12×9″, pastel on Wallis paper
$290.00 plus $15 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

On Thursday morning, I went to Platte Clove with a friend. It was a hot day and we wanted to find a cool spot. We hiked past the charming red cottage of the Platte Clove Conservation Area, down the steep, slippery path, and were rewarded by the sound of rushing water and sparkling falls in the morning light. The rocks glistened red and orange in the morning, though they started to cool in color temperature in the afternoon. The greens and rusts in the water were captivating. I don’t know how tall this waterfall is; I’ll have to research that. But I’d guess it’s over 100 feet high. I stayed at a spot about halfway up the slope. My friend went down to water level.

I was there with my husband a few weeks ago and did a watercolor sketch. This time, I brought my ultra-light pastel setup. Sometimes I arrive on location and wish I’d brought different media than what was in my pack. This time I felt like I had the perfect medium to capture the contrasts and strong colors I saw.

As for trying to find a cool spot on a hot day, we actually ended up being chilly there by the waterfall! There was cool mist in the air that seemed to stay within the bowl formed by the rocks surround the falls. Every so often, water would splash on my pastel from somewhere above. I think it accumulated on the leaves until droplets let loose, and they always seemed to have to land on my painting!

8x12 to 12x24, Available, Catskill Mountains, Drawings, Greene County, Hudson River School, Lakes and Streams, Pastels, Plein Air--painted on location, Waterfalls | 2 Comments »

12×9″, pastel on Wallis paper
$190.00 plus $15 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

People pass by this beautiful waterfall around the horseshoe bend on Route 23a, heading through Kaaterskill Clove into the mountains. There is a big sign next to it that says, “Kaaterskill Falls”. But this is not Kaaterskill Falls; rather, the trail that leads up the mountainside to the base of Kaaterskill Falls begins at this point! This significant, but smaller charmer, is Bastion Falls. I’ve walked past it many, many times on my way up the trail to paint the famous Kaaterskill Falls. For once I decided to stay at the trail head and sketch Bastion Falls.

I had my little dog BB with me, and I’d spent the entire morning working on a larger painting from a second tier of this waterfall. I went home for a late lunch, returning with my dog, lightweight pastel setup, and a gardening cushion to put on a rock to sit on. I have to say, I really loved working on this one. It’s still in a sketchy stage and I was considering finishing it; but some things are best left with the spontaneous freshness and expressive strokes that further refinement can so often obliterate. I’ve decided to call it “done” just the way it is. It has the energy, movement, and high contrast that I wanted to capture. And I want to go back and do another!

8x12 to 12x24, Available, Catskill Mountains, Drawings, Greene County, Hudson River School, Lakes and Streams, Pastels, Plein Air--painted on location, Sketches, Waterfalls | No Comments »

9×6″, pastel on Art Spectrum paper
SOLD! Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com to inquire about a similar painting.

Sometimes a scene that we see every day can become extraordinary. I’ve had my life enriched by pink morning mist on several occasions, and was fortunate to have my camera with me for some of them! It’s quite a site to behold, and doesn’t seem to stick around for long. As they say, the early bird gets the worm, and I’ve only seen this around sunrise! I think I need to get up early more often.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at Jerry’s Artarama in West Hartford. I saw a box of 48 Charvin “Water-Soluble Pastel Painting Sticks” at a price I couldn’t resist. My friend Melissa came over the other day and we pulled them out to play. I used the Art Spectrum paper because it behaves so well with wet media. I used the pastels to lay in the underpainting, and then used a wet brush to liquify the color. Melissa and I were both impressed with how pigment-rich they were.

My initial plan was to do this little pastel start to finish using those Charvin sticks, but I ended up needing to amplify the selection with more muted colors, better and less chalky darks, and softer pastels. I finished it with a combination of Faber-Castells, Mount Visions, Giraults, and Senneliers, and Conte pastel pencils for a few sharp lines and details.

8x10 and smaller, Boats and Ships, Brewster and North Salem, Hudson River Valley, Lakes and Streams, Landscape, Pastels, Peach Lake and Brook, Sold, Sunrise/Sunset | No Comments »

15×11″, pastel on Rives BFK rag paper
$295.00 plus $20 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

I posted a photo of this scene the other day with the waterfall in progress. I keep thinking it’s done, and then end up reworking sections of it. Maybe it is done now, but if not, you’ll see it posted again with revisions!

