Tuesday 21 April 2009

Chile in pastel

medium - not hue, that is... distinctly too high in chroma to pass as pastelly sketches.

These are the plein air sketches (well: bar the two nocturnes which were done from memory).



Today's work again - I'm far too tired for 9.30 and it's bitter cold here, still: half of Glasgow is dressed exactly the same way as people in Santiago were, or even more summerly: bare tops, flipflops and plenty of blue skin on show - and that with about 15C difference in temperature. Nonetheless: my clothes drying quickly tells me that it must be fairly warm here too (the show of flipflops in Glasgow rarely indicates anything useful on my personal temperature gauge, I've found over the years).

The next week's will be busy - with work, but also with preparations for our next group exhibition - with the opening on 20 May. So, I figure: I won't drag Chile out too much longer, because I don't know what else will happen over the next four weeks. Thus: the whole lot of pastel sketches in one go. Here's the pastel kit I used - or rather: what's left of them.

10 comments:

Lindsay said...

Thanks for the lovely peek into your sketchbook. I found the lorry photos very funny and interesting! Welcome back.

vivien said...

this is a really beautiful series!

Gesa said...

Thank you! There are some really nice ones in here - I especially like the sea colours in the first one; some of them are a bit duff... but they are nonetheless v useful for colour references :)

Gesa said...

Oh... and there's some material for more ponds and reflections... I see how and when I can move that on a bit.
Some of the colours of the pools were just absolutely amazing!

Making A Mark said...

Great series Gesa - you found lots of colour I see! :)

I'm wondering what make that royal blue pastel is - is it Townsend?

Gesa said...

Katherine, thank you and yes: well spotted. It's indeed one of my few, and by now well-loved Townsend Terrage sticks. It worked very well for that sky :)

Brian McGurgan said...

These look great, Gesa - really nice work with wonderful, rich color. Nice to see your well-used sketching kit as well.

Gesa said...

Cheers, Brian - the colours worked well... and I thought you (and Casey) would appreciate the pastel kit :)

Jala Pfaff said...

Lovely color work. I particularly love the nocturnes! How did you manage to bring home pastel paintings? Don't they smear all over the place? Cheers!

Gesa said...

Jala... thanks... I got a 'system' with interleafing pastel boards with glassine, and that works pretty well - I usually don't have any problems with smudging and am not particularly carefull with either luggage nor paintings.