Winter landscape series - River Path, pastel

After what seems like an eternity on my easel, I finally have something to show...

River Path
12x12 inches - pastel on black cardstock
© S.Johnson

I expected to finish this last Thursday.  Then, I decided I didn't like the original effort, done on light brown cardstock.  It was well into Thursday, and I was much further along when I decided to bail on this version than what you see in the photo, which was shot at the end of the first session.

I originally took the photo below intending to show it as an in-progress for the finished piece, just for kicks.  Working from memory for the second session, when I finally turned my laptop on to view the reference, the colors I had chosen for the grasses were off.  Wrong temperature, wrong value...just plain wrong.  Plus, I thought the whole thing just looked anemic on the lighter paper.

So, I started again on a piece of black cardstock, and worked from the original painting for the first part, vs. the photo, for the final version - similar to working from a plein air study, I guess.  The final version subsequently resembles the reference photo even less - a good thing.

I probably would have had it finished then on Saturday, but my sister came up to spend the weekend, and of course, nothing got done on it.  The storm that rolled through the region yesterday delayed her departure for a day due to dicey road and driving conditions, so after she left today, I sat down and motored through the rest of it.

So, here we are, 5 days later, and it's finally done!

The primary reason I wanted to have this ready to post on Thursday is so I could share the link to a blog post in a timely fashion by Antonia and Fabio DueAlberi  featuring their interview with me.  Antonia and Fabio are fellow Etsian shop owners, and that is how I came about meeting them online, and discovered their blog.  When they inquired if I would be interested in being featured on their blog, I happily agreed.

Please have a look at their blog, linked above, featuring their wonderful floral and botanical photography.  Their collaborative efforts produce beautiful and unique images that always make me ask:  "How did they do that?"  I certainly couldn't create photos like theirs, which makes me appreciate their work all the more.

Oh yes - here's the link to their interview last Thursday with me.  Thank you again, Antonia & Fabio, for your generosity and support of fellow artists here in the blogosphere!