Farm house, Walworth County, Wisconsin

When I was taking a class in Cody, WY last summer, one of the painters, Sarah, asked if anyone worked in pastel. Since I had done a few, she told me about Wallis sanded pastel paper which I had never heard of. I ordered some not knowing what to expect. I've done enough woodworking and woodcarving to know sand paper when I see it. This is archival sanded paper, but very nice stuff. It probably takes more off (sands off) your pastel stick than ordinary paper, but it has a very substantial surface to it. The pastel shown is a 9 X 12" work of a farm along the road in Walworth County, WI where I have found many of the farm houses and scenes I've done in the past.

Pastel

This is a 13 X 17" pastel. There's a small farm west of Waterford, Wisconsin that is open to tours and children's groups that these horses call home. I grew up in the city always wishing I had grown up on a farm or ranch -- although I may have watched too many episodes of Roy Rogers and Lassie to appreciate all the hard work I was missing out on. My son is now too old to get the charge out of it that he did visiting Green Meadow Farm when he was 5, but I never get too old.

Three PAs

The plein air work here is really fun now. The trees are changing color and the leaves are falling which leaves a warm color over portions of the ground. The tree paintings are 6 X 8s and the Wyoming painting from my plein air workshop is an 8 X 10. This is the view looking west from the back of Open Box M which hosted the workshop -- and the makers of pochade boxes.