I learned a lot about portraits in pastel from William Schneider and a lot more about landscapes in pastel from Lorenzo Chavez...take a minute to Google their names and you will see that I was learning from the best!
Every evening the clouds were spectacular at sunset - there was a lot of smoke in the air too, so the colors were muted near the ground. Though it looks like rain, this is virga; rain that never reaches the ground.
We were very near the Sandia Mountains which were formed when tectonic plates collided. In the foreground, is the ubiquitous Pinion Pine.
They haven't had even an inch of rain in 8 months and still the plants are alive - really amazing. I painted in the shade of a pinion pine.
This piece was completed in class with Lorenzo Chavez, from a photo I took years ago. I didn't have an enormous array of pastels, so some of the colors are a compromise. I am happy with the looser, more painterly look to the piece though.
This is another class piece that is also from an old photo of mine - it came together quickly with all that I learned from Lorenzo. Can't wait to get back in the studio....right after I mow the lawn!
I like all of them... I especially like the mountains in the first one–the mountains seem exactly the right height. (I crack myself up)
ReplyDeleteThese are spectacular, Catherine! I can see why you're so buzzed about what you've learned. You soaked up the spirit of the southwest so nicely.... I grew up in the sw, and your pieces so have that feel. Those ancient pinion pines, the hot, dry, pale landscape. I can almost hear those grasshoppers snapping across the countryside on their paper wings. Clouds are so unique there, too. You've really captured them. What great workshops those must've been!
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