Here are a few shots .

Exibition of Rae's works

Hello everyone, I hope you will try and drop by to see my show at the Nth West Hills Gallery,which is in the United Methodist Church. 7050 Village Center Drive, Austin, Texas 78731 .

The show has around 40 paintings, and begins tomorrow May 5th through May 31st.

Reception is May 16th at 12.15pm - 1.15pm.
I would love to have you come by, so mark your calendars.

Rae