Studio Work in Oil and Pastels

Color Inspiration

"Starting with Black" Pastel on 18x12 Wallis paper

The Painting at left was inspired by a classroom exercise using black pastel — something that is frequently discouraged because really, how often to we encounter a solid black in life (almost never, just take my word for it). The point of the original exercise was using the black to make your colors richer, make them visually pop!

Painted on a sheet of white Wallis paper stapled to a support, I worked on the pastel started in class for several more hours in the studio but got to the point where I decided that I was never going to be happy with it. I really had too much black! I brushed off most of the pastel and used mineral spirits to wash the Wallis paper resulting in a solid very deep grey/black ground. I sprayed it with workable fix and thought about what to do with it for a few days.

The composition at left "popped" into my head fairly complete except that originally at bottom was a large orange. Late in the painting I decided that the orange was overwhelming the rest of the image. Being a few days from grocery shopping my fruit/vegetable choices were slim but I think the radishes turned out to be just what I needed.