This is the water lesson in the Pastel Landscape Mastery course with The Virtual Instructor. I am starting to get discouraged. Skies and water are my nemeses. (Is that the right word? LOL!) I guess that means I need more practice with them. Ugh…
Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all the others were making ships. — Charles Simic
This is from the next lesson in the Pastel Landscape Mastery course with The Virtual Instructor. He used a photo that I decided was too busy for me. I chose my photo because it was calmer and quieter. This is pastel pencils on 9×12 sanded paper.
Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart. — Washington Irving
I recently found a very nifty book with photos of Ronald Reagan during his presidency. It is called Images of Greatness: An Intimate Look at the Presidency of Ronald Reagan. Such nifty pictures. I have chosen a few for portraits. One for a figure drawing. I will try to get to those over the next few months. This one has the following caption: “The president listens intently during a cabinet meeting. He sometimes wore reading glasses in the Cabinet Room and Oval Office.” This is charcoal on 12×16 light brown pastel paper.
I’ve often said there’s nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse. — Ronald Reagan
Here are my next two lessons in Pastel Landscape Mastery. This first one is pastel pencils on sanded paper.
This next one is soft pastels on 8×10 velour paper.
I am also, in between lessons, working on another portrait. I love me some portraits! LOL!
There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more. — Lord Byron
This is my second lesson in the Pastel Landscapes Mastery course. I did it twice. Once on Canson Mi-Teintes paper and it didn’t look good to me. So, this one is on sanded paper. I love it!
Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky. — Rabindranath Tagore
The ongoing struggle with landscapes has led me to return to my favorite teacher, Matt at The Virtual Instructor. I have enrolled in the Pastel Landscape Mastery course and this is my first piece.
This is an 11×14 soft pastel on velour paper. I believe the scene is the hills of Italy.
What a nice night for an evening. — Steven Wright
This was a photo I found in a nifty new book I got at the library book store, yesterday. It is a big book of American barns. The original photo had a big, fancy, white horse barn, but I wanted a little red barn. So, I used a log barn from another photo. This is pastels on 8×10 yellow paper.
Horses make a landscape look beautiful. — Alice Walker
Yes, this is health food. Pumpkin is good for you, all that beta carotene, among other things. And we all know fruit is good and yummy. LOL! These are pastels on the same paper, but the fruit is on the textured side and the pumpkin is on the smooth side. What a difference.
I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. — Henry David Thoreau
Well, I don’t know if this is “weekly”, but it is about a week’s worth. I broke out my pastels for some strange reason. A little while ago I said that I was done with pastels. But, I got the itch and checked out some books from the library and did some copies.
Mamoo has been having a very difficult time, in and out of the hospital and rehab a few times over the last couple of months. It culminated with this last stay in the hospital with double pneumonia, pleurisy, and an infection. She did amazingly well and she just went back home, today. She has a medical companion for a little while, who is a great blessing. Praise the Lord! Things are looking up for Mamoo.
We failed, but in the good providence of God apparent failure often proves a blessing. — Robert E. Lee
Here are a couple of oil paintings that I have done in the last few days. There are two things I want to learn: how to paint loosely and how to paint landscapes.
This reminds me of spinning on my spinning wheel. When I first learned to spin, I made loose, slubby yarn that didn’t hold together well. As I got better at it, the yarn tightened up and became good yarn that knitted up very nicely. Now, if I want to make loose yarn, I can’t do it. I am just a tight spinster and can’t loosen up. It is like that with my drawing and painting. I can’t seem to loosen up. I love to see the work of a painter that can paint loose. I will keep trying… LOL!
Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing? Can one really explain this? No. Just as one can never learn how to paint. — Pablo Picasso
exists to create art which reflects the beauty and the glory of God, to use art to comfort and encourage people, and to inspire others to pursue the arts. 
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