Swift Crossing, 20x16"

"Swift Crossing" with detail, 20x16" Pastel

Back when I went on my adventure to New York City last September, I walked what felt like 20 miles on the streets with my camera at the ready. There was activity and color that would last me a lifetime of painting inspiration, but the deciding factor must offer a decent composition. Here, "Swift Crossing" has that typical "U" shaped composition so characteristic of any street scene lined with buildings. I like to think some compositions are much like the alphabet, offering up the "S" curve, "L", "V" or "T" to name a few. It was the people crossing the street in what reminded me of the "Beatles" album cover "Abbey Road" that attracted me the most of this scene. I worked with the color a lot, having first used filters on Instagram to see where I could push the colors and mood. I ended up with a more intense and darker look than the original image, I think it works. Thoughts?

The Blue Line, 24x24

"The Blue Line" 24x24"  Pastel  ©Brenda Boylan

I have been wanting to paint this scene for some time now. It took many detours along the way, (no pun intended), as some paintings take on a direction of their own.  I started out with an image that I took a few months ago on my iPhone and I uploaded it to Instagram where I had the liberty to try different filters for different effects. I really loved one filter in particular, Mayfair, with the contrast boost. Once on the easel, I saturated the colors a tad to add to the drama to this gray city scene. My interest was to use a warm/cool palette of blues and oranges complimented with neutral grays.  At one point the painting had stalled for two weeks as I was distracted, so it sat..and sat. Then one morning I woke up to a fallen easel, face-planted down on the studio floor!

Oh my!

Luckily, the painting avoided any potential smudging or dents. Thankfully it dodged that bullet. With pastels, it is always a good idea to tilt your standing easel forward a bit. This tilt helps the pastel dust to drop away from the painting, keeping it from contaminating the painted areas below. Unfortunately, not a lot of easels are designed to lean forward. (perhaps a Christmas gift idea?) Lesson learned:  weigh down the back of an easel if it is tilted forward. Anyway, I am happy to share "The Blue Line". It will be available in late December at Attic Gallery, located at 206 SW 1st, Portland, OR.

Here is a cropped view of the more "busier" part of the piece

Starting off with a sketch in blue pastel pencil

I tried a bright blue underpainting with water-based createx paint

to give it that "cold, fall day" feeling.

Crossline, 12x12

"Crosslines" 12x12" Pastel  ©Brenda Boylan

I live in a suburb just outside of Portland, OR. called Beaverton. The city of Beaverton has never had a centralized hub, and so for the past 4+ years, community volunteers have been working hard on revitalizing it's "downtown". Actually, there really is no true downtown as it's had it's share of quick growth and misplaced strip malls. Ah, but I did find this little spot that was bathed in sun and has more or less a vibe of the buildings in the core area of the city. I stumbled upon this 60's style building last fall with my pochade box all ready to paint, but the wind was a bit brisk so I decided it would have to wait. Here is my studio piece of that location as taken from photo.

Urban Street Scenes and Show News

NW 23rd @ Johnson, 9x12" Oil

The past few times out painting provided some incredible weather, not to be missed for a region socked in with fog and overcast skies for 8 months of the year. I headed out twice this past week with the oils in tow and a new palette of colors that was recommended.  I've been tooling around with different palettes to see where my color voice is most inclined to settle.  I'd like most to try out a few other palette choices to see what each has to offer and it's temperament on the canvas.  This time around I used a limited transparent palette of Prussian Blue, Indian Yellow, Veridian (with a little Phalo Green on the side) Crimson and Titaniam White on a white canvas.  No underpainting here as with my vibrant under paintings in pastel.  So new, so different in method. All exciting.  Above, an area that was known to have a lot of thrift stores and resale shops is now a trendy area to spend the day shopping, eating and people watching.  The noon hour was the best for activity, I may want to return on later day this coming week.

SW 1st @ Hall,  10x8"  Oil

This one was painted in the downtown area of Beaverton, not too far from my home.  Not a lot of traffic on this street, but I liked the view, the street signage and RR crossing signs. I think I'll add some Cadmium Red Light (an opaque color) for those pops of red where the street lights, flowers and RR Crossing arms come into play.

OK, now for a little self-promotion:  Show news....

The Pacific Northwest Plein Air Show is coming down this Monday, Oct 1st at the Columbia Arts Center. If you are headed out there this weekend, take a moment to stop by to see this show. It is knockout!  As for the Hillsboro Plein Air event, the show opens this October 2nd from 6:00~8:00 pm. at the Glenn and Viola Walters Cultural Center.