Something a little different

Early Spring

mixed media on paper

4.5 x 6 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

This is a little mixed media experiment that I worked on last weekend. While browsing art blogs last week I came across a post on one of my favorite artists blogs, Vivien Blackburn's, Paintings Prints and Stuff. Her work posted, "A muddy lane in February" immediately caught my attention. I have long been a fan of her art and was intrigued by her explanation of process with this work. So I tried my own version using a reference of an early spring scene I had photographed while on a walk in a local park.

I used a spare piece of Canson Edition paper and began with Neocolor II crayons, sketching in areas of color. This I brushed with water and let dry. Then I went in with colored pencil, adding some of the smaller elements and softening the intensity of the Neocolor washed a bit. After that I added pastel, bringing up some of the lights and then more colored pencil to define some of the details.

This was a fun way to work with much more immediacy than using colored pencil alone. What I like about Vivien's piece is the softness combined with the expressive marks, allowing for a quiet energy in her piece. And this is where I feel my mixed media falls short. Perhaps it's a fear of pushing the media. Of course this is only one of very few attempts I have done with mixed media. It is a method I would like to explore further, but probably not any time soon. For now, I'll remain content enjoying Vivien Blackburn's beautiful art works.

Pastel Monday

Moses Cone Trail
pastel on sanded pastel paper
6.5 x 4.5 inches
©2008 Ann Thompson Nemcosky
Click here to buy

This image is from one of our recent hikes over at the Moses Cone Mansion off the Blue Ridge Parkway. An extensive network of old carriage trails provide excellent hiking paths and many wonderful views of the surrounding mountains. This is one of our favorite destinations on the Parkway.

Pastel Monday

Looking North
(Along the River at Brookshire Park)
pastel on sanded pastel paper
6.5 x 4.5 inches
©2008 Ann Thompson Nemcosky
Click here to buy

Pastel Monday has returned! Hopefully I will be able to continue with these pastel pieces for a while. I missed doing them. Working in pastel is so much more immediate than colored pencil that it makes for a nice burst of spontaneity for me.

This is a scene from a nearby park where we often take the dogs for a walk. There are rarely any other people there and the walking path is really a quarter mile track. So kiddo gets to ride her scooter and once around is just enough distance for Sara dog's short little Corgie legs. She always refuses to go around the loop a second time.

Pastel Monday

Gardens at Manteo
pastel on sanded pastel paper
4.5 x 6.5 inches
©2008 Ann Thompson Nemcosky
click here to buy

This is a scene from the Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo, North Carolina. What a lovely place that is. Walkways that meander on forever with something new at every turn. The day we toured there started out cloudy but soon enough the sun broke through casting all sorts of wonderful light and shadow patterns. I liked this view where through the dappled sunlight a bright spot appeared just as the path made a turn toward something new.

Pastel Monday

Marsh Trees
pastel on sanded pastel paper
4.5 x 6.5 inches
©Ann Thompson Nemcosky
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Things are still keeping me busy here so I pulled an image from our trip to Edisto Island last spring as inspiration for this pastel drawing. The salt marshes there are lovely and mysterious. I like the textures and colors of the grasses, and the gnarled, weathered trees, all against that still blue water. Little spots like this that look like nothing is going on are probably actually teeming with life just below the surface.

Pastel Monday

Greenway Creek
pastel on sanded paper
6.5 x 4.5 inches
©2008 by Ann Thompson Nemcosky
Click here to buy

This is a scene of the creek along our town's Greenway Trail. The Greenway Trail is a couple of miles long and runs through our town. I don't know the name of the creek, but it's probably actually called a river. Most are around here. We are at the Eastern Continental Divide, where the rivers start. I grew up in Cincinnati. The Ohio, now that's a river. What we have around here will always be just creeks to me.

Weekly pastel

Blue Ridge Summer
pastel on sanded pastel paper
6.5 x 4.5 inches
©2008 by Ann Thompson Nemcosky
Click here to buy

My intention is to post these pastels on Mondays, so I am a day early here. Oh well. It's all because I know the start of my week will be very busy and I probably won't have much computer time.

Still working on my color project though. Doing this pastel was a nice break however. It is a view from the Blue Ridge Parkway, not far from here, in the height of summer, haze and all.

Pastel Monday

Summer Field
6.5 x 4.5 inches
pastel on sanded pastel paper
©2008 by Ann Thompson Nemcosky
Click here to buy

This image is a scene just down the road from our house, captured on a morning walk. It feels good to be getting back into the routine of things after our Outer Banks vacation. Summer has arrived here in our mountains and my summertime projects are waiting. Our little vegetable garden is planted with tomatoes and basil and I spent Saturday afternoon reclaiming my small herb garden. But there is still a neglected flower bed to tend to as well as much housekeeping to be done. The birds wake us in the morning with their dawn chorus coming through now opened windows. The insects are chirping and the bull frog calls from the creek across the road. Every thing is noisily busy these days and I need to get to work.

Weekly pastel

Sound Side
pastel on sanded paper
6.5 x 4.5 inches
©2008 by Ann Thompson Nemcosky
Click here to buy

I am really enjoying doing these works in pastel. The drawing, or rather painting, is so direct and immediate that it is a nice break from doing colored pencil drawings. Plus I am finding that working in each media serves as fuel for the other. So I am planning to continue with weekly pastel paintings just to see where they might take me.

This image is from the sound near Currituck, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Colors

Beach Walk
pastel on sanded paper
4.5 x 6.5 inches
copyright 2008 by Ann Thompson Nemcosky
click here to buy

As I have been working my way around my new home here on this new pc I have run up against some issues with color. I suppose I was lucky in my ignorance of color issues and computers on my old machine. Whatever I saw on the screen tended to be what I ended up with in print, whether printed on my home printer or a professionally printed design job. I knew that different monitors and computers would display color differently but I had no idea just how different color could appear until I set up shop on this computer. Files I had painstakingly adjusted for color to match my original art look completely different now when I open them up here.

So I have spent the last couple of days searching for solutions. I have adjusted the monitor settings, Photoshop profiles and operating system color profiles for devices. And I learned just enough about color on computers to make me feel like my head would explode. I'd really rather be making art you know. Anyway, for those of you brave enough to venture into this highly technical topic I found a great resource in this color tutorial. And I'm going back to concerning myself with color use and theory in the three dimensional world.

The image above is a pastel drawing I completed this past weekend. It is on Colourfix sanded pastel paper. I was feeling the need to work a little more loosely than what I have been doing with colored pencils. Thinking about getting out the paints again, but don't really have the space for that. Or the time. But I love drawing with pastels, one of my favorite mediums. Such direct color. And to mix things up even more, I put this one on Ebay this time.

In the Meantime. . .

Summer Field
8 x 5 inches
pastel on sanded pastel paper
copyright 2007 by Ann Thompson Nemcosky
$50.


Just got the urge to get out the pastels today. It has been quite some time since I have worked in pastel and it was fun doing an image more quickly than what colored pencil will allow. I am actually working on a new colored pencil piece but just felt I needed a break from it for a little bit. This was a nice diversion on a sunny afternoon.