"A Day in November"

"A Day in November"

9x12 oil pastel on paper

2012

$260 unframed, $300 after fraiming

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Few pastelists dare venture with these greasy crayons (oil based pastels) due to their complexity.  I, on the other hand, have gone into a state of temporary addiction.  I've mentioned before, these pastels are difficult to handle.  They are impossible to rub making them hard to smudge and blend.  Difficult to erase once applied so they are bit more permanent.  Layering, even on sanded paper used in this piece, is also a flaw.  One thing you can utilize is broken color.  For instance, the sky in this piece is not a solid white, but broken as the dark color of the surface peers through.  This allows my work to appear more impressionistic than tighter as in realism.  For those who love to work in a looser approach, oil pastels work great---but this is NOT a recommendation.  Practice and play is a main ingredient for perfection.