Pastels and Purple Cone Flowers

Purple Cone Flowers

9 x 12 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix

Miki Willa

I have been thinking about these flowers for months now. They may not be the most showy flower in the garden, but they are one of my favorites. On my trip across the U.S. several years ago, we stopped at a garden with fields of cone flowers. There were butterflies everywhere, enjoying all that nectar. I liked the flowers so much, I planted some in my garden in Washington.

For this painting, I started with the darkest green first in the background, after I did a pretty detailed sketch in charcoal. Then I built up the greens until I had the effect I was looking for. Next, I did the cones. I think there is more detail in the cones than I usually do, but I like the way they turned out. The petals were last. Overall, I am glad I finally decided to do this. Flowers often intimidate me, but I think I am getting better with them.

Pastel Stream Series

Stream Race

9 x 12 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Coloufix

Miki Willa

Hello again. I am back from my trip to Washington state. We had a great time visiting family and house hunting. It was very cold. We were even entertained by a few snow flurries. Not good painting weather. It is still very beautiful there, however, and I am looking forward to moving back in June.

The painting is the newest in the Kalihi Stream series. I am so amazed that I can get so many different views and moods from a short stretch of a stream. I realized today that I have no reference photos of the bridge over the stream at the entrance to the retreat center. I may have to drive up there this weekend and check it out.

Still life in the Ancient Colors

Tea for Two or Block Party (can't decide on a name)

9 x 12 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix

Miki Willa

Hooray! My paper order from Dakota Art arrived. I even ordered some Wallis paper so I could do some more pastel and turpenoid underpaintings. I can't wait to open the box. It is like Christmas when our paper orders arrive. I will be so happy to get back to Washington state when I can just drive to the Dakota store if I am getting low.

When I first set up this still life on the dining room table, it was quite big. There was another teapot on top of the concrete block, a tea cup sitting on one of the openings, and a blue on white serving dish leaning against the block. Of course, I never got around to painting it, although I did make sketches. I took several photos, however. This morning, when I was looking for something I wanted to paint, I came across a photo of the setup. I started cropping and found something I liked. I am still playing with the four walls. I decided I needed to leave out the cup in the hole and he teapot on top of the block. I am quite happy with the results. (My husband made me write that, but I really am.) The reason the concrete block is that color is because it had been outside with our local red dirt. Red dirt dyed t-shirts are big business on Kaua'i.

I will be off-island (local term meaning I am going to another island or to the mainland) for the next week. I will be visiting family in Seattle, Washington. I am not sure how often I will be able to post, so plan on me being back on Friday, the 28th. For my Christian readers, have a joyous Easter.

Painting from photographs

A Day at the Shore

9 x 12 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix

Miki Willa

There have been several posts of late about painting from photographs. I thought I would weigh in on the subject. As you know if you are a regular reader, I use photographs for almost all my paintings at the present time. I paint at 5:30 in the morning, long before there is any light here, in my portable desktop studio. If I didn't use my reference photographs, I would be posting daily sketches of my desk top. Believe me, you don't want to see that on a regular basis. I probably wouldn't be painting at all on a daily basis. So, I have a strong prejudice for using photographs as a viable reference for painting.

That being said, I would also like to state that I think that using someone elses photograph without their permission should be avoided. It is like copying someone elses painting, as far as I am concerned. We have a big swap meet here three times a week that is big business. Tourists come from Waikiki by the busload. Newly arrived go there to buy local souvenirs to send back to mainland family. I have gone several times. There is an artist there on Saturdays who does acrylic copies of oil paintings by well known local artists. For some reason, he keeps getting away with it. He sells his paintings at a very low price. They are pretty well executed, but I am bothered by it for several reasons. First, it devalues the original - I think. Second, I feel like this guy is stealing artistic property. I feel that way about painting from someone elses photographs and then making a profit on it.

On a different level, if you are painting from someone elses photograph, you are using someone elses artistic vision. Don't get me wrong, I have done several paintings based on photographs in the WetCanvas photo archives. Sometimes, I just long to paint something that is not tropical. I would, however, never enter them into a show or attempt to sell them. They are purely for my practice and pleasure. I post them here to share where I am on my journey. I always try and remember to state that the reference is not mine. I have seen some fantastic photographs on several blogs I look at, and been tempted to try and paint from them because they are so wonderful, but I wouldn't do it.

I have several friends who have sent me photos with permission to paint from them. I am very grateful to them for sending me scenes I love and want to paint. I treat them the same way I do the WetCanvas photos. The reason is that I haven't been there. I didn't smell the smells, feel the breezes, look into the shadows, hear the sounds. I am much more comfortable painting from photos I have taken myself, or my husband has taken when we were together. Then I feel like I know the place. I understand all the drawbacks, or things one has to remember when working from photos. Photos lie, especially about value, but if I have been there, I can sometimes remember the place.