It sure does seem like “Waterfall Week” here on my blog. Actually, only two of the ones I’ve posted this week were done this week. For some reason, the others just didn’t make it up on my website until this week. However, it is true that I never seem to tire of the challenge of painting waterfalls. We’ve had tons of rain this week, and they are predicting a lot more over the next couple of days, so I think it’d be a safe bet that more waterfall paintings will be coming off my brushes in the near future!

8x12 to 12x24, Available, Catskill Mountains, Greene County, Hudson River Valley, Landscape, Palenville and Catskill, Pastels, Plein Air--painted on location, Spring, Waterfalls | No Comments »

15×11, Pastel on Rives BFK Tan
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.

I started a large painting on paper, and while waiting for my first layer to dry, I decided to do a monochrome sketch using some Cretacolor Sepia Powder. This just arrived with my last art supply order. It looked like lots of fun and I couldn’t wait to give it a try! I started laying in tone by brushing the powder onto the surface of a pristine sheet of beautiful Rives BFK — a 100% cotton rag paper that is one of my favorite toned surfaces. It wasn’t long before I needed to work in some lights, and realized that I didn’t have a white Conte in my sketch box with the powder! Uh oh!

I remembered that I had some pastels in my car, so I figured I’d take the white from that pastel kit. Well, you know me — the color junkie! With all those gorgeous pastels in front of me, there was no way I was going to resist adding some splashes of color, and then some more. Before I knew it, I was way engrossed in creating a pastel painting instead of the monochrome sketch I’d intended as a time-filler while my other painting dried! I wasn’t all that happy with the way the other one was turning out, so I persevered for awhile with this one and really liked where it headed. I went back this morning and tweaked it a bit to finish it off. I’ll post that image as soon as I can get a photo of it.

As for the other painting, it only went from bad to worse. I went back at it again today, but couldn’t save the beast! Plein air painting can be a very humbling experience. However, I’m pleased with this one. I never would have thought to use Rives BFK for pastels, and I hadn’t initially intended to do this as a pastel piece. It turned out to be a pretty awesome pastel surface. I might even do it again on purpose sometime!

Occasionally, a painting or a sketch will go in unexpected directions due to unforeseen circumstances. When that happens, it can be disastrous. But sometimes, when we get lemons, we can make lemonade. I’m really glad that I let this become a pastel painting instead of a monochrome sketch. (And to make up for that, I did monochrome work in the afternoon.)

8x12 to 12x24, Available, Demos/Work in Progress, Greene County, Hudson River Valley, Landscape, Palenville and Catskill, Pastels, Plein Air--painted on location, Waterfalls | No Comments »

Click to enlarge image:

10.5×13.5″, Soft pastels on UArt 600 archival, sanded paper
$295.00 plus $10 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

I was back up in Platte Clove today, painting the exquisite waterfalls in Devil’s Kitchen. We finally got a good, long rainfall a week or so ago, and all the waterfalls have been running strongly since then.

I haven’t broken out the pastels for a really long time, and this was so much fun! Can’t wait to do more pastel work.

The new studio is coming along. Expect a studio tour here on my website in the near future!

8x12 to 12x24, Available, Catskill Mountains, Greene County, Landscape, Pastels, Plein Air--painted on location, Waterfalls | No Comments »

12×9″, Pastel on Art Spectrum sanded paper
$325.00 plus $15 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

This is my first portrait since last winter — a two hour sketch from life. The model sits for three consecutive sessions, but I prefer to use them as sketching opportunities, and generally try to wrap up in a single session if possible. This model, Troy, is new to the art center. We’ll have two more sessions with him, so I plan to do others from different angles.

I’ve always felt that portrait and figure drawing and painting keep me honest as an artist. When painting landscapes, we can move a tree from one side of the scene to the other, enlarge a mountain, and put in clouds where there are none. But with portrait and figure painting, you can’t transplant somebody’s nose to where their mouth should be, or put a foot on the end of their arm!

