Day 4 :: LATE IN THE DAY :: #30in30 Painting a Day Challenge

LATE IN THE DAY
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

$125 + $8 shipping
(Some day I'll figure out how to center the "Buy Now" button.)

Tim asked me what the purpose of #30in30 was and I told him it's to set a discipline of daily painting and, with daily exercise, to expand my artistic repertoire.

Holding true to this aim, I've been struggling with green in so many aspects for so long.
     *Green in shadow versus green in sunlight.
     *Green that's in the foreground and greens in the background.
     *Green that's muddy versus green that is intense.
Green causes problems especially in summer when everything is green.

For a big birthday present a few years ago my family gave me the Terry Ludwig set of 90 greens. Ninety! You'd think if you have 90 greens you'd have them all. Not me. I found I was always wanting a variation of the color that wasn't available. Eventually I figured it wasn't the selection but the user. I wasn't using green to its best effect.

This painting is a study in green in sunlight and in shadow. It's from a field near my home near where the town school buses are stored. This field is beautiful all times of the year, and it's a place that I find intimidating for it's simplicity -- gorgeous field, a stone wall, the sky, tall grasses. When a composition is simple, it doesn't allow for hiding a weak result in the architecture of a farmhouse or the dancing light and shadow on clouds. As an artist you're exposed and it's rough.

This painting went through some rough spells. Apply pastel. Keep applying more pastel. Wipe that all off. Do it again. Wipe it off again. Start over. Here's where I ended up. I love it. It's better in person. I need a better camera or the real Photoshop not Photoshop Elements.

Thanks for reading. We'll see what I paint for tomorrow. -kmw

Pastel surfaces demonstration

Pastel painting surfaces are myriad, and it's quite important to select the right one for how you work and what you'd like the final outcome to look like. This precise topic was the subject of my demonstration two night's back for the Foxboro Art Association. 

The nearly two-hour demo concentrated on four different surfaces and somehow I quickly was able to sketch four (!) paintings to show just how varied these surfaces can be.

Sennelier's Pastel Card is my favorite and so it was my opener. I created this landscape with two hay bales on dry-mounted charcoal colored Pastel Card. I find the paper, with its cork tooth, grabs color vibrantly. This is a work-in-progress, but I stopped at this point because it demonstrates the point.

©2011 Kim Morin Weineck
WORK IN PROGRESS: Hay Bales
original pastel, 12x16"
Sennelier Pastel Card

The next surface was Canson Mi-Teintes paper, which has two distinct sides. The 'right' side (with the Canson watermark) offers a zillion small circular 'nubbies' on it which I am constantly feeling the need to overcome. I have a hard time with this paper on the 'right' side.

I created this sketch on this paper, again selecting paper in a charcoal tone for continuity to the above sketch. A member made the observation that this piece looked like it had a netting over the entire surface - the exact 'nubbies' I'm describing! Yes, it does look just like that!

©2011 Kim Morin Weineck
WORK IN PROGRESS: Marsh Light
original pastel, 12x16"
Canson Mi-Teintes paper, RIGHT side

If you turn this Canson Mi-Teintes paper over to the 'wrong side, an entirely different effect is achieved. No 'nubbies' are there. It's smoother and, for my way of working, I am not fighting the paper the entire time I'm painting. The pastel pigment sits nicely on the paper, I find. 

©2011 Kim Morin Weineck
WORK IN PROGRESS: Hay Bales
original pastel, 12x16"
Canson Mi-Teintes paper, WRONG side

To finish up, I painted this incredibly dull start of a pastel which needs so much work I nearly didn't post it here. For the purposes of the demonstration, though, I'm including it. 

PastelMat by Clairefontaine is a relatively new surface which is so mind-boggling in its ability to accept more and more pastel and yet confounds because it has no tooth or grit to grab the pigment. The paper I had was white, and a lot is still showing through. More work to be done, but those in attendance got to see how one works on the surface. 

©2011 Kim Morin Weineck
WORK IN PROGRESS: Marsh Stream
original pastel, 12x16"
PastelMat

My goal is to finish up what I can on these and post when they're completed. I hope I can keep on this positive flow of energy since the demonstration this week and get to them soon! Please cut me some slack on these studies. They were done in great haste and aren't refined yet.

People asked me some wonderful, pertinent questions about materials. Keep in mind that this is my opinion. Please experiment and enjoy your own process of discovery! I'm reluctant to use the word 'best' here, but in my opinion, that's what they are!

The plein air set

The best go-to set of pastels for plein-air:
Sennelier's 80 half-stick set for Plein Air

The best paper for plein-air:
Sennelier's Pastel Card pad in either size available

The best fixative to protect your pastel and not have too much dulling of color:
Lascaux fixatif

The pastels I used for the demonstration:
Sennelier (so beautiful with Sennelier Pastel Card), Unison (loved these with the PastelMat surface), Terry Ludwig, Nupastel, and Girault.

The best sources for on-line ordering of pastel supplies:
Dakota Art Pastels
Dick Blick
Jerry's Art A Rama
Terry Ludwig

Please find me online at kimmorinweineck.blogspot.com and follow my blog, should you like.
I'm also at Gallery9 at Custom Art Framing as the Gallery Director. I'd be delighted to see you there.

What a wonderful experience it was to test myself for this demo. The crowd was wonderful with amazingly on-point questions and such encouraging comments.

Thank you to Foxboro Art Association for having me!

My specialty

Generally, my medium of choice is either soft pastels or oils. Today's post will be all about pastels. Can you stand how beautiful?

This set, Sennelier's Paris demi-stick set, was a wonderful gift for my 40th birthday.
Hurray for the colorific gorgeousness!

The two mediums lend themselves to similar painting styles and yet the end feeling is much different. I tend to switch from one medium to the other but not interchangeably.

Three paintings I had just finished displayed in the
wayback of our small SUV along with my petite purse.

I work wholly in pastel until I feel frustrated by the process and result and then I switch to oils exclusively. This is very 'me' as I'm pretty all-or-nothing in just about everything.

©Kim Morin Weineck, Nightfall, original pastel, 20x9" 2010
I completed this pastel combining memory and a photograph
I took whilst Tim was driving en route to a short Maine trip.
The moon was more than memorable that night.

Lately I'm in a nearly-exclusive pastel painting mode of thinking because of time. Pastel paintings can work up quickly and with Lucy and Pippa underfoot, time is a major factor. If I have a moment to paint, I'd rather harness the early excitement of creating to make a completed or nearly-completed pastel instead of starting on an oil.

When this set of Terry Ludwig's Ultramarine Blues arrived ,
I couldn't wait to try them out. They didn't disappoint.

When I'm feeling blocked creatively, there are two cures that tend to work for me: New supplies (!) and organizing/cleaning/just sitting in my studio space. Getting new supplies is obviously more fun.

After an FAA demonstration with Liz Haywood-Sullivan and a successful show
last OctoberI bought these Giraults. You'll see the small 5x7" piece
I created on site right after opening them up!

When it comes to creative confidence, I think my pastels are my strongest artistic suit but my husband prefers my oils. Recently I was juried into the Pastel Society of America and the Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod. It was stressful to apply but confidence-building to be accepted.

©Kim Morin Weineck, Yellow Marsh Grass, original pastel, 5x5" 2011
A recent pastel, photographed in my basement studio, of the yellow grasses of a salt marsh.
This painting made me pretty happy because of the depth in the yellows.

When it comes to subject matter, my specialty right now is the landscape and more precisely - marshes. I love them and I love to be in them. With the coming of spring and summer, I am excited to branch out and see what I'll be adding to my portfolio.

Thanks for reading!
kmw