My new pastel books have arrived

I am so pleased - Amazon has delivered! Which means I now have the opportunity to combine two more of my favourite occupations - looking at very good art and reading art books!

My two new pastel books are:

• Pure Color: The Best of Pastel
  (Ed. Maureen Bloomfield and James A Markle. Published by North Light Books)
• On Location - Plein Air Painting In Pastel
  (Richard McDaniel. Published by International Artist)

I'll post reviews when I've had a good read - but a preliminary skim suggests I'm going to have a seriously good time - definitely a feet up with a pot of tea job.

And isn't on-line shopping a wonderful thing? I'd have such a job to track both these books down in art shops or bookshops. It's just so nice to be able to order an new book when I hear one has been published and I know enough about the author and/or publishers to know that I will be very happy without even seeing the book. (Mind you - the development which allows you to look inside books on Amazon is a seriously good development also).

Feed and subscription facilities added

I've added a smart link for adding a feed from this journal to your feedreader. An alternative option of adding a subscription to this site via e-mail has also been added. Both links are just below the link to my website in the right hand column

Links to add a feed from this journal to specific webfeed readers ("Bloglines"; "Feedsearch"; "Google" and "My Yahoo") have also been added at the bottom of the right hand column

If you have any problems adding a feed or subscribing to the site please e-mail me.

Ganesh

I acquired a small soapstone figure of Ganesh - the Hindu deity with an elephant's shape - when I was on a painting trip to Goa. We visited a small rural fishing village and I was fortunate to encounter Ganesh's carver and we struck a deal. What I particularly like about him is that he was reading a book - one of my very favourite occupations!
This is a new small work - and it's the first time I've tried to draw Ganesh. The colours of the soapstone were an interesting challenge and it now includes pinks and reds in small quantities! The work is 7" x 5" and has been drawn using coloured pencils on black Canson Mi Teintes. See my website for further details.

Coloured Pencil Societies

One of the aims of this journal is to provide information about painting and drawing resources and related organisations to people who are interested in the type of artwork I produce. I've got a lot of benefit from the links I've made over the year - and it only seems fair to share.........

This entry focuses on Coloured Pencil Societies.

The use of coloured pencils as an artistic medium is relatively recent in the fine art world, although they have been used for some time by illustrators. The dominant use of coloured pencils by illustrators caused concerns about the permanence of the pigment (not required by illustrators), although these concerns are now being overcome largely due to the good work of the two main colour pencil societies and the manufacturers who have responded to expressed concerns.

I'm including links within the painting and drawing resources section to the two main societies associated with coloured pencil. Both provide a lot of information about and support for artists using coloured pencil. Both are also a source of a lot of technical information - with UKCPS probably being a bit better when it comes to sharing this with non-members.

The United Kingdom Coloured Pencil Society was founded with two main aims in mind - to promote coloured pencils as a fine art medium, and to support UK based artists who use, or wish to use, coloured pencils, in any way. On its website are examples of what can be done with coloured pencils, links to artists who use them, details of upcoming events and exhibitions which promote this medium and a lot of helpful technical information. Artists who are members can have a gallery page on their website (this is mine), receive a quarterly newsletter and can submit their work to annual exhibitions held by the society.

The UKCPS has a section which provides information for artists using coloured pencils. This includes step-by-step lessons, tips and articles on techniques and information on useful tools and support media.

The Coloured Pencil Society of America is a non-profit organization founded in 1990. It is exclusively dedicated to artists working with colored pencil and has more than 1600 members in sixteen countries. It has an annual International Exhibition & Convention and provides product research information, workshops & seminars, a newsletter, a networking directory and district chapters across the United States.

CPSA publishes a useful list of books and articles about Coloured Pencil in pdf format

The problems and pleasures of storage - and 3 "new" paintings

In recent years, my main focus has been on producing artwork rather than selling it - and, as a result, I have artwork stored all around my home. I keep aspiring to a planchest but I'm not sure they are a practical solution for me. Instead I've devised a system of horizontal and vertical storage files for my work - I've even got work sorted in terms of size.

However, I sometimes forget where I then store the files! Or I forget what I've stored in which file. Memo to self: Must develop an inventory system!

Anyway, my reason for writing is that I've just rediscovered some pastel paintings which were in a file I thought was storing some other paintings. It's always nice coming across old work. When I look at the work which will not be getting posted here or on my website, I have a quiet sense of satisfaction about how much I've progressed. When I look at the better stuff, it reminds me of what I can do if I've got time and the application.

So here are the three paintings. They are all paintings for flowers - done from life, in pastel on an abrasive support. They are all 19.5" x 25.5".

Camellias #2

Flower Study

The Fish Bowl (you may need your sunglasses for this one!)