I’ve been experimenting with a new approach to landscape painting this year. I took a handful of unframed pastel paintings that hadn’t satisfied me enough to frame, and washed each one down with rubbing alcohol to bond the pastel to the sanded paper support. The result was a blurry, washy, matte finish composition which I then responded to with oil paint applied solely with palette knives. The contrast of the matte pastel base and the glossier oil intrigued me, and I incorporated various amounts of this contrast in each new work. Some paintings changed completely in composition, colour, or mood; others ended up being just ‘better’ versions of the original pastels. The finished works are a marriage of naturalism and abstraction, a new look for me. And because they are now oil (vs pastel) paintings, I’ll be framing them without glass for maximum visibility.
I’m happy with the results. Come see twenty of these experiments—all small-medium in size and price—at this year’s Art Crawl October 18-20.
Winter Complements 16 x 20 oil on paper framed $400
Morning Fresh 10 x 28.5 oil on paper framed $350
Tomorrow’s Forecast 15 x 13 oil on paper framed $350