Today I signed up for 30 in 30, Leslie Saeta’s “paint 30 paintings in 30 days” challenge. The event is  devised to get artists painting every day during the month of September. Today was Day 1 and I made this little pastel of a house in The Battery, the old fishing village in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
I have to give a call out to Karen Margulis whose blog I am devouring: Â it is just loaded full of cool tips for painting with soft pastels. I have learned tons from her.
On this painting I did a little gouache underpainting on watercolour paper which I then painted over with clear gesso. The clear gesso gives the paper some “tooth” so that the pastel will cling to the paper surface.
Not only does it work like a charm, but I am really liking the way that you can get some extra texture and energy into the artwork by painting on the gesso with strong expressive brushstrokes that follow the marks on your initial underpainting. Check out the swirls in the sky.
I love this daily painting challenge. It’s part of my new commitment to devoting myself to my art practice: an important tip I got from Alyson Stanfield’s art biz coach newsletter. (How did we ever learn things before the internet? I just dunno.)
Bring on day 2.