Cairn on Crow Mt.

Big Crow is a small mountain with a super view. We climb it every year. At the top someone had built a small cairn to mark the top. Stylistically I wanted to create a piece made up of small dashes of color like the Impressionists instead of flat planes of color ala Porter or Katz.  Seeing the Van Gogh show "Up Close" in Philadelphia gave me a new respect for his genius and the way he applied paint to canvas. I also discovered that there was a name for subject matter that Van Gogh and other 19th and early 20th cen painters explored when they went into the forest to paint. It was called

"Sous-Boise" Into the woods.    16x20in pastel on board. SOLD



Art Show for Earth Day

 The flyer for this years show. I will have 25 pieces to show this year.

Chapel Pond reflection ,revisited

 I reworked this drawing from a couple of years ago with my new soft pastels and it seems more finished.

Bud Leake's Barn II

 Experimenting with soft pastels on a black surface. A local framer("Fast Frames", very nice people) donated some centercuts of matboards that they were going to recycle to my school. I wanted to see how they would be to draw on before I gave them to my students and I really like the results. They are smooth with just enough tooth to work with soft pastel. Not as good with hard pastels. This surface is a very thick black core black matboard. 8x10in pastel    SOLD   

Severn WIllow

  My mother tells me that my father proposed to her by this willow tree in 1950. She tells me every time we pass it, one of the reasons I was really keen on painting it.When I am lucky enough to visit  her home on the Severn River I try to wake at dawn to catch to morning sun. The painter Michael Barre says that willow trees are some of the hardest trees to paint. That's probably because they are so wispy and difficult for the paintbrush to pull off. I was hesitant to attempt this myself until I started fooling around with these very soft pastels.  By gently rubbing the side over a rough surface (black mat board, in this case) I found the textures made really seem to create the illusion of the feathery nature of the willow. 8x10in. terry ludwig pastels

Heritage Tomatoes

 The Farmers Market is starting up  this Saturday. I worked this one from a photo I took last year. I really like building up patches of colors. Let's face it. I don't do smooth. I will live with this one for a couple of days and smooth out some of the rough edges maybe. but I am amazed by the colors of these Non supermarket tomatoes , and the taste, oh boy , I can't wait for Summer. pastel 11x14in     

Barn on Cromwell Bridge Rd.

 I was out hiking with the dog in Cromwell Park  when I caught this incredible blue shadow cast on this barn. It gave me a chance to try out these new Terry Ludwig soft pastels. They're like drawing with sticks of butter but I'm getting the hang of them.   pastel 11x14 in.