Sunday, November 1, 2015

New Pastels


My pastels often form over time. I have been working on several that just never seemed to materialize until yesterday.

Sometimes I just stare at all the unfinished works and have a problem getting started. Having the time to create and a great inclination without any focus or direction is a very difficult situation for the creative to experience.

Yesterday I decided to play with some existing pastels, a term I have recently started using. There are two very different states in the creative process and I enjoy each for different reasons.

There is detail, trying to perfect what you see which is very disciplined but can get a bit overwhelming, I am working on a very detailed dog staring out a window, a large oil. The other state is play. The idea that you can just play with color, texture and shapes-there is something quite liberating about “play”.


Spending some time in Oakland California with many very talented artists has inspired me to be bold and more adventurous.  They live in an artist coop, they eat, breathe and live art.

One artist particular artist is Teresa Kalnoskas, her rich colors and bold expressive forms made me want to dive into painting and creating more aggressively. She hangs things in her studio that inspire her, has large and small canvases all about her neat and ordered studio and many of her techniques are brilliant.

With this renewed inspiration,I have added a new dimension to my pastels; acrylic paint and oil pastels. I get to dab bits of wet acrylic into pastel, I smear oil pastels, something I haven’t used in a while and quite miraculously I am free to explore more creatively.

I am excited about seeing new and bolder options as well as perfecting the quality of craftsmanship by doing portraits of animals and for the first time, people.


I am very excited about these new series that seem to be taking shape simultaneously. Stay tuned for more works.




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