Secrets, Sea and Shameless Plugging!

Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat ........ I'm trying to do just the opposite, biting the bullet and dieting. Christmas is a time of secrets and I'm in on one at the moment, a commission for a landscape as a Christmas present, so here’s a little sneak peek but no reveal as obviously it is a gift! It feels pretty unusual to be working from someone else’s photo but as it has a lot to do with waves it feels very comfortable. 

As I'm dealing with the sea, lets have a look at one of my small seascapes framed and available (pop me a line through my contact formula if you're  interested) 

The frame is 15cm x 20cm and the artwork 9cm x 13cm, working on this scale of pastel is relatively new for me, I prefer (especially landscapes) to work large and freely but for my waves I really like this format and with the white frame it has a lovely maritime feel. 

Here we can take a little look at my progression, as usual I'm working on Sennelier PastelCard which is firm and nicely toothy, with a variety of soft pastels. I did try to make a chart with all the colours involved but as I don’t really select a palette beforehand, my colour decisions are very spontaneous. Sometimes, I do have a colour scheme in my head before I start however if I feel it's looking too flat or predictable I'll just grab whatever it takes to pull the painting together. As for using a colour wheel, I do think it can be very helpful but having learnt colour theory at art school I actually don’t have one lying around. If I feel stuck, I drag out my old books or pop online to get some inspiration. 

The start of all my paintings is a very loose sketch and then working in large fields of colour, lights and darks, moving around the painting as I go. Finally, when I get to stage three here it’s time for some detailing. In the case of my waves, coloured Conté sticks, pastel pencils or shards of harder pastels help to give me the detail needed for the spindrift on top of the waves. 

So now I've done my shameless plugging, it’s back to the easel back to some more waves and up to now I think about 30 different shades of greens, blues and pales.