New Miniature soft pastel painting for 2016 called Flower Field. I love drawing and painting flower fields in acrylics, oils, soft pastels and watercolors. I have been fascinated with this theme since around the age of 2-3. I remember a scene at this young age of fields of yellow flowers. I had not been in any flower fields which makes me wonder If in a previous life I had. Just wondering why I am so attracted to this theme in my artwork. It is almost a nostalgic feeling which keeps me drawing and painting flower fields of all colors.
In drawing with pastels I feel at one with the process due to the immediacy of laying down the layers of pastel pigment on the paper with my hands as I hold the pastel sticks. It is as if I am sculpting the paper with the pastels as I blend each color into the shapes of the composition. When painting with brushes for my acrylic, oil and watercolor paintings I feel a distance from the canvas and or paper. The brush takes on a life of its own which can be intimidating yet exhilarating. In art school I worked at times with the brushes and pastels at the same time. I would work on canvas with washes of acrylic paints and then proceed to work with the pastels over the acrylics. This was lots of fun because I was painting with the two mediums at once. It was not very conventional yet it was what my creative heart was dictating at the time. I may actually go back to this format to continue to explore this further.
Mountain Range Landscape reflects my love for the mountains as I grew up with the Andes mountains in South America. It is a current theme in my miniature paintings. There is an expansive skyline with a glimpse of the mountains against the blue sky. It is a softer pastel miniature painting.
Vase of Flowers is one of my new miniature soft pastel drawings. It is one of my first miniatures using the Unison pastels which are intense in hue with a depth and variety of colors. I fell in love with Unison pastels once I started drawing with them for this miniature drawing. Red is a prominent color in this drawing. This drawing has to be one of my favorites because it is intense and sharp especially around the vase of the flowers. Vase of Flowers is one of the first in my flower arrangement series.
Flowers and mountains have been a theme in my miniature artwork for some time now. There is a fine balance between the majestic mountains and the juxtaposition of the delicate flowers. I grew up surrounded by wildlife flowers and mountains which might explain my love for this artistic exploration in my paintings. Soft pastels bring out the vibrancy of the flowers with each color standing out against the backdrop of the mountains. I love the color orange which is a color that often repeats itself in my art.
One of my favorite things of being an artist is the studio and all that it takes to make it flow with inspiration and comfort for the drawing and painting process. Each medium such as pastels, oils and watercolor takes its own kind of studio set up. Pastels require lots of space to lay out all of the various sticks of color ranges at my fingertips. Then there is the special board for my miniature artwork which requires an angle to draw the pastel miniatures and also the lighting to capture each pastel pigment as it develops into a miniature painting. The setting up of an art studio brings all the creative energy to a high note which then goes into the new miniature paintings.
I started this series of miniature flower vases in soft pastel. I love the color blue especially cobalt blue. When I start a painting I let the pastels dictate the theme of my painting through the colors and layers of pastel on the paper. The painting takes a life of its own. Capturing the nuances of color and light with pastel in a miniature format can be difficult but worth it. A one inch window of flowers.
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