As winter sets in, the bulk of the year’s pastel plein air adventures are behind me. I promised in the July 6, 2009 blog, “Traveling Even Lighter”, to share how my newly downsized travel kit worked. I am pleased to report that it worked very well! As described, everything was in one backpack and I was able to keep it with me throughout the adventure. It did get a little heavy at times. (On my next trip abroad, I will consider attaching the backpack to a collapsible folding wheel cart.) At the final destination, extra packed supplies were removed, reducing the weight. You may want to consider a carry-on size bag that has wheels in place of the backpack. It all depends on your stamina. What seemed do-able in the morning became a bit bothersome after a long day of painting!
 
The major components that made it work were:
• A sturdy backpack or rolling carry-on bag. Remember that your painting equipment is heavy and often has sharp edges. A flimsy bag will fall apart before the painting trip is over and finding a replacement in exotic locales can prove difficult. Bags made for executive travel purposes are often the best to consider.
• A smaller, sturdy pastel palette. Pastels weigh a lot. A box that weighs very little empty can become quite heavy when filled with pastels. If you work with your pastel palette attached to a tripod/easel setup, you will most likely be reaching over it to work on your painting. Consider this reach before selecting a box. Dakota Art Pastels compact travel box and the Heilman backpack box are good choices.
• A , tripod. Don’t skimp on this accessory. Most camera tripods are not built for the weight of our pastel set-ups. The better built the tripod, the better it will stand up to the abuses of painting. Avoid tripods that have a lot of plastic parts. They are often very flexible and easily broken. My travel tripod is a Bogen Digi model 725B. The ball-joint, quick-release head holds the drawing board for the surfaces.
• A secure tray for holding the palette. Sun Eden has a couple of attachable trays that fit a multitude of tripod/portable easel models. I use the “Artist Self-400”. It attaches easily to the Bogen tripod and holds either of the above mentioned palette boxes. Secure the open palette to the tripod with a bungee cord before exposing the pastel sticks. It is of note that the Heilman box comes with a camera quick release built in. This allows for the use of their supplemental easel attachment that attaches to predrilled holes in the open box.
• An attachment for the painting surface. While there are good easel attachments available from the Heilman and Sun Eden companies, I decided to flush mount the camera quick release plate that came with the tripod to a 12x16 piece of hardboard. This allows me to change positions and painting angles with ease. Paper can be taped to the rigid surface; mounted paper can be adhered to a 12x16 surface and clipped to the board; or preexisting 12x16 or 16x20 surfaces can be clipped to the drawing board - allowing for a multitude of possibilities.
• A means of carrying painting surfaces and finished paintings. With the addition of another 12x16 hardboard, or lighter-weight gatorboard, surfaces and paintings can be sandwiched one on top of the other between the drawing board and the additional board. The boards create a hard puncture resistant outer shell. A perfect means of holding this sandwich together is a shirt “Pack-it Folder” from Eagle Creek Luggage Company. It accommodates a 12x16 very well and has four folding sides with Velcro for adjustable depth.
 
The "perfect" set up will always be elusive. This one came out of many years of trial and error, and undoubtedly will continue to evolve. It served me well this year and I look forward to putting it back into action in 2010!
 
[pictured at top] The travel setup (on the right) with students as we huddled under a bridge during a light rain one morning in France.

[pictured above] The drawing board with the camera quick release attached and the Eagle Creek shirt “Pack-it Folder” bag.

As we slip from fall in to the throes of winter, the days become shorter and more contemplative. Gone is the long light of summer that motivates so many of us to pack our pastels out on location for the plein air painting experience. In its place, we find ourselves warmly nestled in the comfort of our studios attempting to resolve many of those outdoor adventures. This is also the time for holidays in much of the world. No sooner is one ended than the next is upon us.

Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada has always been a personal favorite. It's a time when family and friends gather to focus on the things they're most thankful for. Of course, every day should be filled with a degree of appreciation, but it doesn’t hurt to have a special day once a year set aside for forced reflection. With the approach of this year’s festivity, I couldn’t help but be aware of all the things I have to be thankful for as a pastel artist.
 
Here's my short list:

• The manufactures, both large and small, that have made it so much easier to experience all the qualities and personalities pastel has to offer.
• The availability of a wide variety of pastel surfaces to choose from, each offering new possibilities for expression.
• The advent of Museum Glass and low reflection AR glass, which make it easier to display pastel paintings without the annoyance of reflections interfering.
• The hardworking members of all the pastel societies that volunteer their time and efforts in pursuit of promoting the medium.
• Urania Christy Tarbet, for having envisioned a society (IAPS) under which to umbrella the pastel organizations. The IAPS convention, held every two years, is like a huge family reunion.
• The staff of The Pastel Journal and F+W media, for all their devotion to the pastel community. And to Janie Hutchinson and Maggie Price for having had the idea in the first place, and the tenacity to make it happen.
• The enthusiastic painters who share in the passion to communicate a bit of themselves with the medium of Degas and Cassatt, allowing us to see the world through their eyes. It wasn’t that long ago that pastel was relegated to a mere fragile sketching medium or sidewalk chalk. Today it's taken seriously and hangs right along side oil because of their efforts—THANK YOU! 
  

Please feel free to post your pastel thankful comments during this week of reflection.
 
Pictured: A feast of pastels; seconds are allowed—Bon Appetit!

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In last week’s blog, I split Malinda Wiesner’s question concerning the use of green into two parts. In part 1, my advice was to acquire as many “mixed pigment” green pastels as possible for inclusion in your palette, avoiding the harsh raw green pigments like Viridian and Phthalo. This week, the discussion continues with a few more tips that I hope prove helpful when dealing with the issue of green in landscape painting.

Whenever color is concerned, it's best to begin with the color wheel. By studying the relationships of individual colors and how they interact with each other, we develop a better understanding of why certain colors work when placed together. This is a powerful tool in choosing what to place in a painting. Nature works. It shares an atmospheric relationship and a light source that creates the natural appearance we accept. Our paintings, on the other hand, are created "artificially" with pigments on a flat surface. We have to create the illusion of reality and harmony.

Science has shown us that light is made up of all color. Its primary colors, those that are the root of all the others, are the secondary colors of paint—that’s another topic to expand on at a later date. For now, just remember that light is an additive synthesis. It gets lighter and brighter as it's mixed. Pigment, on the other hand, is a subtractive synthesis. It gets darker and weaker when mixed. The three primaries of pigment color, from which all the other colors are derived, are yellow, red and blue. They share no relationship until mixed. When mixed, they create what is referred to as the secondary colors: orange, violet and green. These secondary colors share a common thread. Any combination of them completes the triad of color, creating natural harmony.

The theory of simultaneous contrast also plays a big part in why certain colors work better in relationship to one another (see my July 30, 2007 blog post for more). This visual phenomenon teaches us that everything is affected conversely according to what it is next to. For example, things look lighter when placed against dark, and warmer when placed against a cool. This is very useful when confronting green and helps to explain why one green pigment is never best for all situations.

Understanding these color theories is empowering but it still comes down to what is placed on your painting. Make a mark and then another. As the surface becomes covered, it will become apparent whether the green choices are working. If not, increase the presence of violet and orange (see blog post from June 9, 2008). When ask about green by students, I reference the color theories explained above and reply, “The secret of green is orange, and its friend is violet."

[pictured above] This image shows the three secondary colors placed next to each other, compared to the three primaries.