Once the cold weather gets underway, I go into the portrait or figure studio a couple of times a week, using the winter to sharpen up my drawing skills. It really helps my winter doldrums too, since I’m not fond of plein air painting in the frigid weather. By late fall, I start looking forward to the change of subject and venue that winter brings. After a winter of studio landscapes, and portraits and figures from life, I feel really charged up about getting out for plein air work again in the spring.

Today I dove in for the first time this season, both in subject and medium. I hadn’t broken out the pastels for quite some time (although I’ve been talking about it for a month or so), and it’s my first portrait of the season.

8x12 to 12x24, Available, Pastels, Portraits and Figures | No Comments »

12×16″, Pastels on Wallis sanded paper, custom matted and framed to 16×20
$450.00 plus $50 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

I did a tiny, 6×6″ acrylic painting of this scene and liked it so much that I’d been meaning to do a larger version for quite some time. I broke out the pastels for this 12×16″ rendition. I hadn’t worked in pastel for quite some time, and really enjoyed the immediacy of the medium and color brilliance. I think perhaps there is a still larger version to be done at some point down the road!

8x12 to 12x24, Available, Boats and Ships, Cold Spring and Garrison, Fall, Hudson River Paintings, Hudson River Valley, Landscape, Pastels | No Comments »

8 x 12″, Pastels on Wallis professional sanded paper, unframed
SOLD! Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com to inquire about a similar painting.

Below is a picture of my setup, with the painting in progress.

8x12 to 12x24, Demos/Work in Progress, Pastels, Sold, Still Life | No Comments »

11×15″, Pastel on LaCarte sanded pastel card
SOLD! Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com to inquire about a similar painting.

This used to be my favorite tree along the lakeshore here. It had such an interesting shape, and the colors were beautifully vibrant as they changed with the seasons, leaving the intricate branchwork in winter. The entire left part of the tree came down in a storm last winter, and I miss it! It was one of my favorite painting subjects. Now the fullness of the leaves is gone, and the shape is not as inviting. This one was done from a photo taken before the tree’s mishap.

8x12 to 12x24, Brewster and North Salem, Fall, Hudson River Valley, Landscape, Pastels, Peach Lake and Brook, Sold | No Comments »

18×12″, soft pastels on Wallis
$395.00 plus $20 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

I haven’t done any pastel work for quite some time, so I decided to bring my large Dakota box of pastels to open studio this week.There’s everything under the sun in that box, all mixed together and sorted by value and color.

This has been a tough week. My poor husband got food poisoning, and I hurt my back yesterday trying to move a cabinet, so my artwork may well be a little sporadic for the next week or so. I miss it already.

8x12 to 12x24, Available, Figures, Pastels, Portraits and Figures | 1 Comment »

12×9″, soft pastels on Art Spectrum sanded pastel paper
$325.00 plus $15 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

Everybody loves visiting an artist’s studio and seeing paintings come together, so I thought I’d share part of the process of this painting.

Here’s a photo of my setup in my studio, along with the pastel in progress. The pastels on the paper towel are the ones I selected from my huge box of colors. Setting them aside like this makes them easier to find, and helps maintain a unified palette with good color harmony.

Above is a photo of the full area of my studio where I was working on this piece, so you can see the whole pastel box. I think now you can see why I find it necessary to separate the colors I’m using in a particular work; otherwise I’d be forever looking to find them again!

This is an image of the painting about 1/3 of the way through the process. The basic color plan has been made and the objects blocked in. Following this stage, it’s time for refinement. Most of my time on a painting is spent in the refining stages.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip to my studio!

8x12 to 12x24, Available, Demos/Work in Progress, Pastels, Still Life, Studio Tours | 5 Comments »

12×9″, soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix
$325.00 plus $15 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

This was painted in two sittings from life. I may make some minor adjustments next week, but it is basically finished. I had a wonderful time playing with the warm and cool colors. There was a warm floodlight on, but also cool blue light from outside streaming in through the windows. The combination of light types made for some interesting challenges and color combinations.

