Monday, August 29, 2011

Pastel Corn

Great timing for this challenge. Next week I'll be in Colorado at a pastel painting week in the mountains with my sister. I've been practicing all week since I haven't done anything with pastels in several years. Doing laundry the other day I noticed the pile of lovely colored 'Color Guard' sheets from previous washings. I had 4 of these lovely mahogany colored sheets. This a.m. I put one on my drawing board and proceeded to do a painting of a dried cornstalk simulating what they must look like now in dry Texas compared to our nice green ones here in Nebraska. Interesting surface to work on. I had a fairly nice drawing and then decided to attempt some quilting lines for more detail. MISTAKE! It shook loose much of the pastel muddying the appearance. So I took it back for more pastel. Of course, I couldn't get the original look. But here is the finished piece and I learned a lot about surfaces with this little piece. Thanks for a wonderful, timely challenge!

11 comments:

  1. Jan,

    I really like the effect of the surface texture created by the 'Color Guard' sheet. It seems to give your piece a translucent feel. The chalkiness of the pastels along with the colors you used evoke the dryness of the stalks. I think this fits well into the challenge.

    Louise

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  2. Very nice. Great texture and color! I have never tried working with dryer sheets - very intresting.

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  3. Jan, this is really nice, lot's of light shining on it. What if you sprayed it with a fixative before adding the stitching lines? This whole color scheme gives a real feeling of Autumn to me.

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  4. Spraying fixative on a pastels can also muddy them & since this was done on a surface not best for pastels I worry about doing more. I might try it & then maybe do another piece.

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  5. Hi Jan, what a cool piece...love the light and shade effects, the soft coloring and the tactile look of it. Great job! Have fun at your Art week
    Cynthia

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  6. This is so beautiful Jan! What a marvelous use for my growing collection of color sheets
    I will be interested to hear the results of the fixative on the pastels. Hope it works!
    Cherie

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  7. Interesting piece. I save my color guard sheets for a friend I may have to start using them myself. I have a piece I used pastels on about ten years ago and they are still bright. I did see tell-tell signs of color on my hands when I quilted.
    This piece fills the challenge well.

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  8. The perfect texture for this piece! I can almost smell the corn stalks. I really love this piece

    Pat Havey

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  9. I too love the texture of this piece. This is a good reminder for me to use up my store of color sheets.

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  10. This is great. It proves the Bob Ross theory that there are no mistakes, just happy accidents.
    Betty

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  11. Jan, what a wonderful piece! I guess I should buy some color guard sheets and give them a try. The texture on this piece is great. Well done.

    Susan Armstrong

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