Alpine Meadow

Alpine Meadow

10 x 7 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix

Miki Willa

I missed a milepost on the journey yesterday. I have been posting to this blog for three months. By some standards, that makes me legitimate. I have been enjoying it, so I think I will keep it up.

I have been noticing lately that my subject matter appears rather random sometimes. I think part of that is I have grown disenchanted with the local sites. After all, there is only so much of it and it seems to all have been painted often and well. I long for the new vistas - rolling pasture land, salt water marshes at dusk, rushing rivers, forests of poplars or evergreen trees. It is beautiful here, however, and I still have much to learn about water and green. I was reading the Ask Mark section of the Pastel Artists of Hawaii web site this morning. Mark Norseth is a well known local pastel and oil artist. One of the questions put to him was about inspiration and how to keep it when you see the same things each day. He pointed out that some of the best known artists painted painting after painting on the same subject. Monet and his garden. Degas and is ballet dancers. Lautrec and the Moulin Rouge. The trick is to see it anew each time you approach familiar scenes, and feel it with a new heart.

Today's painting was based on a reference photo taken a few years ago during a hike near Mt. St. Helen's in Washington. It was spring and the wildflowers were in full color - lavender lupines, peach Indian Paint Brush, golden buttercups. It was quite a beautiful day.