New Work Just Off the Easel

Hilltop Hollow Farm & Nursery in Winter - 12"w x 9"h - pastel painting by Pat Dolan

Last week, I was feeling particularly down for a number of reasons. But on February 29, Hilltop Hollow Farm posted this lovely winter photograph that I've longed to paint ever since the image was posted. It's a moody, gray winter scene and it suited my mood when I began to work on the painting. Here's their photo - and you can easily see why I chose it for my subject matter!

As a Minnesota native, I love winter scenes of all types. The opportunity to paint a winter scene in spring was not lost on me. The first step in creating a painting is to define the focus point. Doing some mini-sketches can help determine the composition. Alas, those little sketches were tossed out last week... So the first step you can see is the initial drawing on Sennelier Pastel Card paper - a sanded surface that hold a LOT of pastel pigment in it's "teeth."

I chose a muted bluegreen colored paper to be the base from which I would work. With a white colored pencil, I quickly sketched in the scene with the focal point just off center - which generally is a "no-no" in the art world. But I liked the composition of the photo and figured I'd just work with the painting until it satisfied me on a personal level. I was not creating this as a commission, although I may well give it to the owners of the nursery in thanks for allowing me the use of their photo. With artistic license, I chose to eliminate the piece if farm equipment in the foreground and the back of the truck.

Here is my set-up with PanPastels for the base painting from which the rest would evolve;, a fairly dark and simple palette of colors, and a wide selection of soft and hard pastels to chose from for accents towards the end of the painting.

The dark sky suited my mood perfectly, working through the loss of my friend. I laid in the darkest parts of the sky with the PanPastels using a large sponge tool, which helped create the turmoil in the sky. Then I added the other darkest areas on the painting, again, suiting my mood at the time.

Unlike watercolors, with Pastels, the artist generally works from the darkest darks to the lightest lights to create an effective work of art. Watercolors must work in reverse, starting with the lightest of the lights to be carefully preserved as the artists adds the middle and dark tones to create the final image. Again, this suited my mood - I was somewhat "in reverse" from my usual mood when painting.

In the next stage of painting in pastel, the darker and middle values are applied in the appropriate areas. A general molding of the landscape by using darker values with middle values.

Then some lighter values are placed over the darkest areas, allowing the bushes and underbrush to materialize. The dark pathway into the distance is placed firmly on the paper. Also lightening the sky a bit at this time.

Art, for me, is an exercise in stepping out of daily life and into a world of color, design, shape, image, essence. When I am working in the studio, I have forgotten time completely - whether it's moving slowly or quickly is totally irrelevant to me. I'm in a different state of mind - and what a wonderful place to be when the world is surreal, topsy turvy, and I am missing a dear friend. I become centered and still, working with my inner spirit to create something from both without and within.

Above, I've added a bit more detail, bringing the distant hills forward with lighter pastels, adding the tree and tree lines, working a bit on the roadway.

At this point, some accent colors need to be added to enrich the scene. Snow is NOT all white or gray. Snow reflect light, so it carries the full spectrum of color within it's reflection. Our eyes may not capture all the colors, but we do often see blue, pale yellow, even pink in the snow, if we are paying attention. I added pale aqua, lavender, and pale blue.

Also at this stage, when adding specific detailing, like the trees and bushes, I needed to use the firmer stick pastels to add tiny lines, shapes, and details.

As often happens, I went overboard in the adding of the cool colors and neglected any warm tones. Thankfully, pastel is a "forgiving" medium, and adjustments can easily be made at this point, especially on sanded paper. On a smoother paper, with less "tooth" to hold the pastel pigments, it is harder to remove unwanted pigments or to work over pigments already held by the flatter, less toothy paper.

I was also displeased with the placement of the horizontal shadows/puddles on the road. They were too strong and too close to the bottom of the page. They needed to move back into the painting to create the adventure of moving into the distance. Below is the completed painting, with a warmer tone added in the underbrush, much less blue in the snow, but some blue added to the sky. The weeds in the underbrush also received some texture to create more interest as the eye travels around the painting.

By the time I completed this painting, my mood had shifted considerably and that is reflected in the whiter snow in the foreground. I lightened the entire painting as I worked through the problems with the painting and the situations in my life.

I hope you find this narrative on the production of a pastel painting to be helpful and give you some insight into the workings of the artist 'at work.'