Painting mountains

Mt. Ka'ala

9 x 12 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix

Miki Willa

One of the things I never tire of here is the well weathered look of our mountain ranges. The reference for this one was taken from a park in Haleiwa Town looking toward the Waianea Range and Mt. Ka'ala. I selected a variety of greens and blues to work the ridges and valleys. I put my darks in first, then found I had to tone them down as the mountain developed. My sky is not as developed as I usually like, but I was really concentrating on the mountain and ran out of painting time. Isn't that always the way? I really like the feel of this one.

Gray Skies

The Wall

9 x 12 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix

Miki Willa

I was hoping to post the reference photo with this, but it is not where I thought it was and it will take me some time to find it. Maybe tomorrow.

This was a very high overcast day near Hilo, Hawaii. Even the greens were toned down. The only bright color was the red in the rock wall on the right. My husband thinks it is too vibrant. It is true. I pushed it. Maybe a small amount on the left wall would help. I don't know. I like the boldness of it. Sometimes I break the rules. A friend of mine said it was okay to break the rules if you had the name to do it. Why should they get all the fun?

A challenge

Hidden

9 x 12 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix

Miki Willa

On Sunday, I went through my files looking for reference photos I still wanted to paint. It seems I came up with some real challenges. Either the photos were taken on really horrid weather days, or the subjects are just plain difficult to paint. I decided to start off with a difficult subject matter.

On our wonderful Kauai trip, as we were hiking along the coast, we came to a place where there was a hole in the cliffs that opened to the sea below. Tom and I both took photos. I have looked at and rejected these photos for a long time. Yesterday, this one appealed to me. The challenge, of course, is to show the depth. I don't think I totally accomplished that, but I am coming along. I do feel there is a sense of depth, but I think it was deeper in real life. There is a serious problem at the lower left from the viewers point of view. I think I need to darken this to emphasize the shadows at the depth. Another problem is the wave foam above the rock formations. The surf was very big that day, and the waves broke big, but I think it distracts from the height of the rocks.

What I am happy about is that I feel I captured the feeling of the place. I will have to work on this again some day.

Playing with Color

Snags at Twilight

9 x 12 soft pastels in Art Spectrum Colourfix

Miki Willa

This morning, I just wanted to play with colors. I have to say my inspirations have been Julie at Virtual Voyage and Casey Klahn at Pastel (see their links on the side). Julie takes wonderful photos and paints with fantastic vibrant colors. Casey also uses great brilliant colors. I wanted to do something with gold, orange, turquoise, and purple. I also wanted to get some depth in the painting. At first, I just stared at the four pastels I pulled from the box. Then, this vision came to me of dead trees in a highly polluted twilight. I wanted bands of color so I chose orange for the land in the foreground, turquoise for the polluted water, and gold for the heavily reflective polluted sky. The darkest purple I have served nicely for the snags. I seem to think in "statements" when I work in the abstract, which is very rare. I wonder why that is. I think the painting is a little brighter in real life, but I didn't want to mess with it in Photoshop this time.

Oh What a Beautiful Morning

Oh! What a Beautiful Morning

9 x 12 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix

Miki Willa

This is another based on a photo my husband took. One of my favorite places for views of the Waianae Mountains is from Hickam Air Force Base. There is a wide channel that runs from the ocean into the lochs at Pearl Harbor, and it runs by Hickam. There is a great park and path that goes along the waterfront. I have done a few plein air paintings there, but I don't think I have posted them because it was before I started this blogging adventure. You never know what you are going to see there. One day, I watched a nuclear sub make its way to sea. It is also directly under the flight path for the landing fields for both Hickam and Honolulu International, so all manner of interesting planes come and go. But I go for the trees, water, and mountains.

The skill I was working on for this painting was using value to create perspective. I am pretty pleased with the overall outcome. This is also my first boat. I did a close up of part of a derelict barge, but not a whole boat before. The lines can really fool you if you are not paying close attention.

Beneath Kaua'i Skies

Beneath Kaua'i Skies

9 x 12 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix

Miki Willa

My husband took the reference photo for this painting while we were on Kaua'i. We were at Salt Pond Beach and right behind us was a vast sugar cane field. The cane was tall, but not quite ready for harvest. He climbed up an embankment to get the photo. I loved the idea of it and when I saw the clouds, I decided I had to paint it.

I know it breaks a few "rules", but it does what I want I want it to do. It celebrates the cane which is disappearing from the islands so fast. It also celebrates the wonderful clouds that so often a part of our sky scape here. I have long been fascinated by water, and clouds are just another form of water that I really appreciate.

I have not finished with the desert series, but decided I need a little break. I still have a few more I want to do over the next few weeks. Since we will be leaving the island in a short time, I still have a few memories to paint to take with me, so I will be painting more local sites and local flowers as well.

Happy Earth Day

Rocky Butte WIP

9 x 12 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix

Miki Willa

I really hope this is not as dark on your screen as on mine. It looked perfectly fine in Photoshop. I have not finished the foreground at all. In fact, I sort of gave up on this because it was not working out, and I ran out of time. After discussing this with my wonderful artist husband, I have agreed to revisit this painting at a later date. I was totally entranced by this place when I was there. I don't feel I captured my feeling entirely. I will keep working at it.

I used my pan pastel sample on this for the sky. I got a very light blue. This is the fourth time using it and I have to say I am not on the bandwagon. I know there are those who just love it, but it is not for me. I used a very light paper, and the pan did not cover, no matter what I did. You can see the yellow showing through near the hill top. In this painting, it worked out well, but I would not be happy if this happened on a darker ground. I also found that blending with stick pastels was programmatical. I will stick with more traditional pastels for the foreseeable future.