Oh happy snow day!

Our New England weather has been cold and snowy and I haven't been to the studio to work on Elaina and so I started a new colored pencil piece over the weekend at home. I have some photos of beautiful red and yellow tulips in a glass vase in which I took on a gray day and have been thinking about them for a while. My idea and inspiration is to portray the vase of tulips as vibrant and bright against a quiet blue/gray background of a rainy day. The surface in which I'm working on 18x24" Rtistx board. This photo (above) isn't great, I took it inside in natural light and the brightness of snow out the window is graying everything in the front, however the tulips are still fairly bright enough to get the idea of my start.

The galleries are asking for my colored pencil work not to be framed under glass. The lighting from above reflects on the glass and the piece is difficult to see. So I have to rethink my surfaces. I Chose Rtistx for this piece because it can be varnished but also has less texture than the other boards I work on. I need a softer surface for the delicate petals and leaves, yet still a board that can withstand being varnished afterward.

After reading Paula Pertile's blog entry on colored pencil swatches for the various brands, I decided to give my Lyra Rembrandt pencils a workout on this piece. The Prismas and Coloursofts are softer and crumble a bit and flake off as I layer them. I'm still using them along with the Rembrandts which aren't as crumbly and can be applied a little more evenly. Paula is correct, they do go on like 'buttah'! The Rtistx is also wonderful for layering lights on top of darks and will take many layers of color. The white surface makes the color even more vibrant. I don't like to burnish much on my work, I like the texture of the surface and characteristics of the pencil to show through. If I do decide I need to cover some of the texture and solidify areas of the colored pencil, I will add solvent.
Here is the ad with my artwork that will appear in February issue of American Art Collector magazine. I also found out today that this piece "Red Reflections" was juried into CPSA's Explore This 7 Online Exhibition that will be on the website starting February 1. This is my 4th acceptance into the Explore This exhibitions. I'm also very excited because one of my c.p. students, Cheryl Borbone, had her piece "Cherry Martini" accepted into Explore This 7. While she worked on this piece independently, I am happy to have helped her develop her colored pencil skills over the last few years she has taken classes with me.