Topsy Turvy and Dangerous

Ahhhhh, I used the days of sunshine to get back to my artist's microcosm and take some photos! Last summer I started in my water lily phase to reflect on reflections and so this time my focus was on trees reflecting on the surface of the water and the bleached grasses on the bank of the canal. Life, topsy turvy as it often can be! 

Isn’t that blue amazing? Taking these pics is always dodgy, the banks of the canal are very slippery and I have a fatal attraction for water, it just pulls me in magically. However on this trip I did stay dry! 

So getting some Sennelier Pastelcard on the easel in dark blue, I decided to focus on the lower left edge, and as I want some finer lines I am trying to tweak my technique. 

My pastel technique as I've often mentioned is a wee bit unconventional, usually pastel artists start working with harder pastels and finish off with strokes of softer pastels. I work soft on soft and sometimes thwack on some pastel pencil or hard pastels for detail on top. With fine lines like are to be found on these grasses the results can be frustrating. So at the moment I'm filing on my technique, trying to put down fine grasses in harder pastel, then laying down the colour of the water around the strokes; more time consuming, yes, but I hope effective (remains to be seen!). Seeing my easel here you can also see the problems of working in my studio, the top of my paintings are usually in darkness and the low winter sun can be frustrating. 

So taking a bit of a closer look you get a better idea of what I mean the grasses are on the first layer and the area around them is my support, normally that would be all blue and I would be trying to work finely on the top. With soft pastels nearly impossible. 

Fixed in my ways as I am, rethinking my methods is busting my head in but as the chances of getting a range of pastels designed with my methods in mind are zilch, needs must! Let’s see where this pastel adventure leads, just hoping not into the fathomless depths of the bottom drawer, the ship's graveyard for failed paintings.