A new discovery: painting on cardstock

Sandstone study in purple
6x6 - pastel on brown Colorbok cardstock
© S.Johnson

One of my paintings sold on Etsy yesterday, so I had to make a run to Walmart today to pick up some more shipping envelopes and other miscellaneous stuff that I need that Walmart [usually] carries.  Usually, our grocery trips to Walmart are one of those "in and out as fast as possible", but sometimes when I go by myself, I wander down some of the other isles where I occasionally find things useful for my studio and to appease my crafty side (like yarn for a crocheted hat).

Today, I visited the scrapbooking isle, and even though I don't do scrapbooking, I always like looking at the supplies and little do-dads they carry.  I happened to notice the selection of papers, which included these pads of 12x12" heavy smooth cardstock paper that came in a variety of colors, and specifically, a pad of earth neutrals which included black, two shades of brown, white and yellow.  The company is Colorbok , although their website doesn't show any of the paper products I saw.

Thirty sheets.  Acid and lignin-free.

And, the best part.....the price:




$5.00.

That's less than I paid for the single sheet of the Somerset Black Velvet paper.

Sold!

We are leaving for AZ early-early tomorrow morning for the holiday, so I couldn't dedicate an evening to trying out a full sheet.  I decided to try the dark brown paper and after hitting it with my sanding pad, I quartered it and did this quick value study to see how it handled.

It's based on a photo taken in - where else - Moab, during my plein air trip.  I had cropped the original photo, squared it, and made it b/w for a possible abstract painting, so I could ignore the local color and just focus on values.

Verdict:  Love the paper

I probably won't use the white with pastels, but it is heavier than Bristol and just as smooth, so I'm thinking it will be great for graphite drawings or pen and ink.

So, if you ever wanted to experiment with smooth paper for your pastels, this could be a low-cost way to give it a try.  They also had packs of 8.5 x 11" paper, same price, in some wonderful dark neutrals.

I'm bringing it with me on our T-giving trip, along with my easel, as I am hoping and planning to do some plein air painting while we are in the Phoenix area.  We are going to be staying at White Tank Regional Park in Wayne's brother's ginormous RV, which means I'll have plenty of Sonoran desert-y subjects to paint within walking distance.  Exciting!

I usually don't have internet access during these holiday trips to Phoenix, so I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, and safe travels.  I will definitely miss reading everyone's blogs while I'm out of town.

Small landscape studies - ACEO original art

Tags:  pastel painting - abstract landscape - fall colors - cloud painting - sunset

More experimentation...

ACEO trio #1

each  2.5 x 3.5 inches

pastel on Strathmore black paper

New ideas come about in any number of ways, I've found.  In this case, I had recently purchased a new pad of the black Strathmore Artagain paper I enjoy working on.  The local art store only had a 12x12" pad rather than the 9x12 I usually get.  Wanting to keep the size consistent for the Ancient Architecture series I've been doing on this paper, I trimmed up a few pieces to have available.

Normally, I save these left-over pieces for trying out color combinations for the paintings.  However, as I got to thinking, it occurred to me that I could instead use them as small color thumbnails for larger paintings, or even do them as miniature paintings in their own right.  For those not familiar with ACEO, it is the acronym for "Art Cards, Editions and Originals".   ACEO's are a spin-off of the original Art Trading Cards that have been popular for years:  artists creating small works of art and trading them with other artists.  The only criteria for both ATC's and ACEO's is that they must be 2.5 x 3.5 inches.  Otherwise, anything goes!

I've seen an increasing number of artists working in this size, in everything from mixed media collage to highly-detailed paintings in oil, and I've always been intrigued by the whole ACEO/ATC movement.  They are also popular on Etsy and eBay.

I did the first three yesterday, and here's what they look like in a wood mini-frame ($1.50 at Walmart):

Cloudscape #1, framed

Honestly, how cool is that?  The display and presentation options are endless.  

Today, I worked on another set, all from memory/imagination, and meant to be abstract fields of flowers:

ACEO trio - #2

It was so fun working on these little nuggets of soft pastel goodness, having fun with color and ideas - I think I'm hooked!   After working on these, I had another idea to do a series of Colorado wildflowers on these cards.  Two are done, and I'll be posting those tomorrow along with others I finish.  They will dovetail nicely with the surreal florals I'm doing in oils.  Working in soft pastel in such a small size limits the detail I can get, especially since I don't have any pastel pencils.  But, I love the simplicity.  

Because of the small size, these don't look as good when they are enlarged to more than 100%, so I used GIMP to create these montages.   

Chaco #5 - Ancient Architecture series

Chaco #5

9x12 inches

 pastel on black Strathmore paper

I never cease to be amazed by the skill and resourcefulness of the masons that built the Chacoan pueblo structures.  This is another view of Pueblo Bonita, and you can see what are probably the remains of a T-shaped door up at the top right - on the second story.

It's always fun to work in compliments, and I thought these blues and earth-oranges went well together.  In addition to the practice of experimenting with various color combinations, this series has also been good for practicing linear perspective drawing, something I haven't had to do much of in other landscapes.  

I hope it's not too obvious that the window in this painting is almost smack-dab in the middle of the paper; I made some minor adjustments, but that's where it just wanted to be.  

This will probably be the last of the series from Chaco for a bit [although we are possibly going to Chaco again either tomorrow or early next week].  Next up will be Hovenweep, a scattered set of puebloan style ruins that are much smaller in scale and decidedly less grandiose than either Chaco or Mesa Verde.  

