Making Pastel Sticks

I've been packing for days for my move to Montana.

So I needed a little fun.

While packing I came across the little containers that I pour the dust into that collects at the bottom of my painting.  There were about 9 little tins of various shades of grey.

It was time to turn them into pastel sticks.

All you need is a few tablespoons of pastel dust from your painting process. - the stuff that accumulates at the bottom of your paper

 (or on your shoes if you forgot to put a catcher under it.)

I keep mine in these nifty little containers with see-through lids so I can see what the color is in that tin.

Put the pastel dust in a bowl and stir with a spoon, crushing the solid bits that are not dust yet.

Or you can use a mortar and pestle to grind it up evenly.

Then add about a teaspoon of distilled water and stir.

You want it to be barely wet.

Form it into a ball.  - use gloves for this step.

Then roll it out on a paper towel into a cylinder or chunk.

 Then let it dry.

The resulting sticks are great grayed tones. 

 I can't wait til they're dry to try them out!

                                      
                                      The cigar box that holds my dust collection.  

                                 Have you tried this?  How did they turn out for you?

A Nice Loose Start

 It was a treat recently to paint plein air with my friend Janet Palin out at Connary Cove, one of my favorite places on the island.  Wide meadows,  beaches with great rocks, and nobody there.  












Janet has a lovely loose style of drawing - loose loopy lines exploring her subject.










Here's a page from her sketchbook.

                
  and her ultra loose block in
                 



  






  I'm always trying to paint looser so it was great watching her.

        My  almost finished pastel that morning.
  
          Then we went and ate crab rolls

            and talked for hours.

Last Week's Pastel Workshop

A glorious stretch of weather last week allowed us to paint outside every day. 

 A few photos form the Starting Stronger Paintings workshop in Stonington, Maine.

                                           Sketching Thumbnails

 
                                         Lobster rolls and nap for lunch

 

                                         Painting the yellow house

Heading to California for a Month of Painting

Traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge

It was hard to leave Deer Isle in the height of summer but I could not turn down the opportunity to cat sit for  friends for a month at the Sea Ranch in California.



 I have wanted for a couple of years to spend time on the coast of California painting so their offer was an answered prayer.  

I am drawn to the coastal Oaks.

The foggy, foggy coastal range

A Month of Pastel Workshops

Elaine paints Mariners Park.

The month of July was  four pastel workshops nearly back to back .


The weather was wonderful for painting plein air.

Mary Beth, Anne and Kate painting at Connary Cove

 Ann captures Lazy Gut Island.

Dawn and the fruits of summer.

The wonderful hat the Intensive group made for me.  

A marvel of newspaper and tape and symbols of everything I had been talking about that week!

Taking Crayons to the Pre-School

    Today I went to the Ecole Maternelle du Nord, just down the street, with materials I had brought from the states: several boxes of crayons, a package of colored construction paper and a roll of newsprint.

     We had pre arranged with the headmistress to give the children an art experience. Even though this school seemed to be pretty affluent by African standards, they did not have paper and crayons for any of the children. The posted daily schedule had some pretty tough stuff on it, though: science and technologie, enviroment, and this for 3 - 6 year olds.

There was one table with 10 chairs but there were about 30 children.  

So we spread large sheets of paper on the floor and passed out the crayons to all of them.

I asked them to draw their families.  They did,  but they also drew "voitures", even though most  families don't own cars,  but travel by foot, horse cart, taxi or bicycle.

Lina translates my French into Wolof for the children.  

The real hit during this session was the camera.  Next time I'll take the video camera and let them take videos of themselves.

French Colonial Architecture of St. Louis

I opened the Waaw door to the street this morning at 6am  to find three talibes sleeping on our doorstep - probably ages 9 - 12.  They got up to let me pass but 45 minutes later when I returned they were still there sound asleep.  I had restless sleep last night dreaming of the chaos on the streets - the talibes begging for food,  the vendors tugging at you to buy.  The three young boys sleeping on the hard concrete of our doorway just adds to the emotional conflict I am experiencing here.  

The dust is so thick in the air that even though the sky is clear there is no sign of the sun and no shadows yet.  Just a murky haze.  My intention is to photograph some of the wonderful buildings, so,short of ideal light, I will take photos anyway.  

The old part of St. Louis, an island in the middle of the Senegal River, is a UNESCO world heritage site. Some renovation is taking place but most buildings are decaying. Nevertheless, the beauty of their details still comes through.