Just off the Easel: Big Red

I was in love the moment I saw this huge red barn!  The house that goes with it is very charming, too.  I'll be painting it soon!

"Big Red"
8" x 10"
oil pastel on gatorboard with Colourfix
$60

This barn is in my hometown of Cary, NC at Beaver Dam Rd and Green Level Church Rd.  I'll have to go back and capture some more photos of this intense red barn.  I'd love to see what the early morning and late afternoon shadows look like!

This is the first time I've tried painting on Gatorboard primed with Colourfix primer.  I head about using this method from a local soft pastellist, Kim Werfel (her blog post about the method here).  I liked it so far and have to experiment with using several layers of primer and sanding the board.  With only one coat the ridges were much more noticeable than when I use the primer on paper or paper based boards.  In this painting it worked with the vertical lines in the barn siding.  What I do love is that the Gatorboard won't warp with wet media and is much lighter in weight than Ampersand's Pastelbord.

Stay tuned for more of my progress in painting 30 small works in 30 days...I'm only up to #4 and I'm on day 6.  I have some catching up to do!

Thanks for reading,
Bethany