A new project for April!

It's really late on Easter Sunday; I hope yours was a peaceful day, mine was great!   Spent it with my family and close friends, good food, sunshine and horses!   

I am pretty excited about an art project I've given myself--a 30-30.   That is, 30 paintings in 30 days.  And just so happens in a few short days, just such a month is coming up.   So I've spent some time getting ready.  

I have wanted to try this for some time, but geeze, it's scary to commit like this!  and now its even public!  eek!   So to stack the odds in my favor, I have done some prepping to secure success.

First, I considered what I'd actually paint, and what size to work.  I am going small sized, from 5x7 up to 10x10 to make it do-able even on a busy day.  Most is uart 500, but there are a few Richardsons (red).   One is toned but I plan to tone more as I go.    

I am not going to limit my subject, but most will be landscapes, and I may toss in a couple other things.   I have gone thru tons of files on my computer, and put about 50-60 in one new folder on my desktop--no wasting time searching when I am ready to paint! 

I hope to post them each few days at least, and that you'll help cheer me on!   Or even join me! 

How many does it take?

When I first started getting serious with pastel, I bought a set of 45 sticks, landscape set of Rembrant pastels.  Oh boy, I thought I had so many!   Oh boy, was I wrong!    I really couldn't tell you how many I actually have now, but its several hundred for sure.

So why would I ever buy more at this point?   Its kinda like spices--you might have several in your kitchen, but there might be a dish you wish to make, and need yet another spice.   That's like pastels, some are harder, some soft as butter, some brands have better greens, some have better darks.   And, its just kinda the way a pastelist is, we must have them allll! 

But how many does it take to make a painting?  Really very few.   Most paintings have a gamut of colors that are within a certain range.   I often take note of colors in things like flower arrangements, home decor books and the like, looking for color ideas I could use in a painting.   Recently I wanted to paint a white horse in blues with white. 

I also wanted to do something special for a lady who'd been very generous with me in the past.   So I went on her facebook page and snagged a photo of her very favorite horse, Seth.   Now, I normally wouldn't suggest using photos from someone without permission, but since this was to be sent to her as a gift, I didn't think she'd mind.

The top tray is the limited selection I used to paint Seth;
mostly the blues, greys, purples and a few peachy and pale yellow tones.
I added some darks from another brand, and a few pastel pencils for detail.