Pastel Plein Air Session, Done!

I've been putting off the dreaded moment of getting out with my pastels for some time, finally with no excuses I headed out. The day before I had done a bit of a recce with my bike, found my motif and basically settled on my palette, in the vain hope of solving that  perennial plein air problem ...... not having the right colour! Wanting to do a bit of a low-key number, the selection was shadowy turquoises, lilacs and blue greens! 

 

My dislike of working "small" hasn't abated one bit, but I started off with gay abandon, however somewhat irritated that the sun was picking out a lot of yellow green (wasn't there on my recce). Once again I'd made the mistake of parking myself where cyclists passed (we have a problem in Germany with sheep ticks and I try to avoid standing in long grass) big mistake! Having been working for over an hour two cyclists rode by and I heard one say to the other "well, I suppose you could see it like that," my self-confidence shrivelled to the size of a frozen pea. What then followed was " plein air disasters reloaded",  last summer I had a turquoise catastrophe with this box, I love the compartments, but it offers no protection and the bumpy roads here and the jiggling of my bike converts pastels into multi-coloured piles of dust, this I had forgotten. Disaster number 2 was inevitable, 

 

little bit of wind and well, you can see for yourself! Gave up at this point and headed for home! 

Having stared at the results at home for a bit, I decided it wasn't such a disaster after all and so the next day, was back but this time with my pastels in a foam padded box! Although there was too much sun, things really got wrapped up very quickly and taaadaaaa

 

The feel is somewhat magical I think; sparkly, glittery and a bit like a Midsummer Night's dream and you'll never guess what happened next? Queen Titania popped by!