Portrait of Our Granddaughter as Anne of Green Gables

Alyssa as "Anne of Green Gables" - pastel - 18x24

Last Halloween, our granddaughter wore this costume to her position as cook at a nursing home in southern Maine. She took a quick selfie before work, and wished the family a Happy Halloween. I fell in love with the photo so much that I decided to do her portrait as Anne, just for fun.

Step one:
make a drawing to be traced onto the pastel paper.

Step two:
using Canson Mi-Teines paper, I began adding base color with PanPastels, laying the underpainting and marking where edges were so I could keep the colors separate.

Step three:
Start using adding depth with soft and hard stick pastels.

Step four:
continue adding more details and work on the background with Pan Pastels.

Step five:
Complete the final details with Carbothello pastel pencils. Spray with fixative.

Step six:
consider framing possibilities on-line since we're still in a stay-at-home area.

Hope you enjoyed this brief little demonstration using pastels. It was great fun working directly with color pigments!

Our New Reality is Surreal...

Now that our daily lives have irrevocably changed due to a rampant virus, we have time to pay attention to the wonders of nature that always surround us. Nature has always nurtured me in times of stress, particularly, but also in times of deep joy and/or gratitude. So today, I'm experiencing all of that and a lot more that I simply do not yet have words for.

So I will share some recent memories via my photo collection. My camera often is but an extension of my hand! It's nearly always with me when I go out, usually in my jeans or jacket pocket. So enjoy my recent weeks via my memory box.

My personal Mandala made many years ago: batik on silk, quilted 20" square - here lit by my bedside lamp.

My last finished piece - a watercolor portrait requested by the Bellefonte Art Museum of Seria Shia Chatters


Then the first stages of our "new reality."

Tips from Governor Cuomo - good for everyone to do.