Catching the Last Rays!

Having had some sun for the last days, things are now looking a bit gloomy, and I've managed to finish a pastel painting ..... Catching the Last Rays! 

Catching the Last Rays! 

So here we were out on a chilly afternoon with the sun slowly sinking and suddenly those sun rays went all golden and sparkled through the frosty darkening trees. Due to a change in technique to enable more detail my paintings are taking much longer, but I am no longer struggling with thick lines and muddy colours and have successfully reduced the amount of fixative I use. 

I could bang on about the pros and cons of fixative all day, it is a red rag to many pastel artists but I'm on the side of all those who find their technique requires it and we are in illustrious company; Degas, Cassatt, Redon, De LaTour all used fixative and they are just the tip of the iceberg! 

Here we can see the work on the easel and my build up! Every artist has their own way of working but generally you get down your lights and darks then start working in the mid values. Lights and darks are the backbone of the painting, to little of them and you get a mid-value mess with very little definition. If I have a lot of pales in the sky I do try to get it fairly much finished as you can see here, before moving down with darks. The reason for this is simple, although I work on sanded card which grips the pastel you still get dust dropping down and an excess of pale unwanted dust settling into the darker areas is a pain! 

Wherever you are, I hope you are keeping a) safe and b) your nerves ..... let’s look forward to catching those last rays and taking a deep breath of fresh air! If anything good is to come of this, then perhaps the appreciation of those small things we have taken for granted for so long!