One thing I have learned, from practice, is to not be a slave to the photograph. The woman I took classes from gives out Artistic Licenses to her students and urges them to think about how to make a painting better. I am not one who can come up with a scene from no reference. Perhaps that is why I have so much trouble with non-representational art. I have slowly come to understand that I don't need to leave everything in, especially if it detracts from what I am trying to say. That has been a long time coming. I hope I can translate that to plein air painting, which I hope to do more of this summer.

I know there are purists out there who think that unless you are painting plein air, or from life, you are not really an artist. In my recent delvings into the history of Western Art, I have discovered that plein air painting is a rather recent technique. I want to stay open to all the possibilities. That does not mean I am ready to leave my pastels, however.

This painting was done from a reference photo my husband took at a beach on the North Shore of Oahu. I made changes as I went along. I also added very small people. Can you see them in the background?

A sketchbook day

And a happy St. Paddie's day to you all. My wonderful husband found two pieces of paper for me over the weekend. I put them in the car last night, then promptly forgot to bring them in this morning. Because of new temporary duties at work, that was probably a good thing. So, instead of doing a pastel painting, I decided to work in my sketch book. These are the very different results.


One of our students came in with a shamrock sticker next to her eye so I decided I needed to sketch her. I have such a hard time with whole faces, I decided to crop her pretty severely. I didn't realize until I posted the picture that her left eye is much lighter than her right. I will have to fix that tomorrow. Otherwise, I am pretty happy with this one. I am most pleased that you can tell it is a child. I think that is very hard to achieve.



The second sketch is from a WetCanvas reference photo. It is a farm building in the snow. I cropped it pretty severely because I wanted the building to go off the page. I am playing with composition, especially edges, these days. I am trying to learn to see in a different, more interesting way.

The last is something very different. I decided I would try a pastel pencil sketch in the sketch book. I really don't like dealing with white paper when I am working with pastels, so I looked around for something to help. First of all, this was my sketch book so no liquid blending would work. I tried watercolor in the book before and it was not pretty. Second, I didn't have any blending brush anyway. So, I decided to try markers. Don't try this at home unless you are very adventurous. If you do, make sure the base color is completely dry. The other major problem was I was using pencils instead of sticks, which give better coverage. I thought about not posting this one, but it is a journey of learning and discovery that I am sharing here.

Autumn leaves in spring

Autumn Walk

9 x 12 soft pastels on Canson Mi Teintes pink paper

Miki Willa

I am officially done with the pink paper. My Dakota Pastel paper order should be here by Wednesday. All is right in the world.

I checked in with the March WetCanvas landscape challenge the other day and found three really great photos. I decided to do this one because I have never really done autumn leaves. I don't think this is a finished painting yet, but I will let it sit over the weekend. I didn't post it on WetCanvas.

Juried Art Contests

Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, Maine

7 x 10 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix (the last piece in the house)

Miki Willa

I just got my April issue of Pastel Journal with the winners of the annual Pastel 100 contest. I always look forward to this issue to see what the judges liked this year. I was quite amazed to see how many photo-realistic paintings were honored. Is this style coming back? Has anyone told the art schools? I did like almost all the winning paintings this year. I especially liked the landscapes. The still lifes very interesting, as always. There was a non-representational piece that surprised me. The artist used soft pastels to create a Jackson Pollock style painting. It is hard to believe it is not poured oil paints. The one thing I thought was lacking in many of the paintings was emotion. I totally appreciate the skill, patience, and dedication it takes to do photo-realism. That is what I aspired to when I first started painting. I guess that I am more interested in showing how I feel about something these days. I don't always achieve it, but I am working on it.

Now that I have said all that, I want to address my feelings about juried shows. This is just how I feel, so if you think juried shows are fantastic, you don't have to read any further. I am an educator and I loathe standardized testing, and especially teaching to the test. They are a "snapshot" of a moment in time of a student. They don't take into account the whole student. I feel the same way about juried shows, but for different reasons. First, I don't think it is good to compare yourself to others in that way. Especially if you have been painting for five years, and the others have been painting for 40. But the juror does, so the same people win over and over again and the newer artists are only discouraged. Next is the idea that someone who is not your teacher makes judgements about your work based on their own prejudices. I have always thought that art classes should be credit/non-credit. Who really has the right to grade/judge someone else's creativity? I have seen paintings I thought were so terrible win big prizes in juried shows. I have entered the local pastel societies shows, to support the society, had paintings accepted and rejected. I have celebrated with the winners, and consoled the rejectees. Have I grown as an artist from the experience? No. Not at all. Especially when I see paintings honored that I think are really poorly executed. ( I would love to be able to post this picture and see what you think, but I can't.) Okay. I think I have said my piece.

I have read that painting lighthouses can be so cliche. I have been looking at the reference photo for my painting for a long time. I have a friend who is in Iraq. He loves lighthouse paintings. I was thinking of him this morning so I decided to finally do this painting. I used the last piece of Colourfix in the house. It is not finished, but I wanted to post it anyway.