Montana Sunset

4x6
Soft Pastel on Canson Mi Teintes Paper
Price: NFS
Year painted: 2005
Pastels used: Nupastel, Rembrandt, Sennelier, Schmincke
Source: A photo found on the Internet.
No copyright info available.
This was my second experiment painting on a very small scale. I used the reverse of the Canson Mi Teintes paper. For smaller works, I would recommend using a fine grade sandpaper instead.

Scottish Pastures

4x6
Soft Pastel on Canson Mi Teintes Paper
Price: NFS
Year painted: 2005
Pastels used: Nupastel, Rembrandt, Sennelier, Schmincke
Source: My imagination.
I had read somewhere that pastel paintings are usually meant to be larger works, generally to be seen at a distance. I thought I’d try for myself whether or not pastels could work on a very small scale, and was quite happy to find that this tiny 4x6 postcard size allowed me to create a very nice impressionistic feel in the final painting. I intentionally used the reverse side of Canson Mi Teintes because it has less tooth than a sanded paper, which forced me to keep my strokes simpler.

Big Wave

9x12
Soft Pastel on Sennelier La Carte Paper
Price: NFS
Year painted: 2004
Pastels used: Nupastel, Rembrandt, Sennelier, Schmincke
Source: A photo found on the Internet.
No copyright info available.
This was a gift for a friend’s teenage daughter who was very much ‘into’ the surf thing. The challenge was learning how to create depth and luminescence in water.

Iron Creek Falls

9x12
Soft Pastel on Sennelier La Carte Paper
Price: NFS
Year painted: 2004
Pastels used: Nupastel, Rembrandt, Sennelier, Schmincke
Source: A photo found on the Internet.
No copyright info available.
Iron Creek Falls in Lewis County, Washington. This is one of my favorite paintings, which was a gift for my father on his 70th birthday. It was the first time I had attempted to paint water with pastels; quite a different process from working with oils or acrylics. Schmincke pastels helped create the sparkling highlights that made the waves come alive.

Stonehenge

12x18.5
Soft Pastel on Sennelier La Carte Paper
Price: NFS
Year painted: 2004
Pastels used: Nupastel, Rembrandt, Sennelier, Schmincke
Source: Picture from a German magazine.
No copyright info available.
A failed attempt to paint a sunset sky; but I was very happy with how the rocks turned out.

Waterfall with Rainbow

9x11
Soft Pastel on GatorGrit 400-b Waterproof Sandpaper
Price: Contact the Artist
Year Painted: 2004
Pastels Used: Nupastel, Rembrandt, Schmincke
Source: Photograph taken by the artist at Yosemite National Park.
This was my first experience painting on sandpaper (while I was waiting for my first order of Sennelier La Carte to be delivered). This particular grade has a very fine tooth, which forced me to not overwork the painting. As a rule, I do not like to use spray fixative because it dulls the colors, so it is only a last resort to ‘fix’ a mistake. Happily, there were no such mistakes in this painting, so the colors are pure. I enjoyed watching the rainbow ‘appear’ in the mist with the butter-soft Schmincke pastels.

Garmisch-Patenkirchen

15x20
Soft Pastel on Sketch Paper
NFS
1982
Pastels Used: Grumbacher
Source: Photograph taken by the Artist
The reference photo was taken from a bridge over the Loisach River in Garmisch Patenkirchen. I loved the view to the Alps and the lush colors all along the river and in the water.

Mühle am Wall

15x20
Soft Pastel on Sketch Paper
NFS
1982
Pastels Used: Grumbacher
Source: Photograph taken by the Artist
This is one of my favorite spots in Bremen, Germany.

My Village (sort of)

9x11
Charcoal on Paper
Late-1970s
Source: My imagination.
This was a high school art class assignment; it's a fictional view of the village where I grew up. The church does not exist, at least not in that form or at that location (it’s actually a tiny A-frame chapel quite a ways away from the center of town), but the other buildings did. It is also fictional in the sense that I have no idea if the aerial view is correct; this is simply what I imagined it would look like if I could fly over the village.

Sunset

12x16
Oil on Canvas
1980s
Source: A lesson in a book.
Long before Bob Ross’ oil painting series on PBS, there was William (Bill) Alexander’s “Magic of Oil Painting” in the early 1980s. It’s the exact same painting method as Bob Ross, and Bill Alexander actually invented it: the liquid white as a wet medium on the canvas, and the much thicker than average paint as you work this wet-on-wet method. I can’t say I enjoyed Bill Alexander’s PBS shows as he had a horribly thick German accent (he was a German Canadian), and I got really tired of his yelling “Fiah it into de canvas! You ah de migh-ty creator! You vant a tree? Dere! Just put it over zere! Ver-ever you vant!” over and over and over again. However, the painting method intrigued me, so I bought one of his books and the oil paint and accessories. This is one of two paintings I actually finished.

Winter Scene

12x16
Pencil on Paper
1979

I had this postcard with a breathtaking wintry scene: lovely shades of sunset orange against stark black silhouettes of barren winter shrubs. This was my attempt to turn it into a black and white pencil rendition. One of my favorite drawings, because the scene still evokes the same sense of wanting to take a deep breath and relax.