Park Parade, Blues and Royals!

Yey! Here is my pastel painting Park Parade, Blues and Royals. 

 

This was the attampt to deal with my fear of greens, and although I wouldn't say I'm loving green, I have come to terms with the fact that not residing in Tuscany, where the earth is red and the leaves of the olive trees are pearly, not doing green means the summer could be miserable, shut up in the studio. 

Flora and foliage are pretty new to me in pastel and it was surprising how much fun I had dealing with those blooms! Here is some detail, 

 

Using a fairly limited palette and working on dark Sennelier PastelCard ( my favourite support, which is a sanded cardboard)  I tried to capture the essence of the blooms without getting into too much detail., using soft Unison pastels and some pastel pencil. 

 

 

This gorgeous array of blooms in the "Schlossgarten", (palace gardens) of Oldenburg were my inspiration, having  spent a lazy afternoon sketching there.  To be honest, greens and the natural colour of my surroundings will never be my favourite, but doing this painting certainly did help to build my confidence for some plein air, which I already posted, it also helped to get rid of some of those ghastly greens languishing in my pastel trays.

 I bet you've noticed that languishing is my favourite word of the moment and I've always fancied myself languishing on a chaise longue, swooning because my stays were too tight. You've guessed it I'm a fan of Scarlett O'Hara, drama queen that I am,  in flouncing, pouting and being contrary I am every bit as good, she couldn't "eat like a bird" and neither can I, but then in the words of Rhett Butler "My dear, I don't give a damn!" That was  a lie, I've been fasting for 3 days;  some say fasting is good for your creativity, I can't comment on that! One thing however is certain, it  isn't good for your mood!