8x12 to 12x24, Available, Pastels, Portraits and Figures | 1 Comment »

24×18″, charcoal and pastel on brown craft paper
SOLD! Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com to inquire about a similar painting.

It seems I’m spending a lot of time in the figure studio this week…..

24×18″, charcoal and pastel on brown craft paper

Figures, Pastels, Portraits and Figures, Sketches, Sold | 1 Comment »

18×24″
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.

We had Marshall back in the life drawing studio this morning. He is such a great model, with wonderful expression, a vivacious personality, and knows how to hold a pose! These are both 19×25″ on Canson MiTientes paper, charcoal and pastel. You can click either image to enlarge it to 600 pixels. The pose below was a lot harder to draw than I thought it would be!

18×24″

Available, Figures, Pastels, Portraits and Figures, Sketches | No Comments »

12×9″, pastel on Wallis sanded paper
$325.00 plus $15 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

This pastel of Jean was done start to finish in a three hour pose, minus breaks. I really loved the way the light hit her face from this nearly backlit position, and the influence of the burgundy velvet on her skin, combined with the warm light.

8x12 to 12x24, Available, Pastels, Portraits and Figures | No Comments »

Click to enlarge:

12×9″, Pastel on Art Spectrum Colourfix
$325.00 plus $15 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

This painting was done from a live model over the past two weeks.

8x12 to 12x24, Available, Pastels, Portraits and Figures | No Comments »

Click image to enlarge:

18×24″, on brown craft paper

Marshall is a fabulous model with oodles of personal charm and charisma, and interesting features to draw. Here are some of my sketches from today’s life drawing poses.

Above: 36×24″

Below: 18×24″ (click to enlarge image)

16x20 and larger, Available, Drawings, Figures, Pastels, Portraits and Figures, Sketches | 2 Comments »

Click image to enlarge:

Pastel on Canson pastel paper, unframed
SOLD! Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com to inquire about a similar painting.

This adorable pet hamster, painted in pastel, is the perfect piece of art for the young pet-lover’s room!

8x12 to 12x24, Pastels, Pets Wildlife Animals, Sold | No Comments »

9×12″, pastel
$295.00 plus $15 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

The purple and pink clouds over the Hudson River were stunning. I knew they would dissipate fast, so I put those in first, then did the rest of the painting. This painting was done on the property of The Brass Anchor in Poughkeepsie, NY.

This painting is double matted in gold and ivory, and framed in a lovely cherry wood frame with a thin gold border. Price is for the framed painting. Please email me if you are interested in purchasing the painting unframed.

8x12 to 12x24, Available, Hudson River Paintings, Landscape, Pastels | 2 Comments »

The image above is a cropped version of the 36×24″ sketch of Amy. I never feel I come away from a life drawing session with a “finished” piece since the poses are so short, but it’s great practice to keep going after that elusive goal. This sketch was done on my favorite brown crinkly craft paper, which makes it hard to get a good photo. I tear off 24×36″ sheets from a huge roll and clip them to a big piece of foamcore. I like working on the midtone surface, since I can just add my lights and darks. Amy is a fabulous model and also an artist, so she always thinks about how a pose will fill the page. The medium is charcoal and pastels. The full image is below.

Drawings, Figures, Pastels, Personal Collection, Sketches | No Comments »

$440.00 plus $20 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. For local sales, shipping charge will be allocated to NYS Sales Tax. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.

St. Basil’s Academy is a residential facility for children that overlooks the Hudson River. They are having a fundraiser at the end of September, so I’ve been doing some paintings here to make some sets of note cards for them to sell at the fundraiser and hopefully after as well. This morning the light was spectacular, with the fall color just emerging and the moon still visible in the western sky.

8x12 to 12x24, Available, Cold Spring and Garrison, Hudson River Paintings, Pastels | No Comments »

12×9″, pastel on sanded archival paper, unframed
SOLD! Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com to inquire about a similar painting.

Good day, sunshine! What a beautiful morning out by the lake. I needed to capture the ‘big sky’ view of the surroundings.

8x12 to 12x24, Brewster and North Salem, Hudson River Valley, Lakes and Streams, Landscape, Pastels, Peach Lake and Brook, Sold | 1 Comment »