April 13, 2010

Cheers to Blooms


The tulips are blooming, the tulips are blooming! Everyone grab your paints and easels and head to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. I just know you won’t be disappointed. There are so many reasons I love this part of the country; the Grand and Beautiful Pacific Northwest. It certainly has my heart and now my pastels and paper, too. In all honesty, I painted this piece last year and have not been to the fields yet this year but I am going and soon. So soon I can hardly stand it. My camera and pastels are shaking with anticipation.

Before this tulip painting, I completely avoided the pinks in my pastel box. In a way, that was nice because I had all brand new colors to work with and then there was this moment of “uh-oh” how does one actually see pink? Not having worked with them much my eyes were not well trained to see the value shifts between these hues. To help me sort through my value issues, I got out my handy-dandy-can’t-live-without-value tool-thingy and put it to work as I soaked up a new SEAL (Self Engendered Art Lesson). That was a fun little lesson and I now have a newfound respect for the pinks.

By the way, if you don’t have a Picture Perfect Value Finder, I highly recommend this tool for any artist. It has dug me out of more than one hole, I promise you. If I were to need another, I would buy mine from Dakotapastels (no, I don't get a kickback, I just love their store!) but you can find them from a variety of places through Google.

May you find peace at the easel.

Cheers, Sandy

4 comments:

  1. Gorgeous - as always...whichever color you're using!

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  2. Thank you both! How sweet.

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  3. Hi Sandy,

    What a beautiful painting. I love the softness of the pink tulips, brilliant. Have a great day.

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