Dawn on the Severn

Here is a view of the Severn River looking over to the Peninsula, a view I have painted many times but never drawn in pastel. I started this about a year ago but never completed because I couldn't resolve the foreground. I got inspired by the many pastels at the MPS show and decided to tackle the sails. It was an interesting dawn. The day was hot and overcast. The light was a pinkish white. The "white" sails were salmon pinks and deep chocolate browns. The photo of the drawing is a bit on the pale side. It's a little warmer in good light. I treated the sails like my rock drawings, just building up layers of lines and colored textures. I tried something new in using water on a brush and painted the darks in using the pastel then drawing over the underpainting. This view is my "Chapel Pond" down here. a very peaceful, unique piece of land that never ceases to give me pleasure in watching how light plays over the surface of the land like the human body. 18x24 in pastel on sanded paper.   

SHADES OF PASTEL- National juried show

Maryland Pastel Society’s “Shades of Pastel” National Juried Exhibition, October 24-November 20, 2011, at Workhouse Art Center, Lorton, Virginia. Juror: Liz Haywood-Sullivan.

One of my pastels was picked to be in this years exhibit ("Vista", a self portrait of me on Noomark Mt) If you ever thought pastel was a a medium subservient to oil paint then this show will change your mind. The color nearly jumped off the walls. There was such  variety in style, technique, and subject from pieces that echoed Post- impressionist paintings of the 19th and 20th cen to bold modernist color abstractions. Truely inspiring. These are  paintings of pure pigment that glow.  My first juried exhibition where I had to ship my work and it made me quite nervous but everything turned out ok. The gallery is beautiful as well. The Workhouse Art Center is a spacious renovated historic site like Alexandria's Torpedo Factory where many artists work . I hope folks get to see it.