I originally painted this scene in black pastel only, for the Salmagundi Club’s Black & White show this past winter.  The drawing was strong, so I decided to add some color.  The new version, “Indian River Soliloquy,” will be in the upcoming ‘Water Works’ show at the Gregory James Gallery which opens May 15th.

Lots happening these days – I continue to paint regularly with the High Street Painters in Brattleboro, VT and my portrait/figure work in oil is coming along. I recently took a one-day landscape workshop in oils up in Putney, VT with Dennis Sheehan – what fun! We ‘made up’ our scenes which was liberating and fun. I’m looking forward to Dennis’ next one-day workshop in May.
I also spent a few painting sessions in Vt in March with Juan Ramirez who was visiting for a few weeks from Chicago. Lots of laughs, and Juan presented all us HSPs with copies of the updated draft of his notes on Sargent, soon to be in book form if all goes well.
I just dropped off 3 paintings to Greg Mullen at the Gregory James Gallery in New Milford, CT for its upcoming “Waterworks” show, set to open Saturday, May 15th from 6 – 8p. Am posting “Marsh Dance” here today, which will be in the show. I hope to get one more painting to him before the opening.
Thursday evening April 29th is the opening of my solo exhibit at Mill Street Home in Greenwich, CT. The reception is from 5 – 8p and should be lots of fun. Mill Street Home is a very cool store, with lots of interesting decor and furnishings made of natural materials.
Two weeks ago the Front Street Gallery opened in Patterson, New York and currently features a show of paintings by Mary Souter, Linda Puiatti, and Gene Cadore. Next month Crista Pisano’s oil landscapes will be featured, and I hope to have work hung there in the coming months as well.  I’ve been trying to go up to paint with Gene at the gallery weekly and am also practicing my Italian on him, in prep for our trip to Umbria in June.   Thank God he’s a good sport!

More later-

I decided to ‘clean house’ this month and am having a virtual studio sale on eBay – first time I’ve ever tried this but so far it’s been great!  Here’s the link to my items – all are unframed for less expensive shipping, all are originals and most are matted to a standard frame size:

Julie’s eBay listings

11″ x 14″
Pastel on pumiced Gatorboard

The texture of this painting surface was very rough and grooved, and after trying to fight it I just decided to go along with it.  I first built up layers of color using a Styrofoam peanut to blend hard pastel in different areas, and then lightly grazed soft pastels over the grooves to create the highlights.  The end result is very impressionistic – close up, you can see all the bumps and ridges, but from a slight distance the lights and darks pretty much morph together to form a representational-style painting with soft edges.

I was fooling around with watercolor underpaintings today – the painting on the right was first, with watercolor washes put in and then dark and warm areas highlighted with pastel pencils.  I decided it was too linear and harsh-looking so I put the whole thing in the sink and washed it off, letting the color flow wherever.  The underpainting on the left is the final one.  I like the softness of the edges and will try to keep that feeling in my pastel layering.  I might even let the composition morph into something non-representational.

As promised, here’s the final version of the work in progress shown a few posts below.

This is a 16″ x 20″ version of the same Swamp River scene (see below), with just the acrylic underwash done.  I really pushed the bright colors in this one, but will tone it all down with the pastel layers once I resurface the board.  Since getting laid off from my day job in February (!!!!) I’ve been able to throw myself into working on my painting skills – including speed, which I need to do in order to improve my plein air work – and have also experimented more with surfaces, underpainting techniques, etc.  So there’s the silver lining to being unemployed!

16″ x 22″
Pastel on Wallis paper

I love painting koi, and this is my third painting of them.  This is the largest so far – framed, it’s 24″ x 30″.

11″ X 14″
Pastel on pumiced Gatorboard

Here’s another scene from my recent trip to Vero Beach.  I’ve been working with acrylic underwashes since the weather turned a little warmer and I can work out on my deck (it gets pretty messy).  I like the brightness the acrylic wash makes come thru the pastel layer in the lightly painted areas.

16″ x 20″
Pastel on pumiced Gatorboard

I’m trying to keep the energy going in this larger version of the painting study below.  I really liked the brightness of the magenta in the original, so have upped it a little here.  The surface I’m working on is kinda rough, though, so I have had to work it harder than with the study.  I’ll keep this version up and will post the final once done.