Whitehouse Creek Beach

Bartc

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Great day painting with the group at Whitehouse Creek Beach in Pescadero, CA, today. 9x12" pastel on light blue PastelMat. B. Charlow 2022. Wanted to capture a tonalist more monochromatic rock scene, with subtle colorful light glazing. The painting wanted more color oomph, so we settled between us on this:
Whiethouse creek painting on easel apr 22.jpg
 
Great day painting with the group at Whitehouse Creek Beach in Pescadero, CA, today. 9x12" pastel on light blue PastelMat. B. Charlow 2022. Wanted to capture a tonalist more monochromatic rock scene, with subtle colorful light glazing. The painting wanted more color oomph, so we settled between us on this: View attachment 21095
Hi Bart. I like the colours and the depth, nice interpretation.
 
Ah, so you and the painting had to come to an agreement! It's definitely more colorful than the usual tonalist palette, but still has a wonderful mood. Lovely work!
 
Very nice. I often wonder about your techniques. Do you smear/blend with your fingers? It's so soft and beautifully rendered. Well done. :)
 
Very nice. I often wonder about your techniques. Do you smear/blend with your fingers? It's so soft and beautifully rendered. Well done. :)
Ayin, I rarely blend with anything in pastel. If I do, it might be a sky with fingers, but that's not what you see here.
What you see is basically glazing. Where there is intentional blending it happens from glazing with a heavier touch with one pastel over the previous layers.
Not sure what you are really referring to. I've been working on going lighter in my touch, so maybe that's what you're seeing, letting more of the tinted ground show through and leaving far more unpainted.
In this painting the intention was to render the rock formation with a set of glazes in analogous color families, but muted, then very lightly bringing a hint of brighter color into the sky, sea and sand. In fact, the rock got a lot of glazes with a wider range of colors than my concept and the sky/sea/sand ended up brighter than my original intent. In other words, my touch was nowhere near as light as I had wished!
But I'm good with the outcome. At the point at which I realized it wasn't going to go the way I intended I embraced the power of color and the paint.
 
I was referring to the lighter blues behind the mountain/rock. It's wonderful how you do that. The glazing is amazing then. It looks blended. I guess it is a similar idea to oil painting (glazing) in layers.
 
I was referring to the lighter blues behind the mountain/rock. It's wonderful how you do that. The glazing is amazing then. It looks blended. I guess it is a similar idea to oil painting (glazing) in layers.
Ah, that helps. Yes, it is the same idea as oil glazing (or any medium), just doing it dry. And doing it on a tinted ground helps that effect, as it's one layer of color that I don't have to lay down or worry about muddying.
 
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