Category Archives: Art Works in Progress

Q: What’s on the easel today?

Work in progress

Work in progress

A:  “Schemer,” Soft Pastel on Sandpaper, 26” x 20” is nearly finished.  Among other things, I will do more blending to soften the transitions from light to dark in the fabric.

Comments are welcome!

Start/Finish of “Sentinels,” Soft Pastel on Sandpaper, 38” x 58”

Start

Start

Finished, signed lower left

Finished, signed lower left

Comments are welcome!

Q: What’s on the easel today?

Preliminary sketch

Preliminary sketch

A:  This is a preliminary charcoal sketch for my next large (58” x 38”) pastel painting.  I loved seeing “The Champ,” 26” x 20,” blown-up as a poster in the London Underground so I decided to create a larger original.  Now I can’t wait to tackle all that hair!  So far the sketch resembles a Rastafarian, but who knows if that will carry over to the pastel painting!  Stay tuned.

Comments are welcome! 

Q: What’s on the easel today?

“Sentinels,” Soft Pastel on Sandpaper, 38” x 58”

“Sentinels,” Soft Pastel on Sandpaper, 38” x 58”

A:  At last, I have put finishing touches on “Sentinels,” 38” x 58,” and signed it!  The photographer will photograph it and then, on my next trip south, this painting goes to the framer in Virginia.

Comments are welcome!

Q: What’s on the easel today?

Work in progress

Work in progress

A:  I’m at the beginning on a small (26” x 20”) pastel painting.  The subject is a jaguar mask I photographed in La Paz.  This is painting number eleven in the “Bolivianos” series.  Lots of green colored dust now!

Comments are welcome!

Start/Finish of “Poseur,” Soft Pastel on Sandpaper, 58” x 38”

Start

Start

Finished, signed lower left

Finished, signed lower left

Comments are welcome!

Q: What’s on the easel today?

Work in progress

Work in progress

A:  I’m beginning a new 26” x 20” pastel painting, which will be number eleven in the “Bolivianos” series.

Comments are welcome!

Q: What’s on the easel today?

Work in progress

Work in progress

A:  “Poseur,” Soft Pastel on Sandpaper, 58’ x 38” is awaiting finishing touches…  at last!

Comments are welcome!

Q: What’s on the easel today?

Work in progress

Work in progress

A:  I continue working on the latest in the “Bolivianos” series, “Poseur,” Soft Pastel on Sandpaper, 58” x 38.”  I haven’t decided yet whether to put a pattern on the fabric.

Comments are welcome!

Pearls from artists* # 351

Barbara at work on "The Orator"

Barbara at work on “The Orator”

*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.

That art is apolitical does not mean that artists themselves can be excused from the political responsibilities that fall on others.  It means rather that as a manifestation of eternal psychic force, each work of art goes farther and deeper than the limited perspective of any individual mind, including that of its author.

No artist can predict how his work will affect the world… The artist invests his entire personality into the work, but he does so as a means of expressing a vision that is transpersonal.  Everything that makes him what he is informs the work, but the final result transcends all personal contingencies.    

J.F. Martel in Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice:  A Treatise, Critique, and Call to Action 

Comments are welcome!