Sunstruck

Oh boy, was this fun!  I found a new blog this week called the oil pastel review and was inspired to try oil pastels.  I remembered that I have some oil pastels that I've never used.  I think they were my dads and they were probably purchased in the 1960's.  They are probably inexpensive ones but it was fun playing with them.  I thought that working with these would basically be like working with soft pastels but they felt very different.  I have a lot to learn about them but I think the more expensive the supplies, the more oil and less wax there is in the sticks.  These were pretty waxy feeling  but that was okay.  The surface I used for this was a small piece of archival mat board to which I had added a layer of fine pumice gel.  It was the perfect surface for this medium.

I'm curious whether or not this will ever dry completely.  It's not wet like an oil painting is when first painted, but if I run my finger across it, some color lifts.  It seems like they wouldn't completely dry since if they did, the oil pastel sticks would also be dry and would be unusable, right?  Since the ones I have are about 50 years old and are still soft, I'm assuming that I will have to frame this medium behind glass as I would a soft pastels painting.

I will definitely be trying this medium again soon.

Sunstruck
Image size 3" x 4.5"
Oil Pastels

Category › hibiscus flower painting , nancy goldman , oil pastels

Pink Hibiscus

First, I apologize for the blurry picture. I didn't have my regular camera with me on our vacation. We've been in Mexico for the past week and I painted this down there. I took many reference photos with me so I could paint a lot but I was so busy doing absolutely nothing that I didn't have much time to paint. :-) I painted this for an artist friend of mine that works at the resort where we stay so I don't have the actual painting here with me to take a better picture of it. Over the past few years, Vidal has given me several sketches that he's done so I thought it was about time for me to paint something for him. A few years ago I was painting out by the pool at the resort and he was watching what I was doing for quite a while from about 6 feet behind the table where I was working. I could tell that he had more of an interest in what I was doing than most people that watch an artist work so we started trying to converse. He speaks limited English and my Spanish is extremely pathetic but with the help of sign language we got our ideas across to each other. A couple of hours later, he brought me a sketch of a rose that he did for me on the back of one of the hotel's paper coasters using just a ballpoint pen. Since then, I take him art supplies every now and then because he doesn't have access to any in the small town in which he lives and he gives me artwork in return. I don't expect him to do that but you should see the sense of pride on his face when he sees how much I appreciate his work.

Three Hibiscus

Image size 4" x 6"

Watercolor

Category › hibiscus flower painting , hollyhock watercolor paintings , tropical flowers