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Here is another example of human artistic ingenuity at work.  Theo Jansen is a Dutch kinetic sculptor.  Take a look at his amazing and delightful creations out of PVC pipe - they look like something right out of DaVinci's notebooks.   These make me smile:

#44 and 45 in Four Corners/Colorado Plateau series

Two smaller pieces, completed yesterday.  We are now back in Colorado, perhaps 15 miles east of the AZ border.  To the south, a shallow mesa composed of Mancos shale emerges as we head west.  Its slopes are similar to those of the Chinle formation, having a beautiful array of blue, mauve and rose-colored shales and mudstones.  I was drawn to the colors and abstracted shapes and curves of this un-named series of cliffs.

Colored Cliffs

6x8

oil on panel

As the colored cliffs gradually disappear, the landscape opens up, providing a sweeping view to the south of northern New Mexico.  An iconic landmark of the Four Corners region - Shiprock - comes into view,  immediately commanding attention.   Shiprock is probably the largest, and certainly the most well-known of the dozens of diatremes in the region.  Against the surrounding sedimentary rock, the weathered remains of this explosive volcanic neck look almost out of place, and surely enigmatic for those not familiar with the region's geology.  

Shiprock

6x8

oil on panel

I was specifically going for an abstracted image here, to depict Shiprock as a shadowed and silhouetted form against the otherwise featureless land.  It didn't work with a higher horizon, and even though the sky dominates the composition, space-wise, there is no doubt what the point of interest is.  Clouds add some interest and help balance out the open sky.  

Here is another photo of Shiprock, taken along Hwy 491, with the view to the northwest, and partially obscured by the winter storm.  I am sure it will figure into many photos and probably more paintings in the future.

And, finally, here is a shot from last night's sunset.  Abstract-style, for my blogger friend Jala:

Series intermission

I didn't manage to get any painting done yesterday - just a page of thumbnail sketches.   I was originally planning on working in oils today, as I don't have sheets prepared for the aspen on black series yet.

Then, I decided that I wanted to just pull out the old standby - 400-grit sandpaper - and do some "for the heck of it" pastels.   There were two ideas bouncing around in my head for paintings, and so those are now actualized.

First up is an idea that I've long been wanting to do for a while - an abstracted landscape based on the dark, brooding storm sky against a bright, sunlit foreground.  Inspiration came from multiple sources, including pastelist Wolf Kahn's work, my blogger friend Jala's abstracted paintings, the work of Marla Baggetta, and my observations and photos.   In fact, the trees in this piece were based on a snapshot I took from the car during our drive back from Aztec, NM, about 2 weeks ago.   This was done with no photo reference directly handy - just a mental idea of what I wanted.

Plus, I love the compliments of blue and orange together.

Forboding

11x9 inches

pastel on 400-grit sandpaper

Foreground is all NuPastels; sky is all MV Thunderstorm Grays, and the trees are Sennelier and Unison. Looking at it now, I think it would be improved with some of the foreground cropped away.  

The second piece is a more traditional landscape, but with effort to avoid extraneous detail.  Interestingly, it's also based on a photo taken during a drive back from Aztec about 2 months ago - the clouds were glorious, so it was time to get a sky fix in.  I knew at the time I took the photo I needed to paint it.  Plus, I really like painting roads [even though I can't seem to get the divider stripes to turn out the way I want].  I left out the telephone poles and some buildings.  The fence and group of trees stayed.

South of Town

9x11 inches

pastel on 400-grit sandpaper

Here are a few more photos from our Canyonlands trip:

Left:  faded flowers of some Rabbitbrush in front of the sandstone walls on the drive towards the park.  Right:  A lone pinyon pine stands against the sandstone cliff outside the park.

A juniper casts long shadows across sandstone slickrock by our campsite at Hamburger Rock.

Another view from our campsite, looking to the east.  A twisted juniper is wedged in the sandstone dome I stood on to take the photo.

Two from Pennsylvania - pastel

Ever since I took those 1000+ photos on our drive out here, I've been thinking I'd like to do a series of them.  Mostly barns and fields, as those were the things that for whatever reason I found most appealing, but there were random sky photos that I took as well.

I have been caught up doing other things and not painting lately - save for the single plein air piece - and it's been bothering me.  I need to sit down and write out a schedule for myself to paint and/or draw every day.  Really, there is no excuse.  You don't improve by merely "thinking" about painting.

So, last night, I finally plugged in my flash drive into the studio laptop and decided to just *do something*, painting-wise.

These were the two results.  Both are done from shots taken in Pennsylvania on the day we left.  It is late afternoon, although the first one looks more like a sunset, it's really the dramatic effect of the sun partially hidden by a large cloud.  The colors were wonderful, but the camera never quite captures them...esp. when I am shooting from inside a moving car.

I did a small value study/composition sketch in pencil for this, leaving out some trees and adjusting the slope so it wasn't heading in the same direction as the cloud angle.  Otherwise, the goal was fast and loose for both of these.  They weren't planned as keepers, so they aren't on fancy paper.

Late Afternoon - Pennsylvania

9x11" - #320 sandpaper

The second was done from a really blurry photo of a field.  I liked the abstracted shapes and simple colors - the sky was overcast.  The really bad photo ended up being just perfect for an abstracted landscape.  Stratus clouds (low-lying clouds, aka "fog") filled the sky, and mist added to the aerial perspective.  It's in contrast to the above image.  

I probably did this in 15-20 min. at most.  It is on black Artagain paper, which is what I use when I am not wanting to commit to a painting.  As usual, its smooth surface doesn't allow for much blending or layering, but that's okay.  The foreground slope had some type of vegetation on it - probably wildflowers  and such - but in the photo, they are merely blurred colors.  I liked that, so I did the same on this painting.  I just started pulling colors out - whatever suited my fancy - and went for it.  

Pennsylviania Field #1

9x12" 

Now that I've hopefully broken out of my non-painting rut with these studies, I can now settle down and do some more purposeful paintings on some better paper with more planning.  I wasn't in the mood to do that last night, but these paintings were just what I had in mind.