Oil Pastels - It's like spreading color with lipstick.I have a box of Oil Pastels. It looks like this:  Each pastel used to be clean, and they came with their own little spot, in a large cardboard box, as a set of 48. But after six moves, over three thousand miles, and a few days spent in hot cars, they are now jumbled up in a small plastic box getting each color all over it's neighbor... but when I look at this color mess, all I see is magic. It's like being six again and looking at a box of crayons, oh the possibilities.I haven't worked much in oil pastel since I bought them literally six years ago, but this month I wanted an effect on a painting about Red Winged Black Birds that I'm working on and realized I could only get it with oil pastels. So I pulled out my box of color, and started exploring once again. On the first night of discovery, I drew some red winged black birds.  And then, got up the courage to draw all over my canvas for red winged black birds...  Still working on this painting... Then, after being reminded about how amazing these sticks make color glide... I started playing more. And drew a manatee...  ...because manatees are really cute. And then a spoon bill...  ....who doesn't love a spoon bill? And soon found myself over the week, doodling birds while waiting for programs to load on my computer...  And then got carried away, and started drawing on all of the abstract square canvases I had made for other projects....  ...They look better with birds on them. Oil Pastels consist of pigment mixed with a non-drying oil and wax binder. There are a variety of brands out there to choose from; Cray-pas to Caran D'ache to Sennelier. Unlike some mediums, you can really tell the difference between the cheaper oil pastels and the more expensive ones. Cheaper oil pastels are stiffer and crack easily when drawing. All of my oil pastels are Sennelier, which is one of the more expensive brands. But, with the Sennelier pastels, it really does feel like you are drawing with lipstick, and their colors are more vibrant. They also glide better on more surfaces, making them a lot easier to use if you enjoy working on a variety of surfaces. I discovered early on when trying out a new medium, it's best to buy a box of as many colors as you can afford. Especially in pastels and pencils. Unless you know you are painting a certain subject that needs only several colors. In the late 1940s, the story goes that Pablo Picasso's friend, Henri Goetz approached Henri Sennelier, a french artist materials manufacturer, about creating a wax color stick. Picasso was looking for a medium that could be used freely on a variety of surfaces without fading or cracking. Sennelier made the first artist grade oil pastels then with the very intention they could be used as Picasso dreamed. I have barely scratched the surface of possibility with these pastel, but the more I work with them, the more I want to continue exploring how I can make more than just studies of cute animals in my sketchbooks.
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This past fall, a little known Jellyfish called the Australian white spotted jellyfish or Phyllorhiza punctata was found off the coast of San Diego... Found on Flickr by Matteo Tarenghi Normally seen off the coast of Australia, this was a bit strange. It was also strange when they invaded the Gulf of Mexico in 2000, and again in 2007... Apparently, Jellyfish can 'cling' to boats and other vessels to transport themselves into new regions. This is how they sprang up out of no where outside of San Diego, and how they populated the Gulf. Due to their behavior, and lack of heart, brain, and pretty much everything else we define as intelligent, Jellyfish can adapt and survive in any environment. They thrive in the most extreme conditions such as near underwater volcanoes or in the arctic ocean. Jellyfish as a species are remarkable but they are also a symbol of a devastating change in our oceans. As we all know, pollution, climate change, oil spills, etc. are causing a major shift in ecosystems around the world, and even creating dead zones in the ocean. But for Jellyfish--- Dead zones are paradise: "Dead Zones are huge swaths of deep ocean that are ultra-polluted and oxygen starved. Unable to breathe in Dead Zones, most sea creatures, such as fish and shellfish, either flee or die. But jellyfish thrive in Dead Zones. How? By playing unique metabolic tricks. Dangerous little Jellyfish...I personally find them beautiful, as they dance through the water, up and down with grace and poise. But, they are deadly... Some Jellyfish like the Box Jellyfish can instantly (okay in minutes..) kill you with their stings. And if that's not bad enough, jellyfish can wipe out the bottom layer of an ecosystem. They are opportunists and will eat everything from plankton to small fish. Even large ones, leaving no creature to survive to adulthood to then reproduce. Leaving only Jellyfish to survive. Beautiful but dangerous.  Taken at Monterey Aquarium, July 2014 Recently, the idea that Jellyfish represent a negative change in our oceans has resonated with me. If only jellyfish can survive what climate change, pollution, etc. is doing to our oceans-- then mass swarms of jellyfish are not only beautiful -- but dangerous. And it got me thinking, that perhaps an invasion of Jellyfish is what we need to pull our climate change talks into action.. or maybe I just like painting jellyfish.. but it has gotten me thinking about a new series -- an invasion of jellyfish - unmasking the beauty and revealing the danger. So I've been working on some sketches and miniature paintings of jellyfish in preparation for large enormous over-sized jellyfish, to symbolize just how dangerous a jellyfish, or a group, can be. Here are some of these sketches...
Every so often, I spend some time at the Riparian Preserve in Gilbert, AZ. The Riparian Preserve in Gilbert, Arizona, is the best place to see adorable Cottontail rabbits doing their thing....
It is also a beautiful place to see waterfowl. Especially during the fall, when it is migration season. Usually you can see mallard ducks, coots, cormorants, snowy egrets, black-necked stilts, blue herons, black-crowned night herons, and killdeers. Over the last year, I have also seen American avocets, ring-necked ducks, ruddy ducks, pintail ducks, sandpipers, yellowlegs, great egrets, Canada geese, dowitchers, shovelers, and green herons. Over the last year, I have also learned the names of these birds. (I may be dating a bird artist..)  Even though I have apparently become a bird watcher this past year, that was not the goal of this weekend's adventure to the Riparian preserve. Instead, my intention was to sit down and do quick colored pencil drawings of these lovely little models.
 And I soon realized... that the only waterfowl that sits still long enough to draw is a mallard duck pretending to sleep.   So like any other artist frustrated with the model.. I turned to a new muse...   And went on to doodle other non-moving subjects....
Because that's how the girlfriend of a bird artist spends her afternoon -- drawing everything and anything that doesn't move. While he makes beautiful sketches and drawings of birds...
At my new studio, located at the Manheim Gallery in Cottonwood, I'm working on a new abstract -- but not really that abstract -- painting --- but its more of a mixed media painting with charcoal --work of art. Right now, it is very much in the work in progress stage, but here is the progress so far... Stage one -- Find inspiration..A few weeks ago, I visited the area around Sunset Crater (near Flagstaff) in hopes to do a little plein air painting of the lava rocks. Because I defiantly ignored the weather warnings of 20% rain -- it down poured... soaking any possibility to paint. However, the stormy afternoon opened up into a beautiful stormy sky to photograph. So we sat in the car, keeping dry and eating our snacks, and every so often snapping a few incredible moments of double rainbows....  Smoky stormy clouds... and Ravens flying through... Stage two -- start paintingSo this past week or so, I couldn't get the image of the raven flying out of my head. Or the colors of that day. So I had an idea, I would paint the landscape from memory. First I would try to remember three colors that stuck out to me.. the grayish blueish sky, the sage green, and the yellow ochre -- then go all Mark Rothko, and plot in the landscape with the three colors...  Stage three - add some charcoal... who doesn't love charcoal and getting messy? Then, after the background was plotted in, I decided I would draw the raven large in the foreground, using charcoal.. I chose to add a raven flying left to right, similar to a flying raven I took a picture of last summer in my backyard as it was creating a nest.  Stage four -- add color, texture, some more paint, more charcoal... |
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