harney county sky - december

I was headed out of town one evening last month- tired, grumpy and wanting Scotty to 'beam me home'. This sky was my reward for making the drive. We are soooo blessed to live in a region where blue skies and cloudscapes are the norm in the winter months!  This piece is 9" x 9 "pastel on acid free mat board. 

Pastels are made up of pure pigment with a minimum of binder - and so can produce light, many dimensional works. These are chalk pastels and thus-- chalky. I have found that fixatives dampen and dull my pastels so I hardly ever use them past the first stages of a painting. Today I am going to pack up two of these little gems to head to new homes and am sort of remembering... about how time consuming it can be......packing pastel works so that they will not be damaged in shipping! Can't just roll them up and stuff them in a shipping tube!

Safe travel little roosters!

Went on a little landscape tour yesterday. Had some good light.  Saw some folks moving cattle closer to home for feeding and pre-calving care.  Got semi-paralyzed by cloud reflections on Dry lake (over by the round barn). I couldn't tell where sky, water and I ended.  Fabulous.