Cool frosty morning.

Cool frosty morning.
This is a pastel painting on 100% cotton paper Stonehenge warm white. 12x17 . This is done with Schmincke,Art spectrum Sennelier ,and Blicks soft pastels. With Nupastels and pastel pencils .

La Platas first snow

This started out as a news paper clipping from 40ish years ago. It is of a first snow fall in laplata canyon Near Hesperus Colorado . My Mother loved it she kept the clip that area holds a lot of sentimental value .  She gave me that clip to see if I could do some thing with it.  This is how it turned out.  It became one of her Christmas  presents she was over joyed when she saw it. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. I am going to make this again artistic license change the river and far tree line and mountain .This is true to photo .

 

This is a pastel painting 10 x 16  I used colorfix primer on 100lbs watercolor paper toned a warm grey.  I used Nu-pastels, Blick brand soft pastels  Schmincke and Sennelier .

Weathering the Storm.

This one was a quick loose representation of the reference I have. One of my cousins took the photo of a small herd of buffalo hunkering down in a blizzard .  When ever I see these magnificent  Icons of the old west it is a bitter sweet moment. I am happy to get a chance to view one and a glimpse into Americas past, its bitter is knowing millions were killed for just their hide leaving the meat to rot on the plains.  Uncontrolled slaughter took the herds  of million down to the verge of extinction . I have read some herds were so large it took days to go around ,some herds were said to have a million heads thats a lot of bovine there. Now they are a rarity . One article states before 1492 there were 60 million yes 60,000,000 but by 1890 there were 750.

This is Pastel on grey Strathmore  pastel paper . It is 9x12 with hard and soft pastels .I used Nupastels , Blick artist pastels, Sennelier and Schminke Pastels.

Snow Howler

I have always loved wolves . I owned an Alaskan Malamute  who was kinda on the feral side great dogs .  I have an inclination to wolves . I feel politics  are exterminating this graceful  creature. My other half likes wolves also. My wife had some wolf prints years ago  before we got together so I did this one just for her.  This Snow Howler I found a howling wolf and added snow to the scene .

 This was done in September  2012 it is Conte pastels and Nupastels  on a 11X14 Strathmore pastel paper. I had fun doing this and rewarding to do something a loved one would enjoy. Need to revisit doing wolves again.