'Waterfall'

'Waterfall' 36"x24" Pastel on Sandpaper

We painted at Crystal Springs today. Although it was predicted to be cloudy the sun shone all afternoon. It was a beautiful day.
Thanks, Celeste, for this photo.

Park

'Park' 18x24. pastel on sandpaper with a pigment dispersion underpainting

Furthering the quest for expressive work
I was forced, by being unprepared, to sit down with this subject. I wouldn't have chosen it. I was in the mood to paint water. (when am I not in the mood to paint water?) I was happy to find that my paintings are not so much empowered by subject choice as they are by what I do with the subject. I didn't even realize how good this was until I got over my frustration. That took a whole 24 hours and many positive comments from viewers.

Deleted Oil practice phase.

I just deleted all the oil and acrilyic experiments. Vanity? Professionalism? I couldn't bear to be represented by all that mediocre work.

2012 Class schedule

My Class Schedule for 2012 is up. I'll be adding times to the color classes when they are set. I have some information about lodging as well. Please let me know if you are interested.

I kept the price low since artists aren't flocking to classes these days. There will be a small additional model's fee for the figure class.

I'm back to pastel

'Light Corridor' 36"by 24" Pastel on sandpaper with a wet pigment underpainting. Plein Air, done this afternoon.

I'm back to pastel. My first love. My explorations in oil and acrylic taught me that I already am where I want to be. Loose. Expressive. Looking forward to a whole new body of work.

Portrait demos at IAPS

We attend the International Assoc of Pastel Artists trade show every other year. It was in Albuquerque 6/2-6/5 2011. I look forward to it. We set up a booth and I do Portrait demos to show the artists how I handle my underpainting and pastel technique on my Wallis paper.

I like to do 1 hour portraits of those artists attending who are willing to spare the time.
The first one is Dawn. The next one, showing the underpainting and the finished portrait, is Connie.

I wish I knew how to do a layout on this blog post thingamajig. I would have put the underpainting before the finished piece. But it's what it is.

I have a few more I'll post later.

My new drawing class worked.

I taught my new curriculum last weekend. I was higher than a kite for days afterwards. It worked even better than I hoped. Here's one student's feedback.

Thanks, Barbara, for sending me your response to the drawing intensive. I appreciate you.

Hi, Kitty--
I went to Hipbone today for the first time in a few years. ... Compared to what I was doing at Hipbone the last time, today's drawings are leaps and bounds better than those. It's all due to that workshop, Kitty. For the first time I liked my gestural drawings, and the foreshortened long pose actually got some good words from Jeff. For the first time I covered the paper with the drawing instead of sight-sizing the model onto the paper--I knew how to do it!! It was FUN, I was excited, and I like what I came home with. There is still, of course, a long way to go but your workshop vaulted me over into the high-speed lane and learning should go on as long as I work with the lessons you taught me. Many many thanks--again--for your patience, your knowledge, and your dedication to passing on what you learned so long ago. We are all so grateful to you!
Barbara

CPAP success

At the sleep center last night, although I didn't sleep much, 3 hours, the doc pronounced me well wedded to the machine and all signs are go. Who can sleep in a doctors office? Even if it is disguised to look like a motel room.

Back to the easel.

I now check my gmail

I now check my gmail
You may also use my email address: walliscorp@yahoo.com