Studio Notes and Reflections

Weather in the heart of Texas is never what you think it is going to be.  That is why when one November after noon, when it was gloriously warm and sunny, I made the most of the moment and set off in search of more cacti with my good friend Mary along a nature trail in Georgetown.

The Prickly Pear Cactus were bearing their distinctive fruit.  By now most of you know that I love painting cactus.  Their shapes, their thorns, and the superb weird colors they turn depending upon the angle of the light cast a spell on me.  Besides fascinating me by their shape and color, I find them assuring in their resiliency.   

Pastel Techniques Employed

The grasses surrounding the cactus to me, seem like a type of protective host.  In the late afternoon light they bend and glint.  It was important to me to capture the rhythm and color of the grasses that surrounded the backlit forms.

Mark making, particularly with pastel, requires a deft, light hand.  After blocking in the major shapes, I realized that I would have to put in the grasses first and the overlay the color on the pads to cut away the marks that crisscrossed over the forms.

It was not long before I was obliterating my cacti pads with the grass marks.  And I realized that I did not have enough tooth to lay on a layer thick enough to cover the grasses.

Because I wanted wanted clean tight marks for the grasses, I chose to work on a panel with the ground rolled on with a sponge roller.  It was a beautiful texture, fine, and with the perfect amount of tooth.  But it was not enough texture, or enough tooth for the cactus pads.  

So I decided I would re-apply the ground, but this time, paint it only on the cactus pads that needed the extra texture, and after painting it on, to stomp it with a sponge.  Ground OVER pastel you are wondering?  Yep, I did it, and it worked very well.

The beauty of this technique is that it gave me the perfect clean edge I needed for the cacti in front of the grasses.  And, it gave me heavy texture that allowed me to layer several different layers of color, and have parts of each color show through.  This in turn gave me the control I needed for the value, and the contrast taking place on the cactus pad.

The image above is that of the near finished painting.  I have some minor tweaks to make, and I will later get the work professionally photographed.