Mt. Helena with Winter Trees. oil on board, 6 x 6"

$125

Changing up the Color

 

Helmsville Turnoff 2, pastel, 5 x 7"

I had painted this scene as a large oil last year and it just wasn't working.  I tried changing several things in the painting itself to no avail.  So this week I stared at it for a while,  looked at the notan pattern, the values,  the color scheme,  the drawing, etc, and decided to do some tiny studies in pastel exploring some possibilities that might solve the problems.  The pastel above keeps pretty close to the original colors of the scene, but I emphasized the amount of blues to add to the atmospheric effect.  

Contrast this pastel to the earlier blog post of Jan 17th. .(image below) For that study I really pushed the colors of sky and field for a version with more pizzazz.   The red of the paper was allowed to show through and the effect pretty potent.  They have very different moods. Which  do you prefer?

                                                               Helmsville Turnoff,  pastel, 5 x 7"

                                            Helmsville Turnoff,  pastel, 5 x 7", $125

Sieben Willows, pastel, 6 x 8"

Bay Islands Blue #6, oil on board, 6 x 6"   

Deerborn in Summer Smoke

Dearborn in Summer Smoke,  pastel,  8 x 10", $225

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This was a demo I did last night for my pastel class demonstrating atmospheric perspective.  There's lots of that in Montana this summer with thick smoke from all the fires. 
The Missouri River at Deerborn, Montana.  

Canyon Creek Field

 Canyon Creek Field, pastel,6 x 8", $125

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