Ted’s essays

painting with pastels


It is official

I am an artist

You can plainly see

I now have my

Artistic License

I came by it honestly

Made it myself

————

I have long been wanting to do more drawing and painting than will fit in the little squares of my wall calendar with Sharpie pens. I never quite get around to it. Years ago I inherited some water color tools from my Step Dad. Even that did not get me started.

So I signed up for the Pastel Painting class the Bitterroot College offered this January/February. THAT WORKED. I did a lot of gearing up for a type of painting I had not considered, but it turns out I really like the medium.

Bruce DeFoor didn’t turn me into a professional in 5 weeks, but he did teach me how to work with the paints and papers … and freed me up to enjoy painting.

The main thing, as I view it, is to lose yourself in the art … the process … the act of creating. It is wonderful … much like playing improvisational trombone in a nice little combo. The rest of the world disappears.


An interesting side effect is that I now have the drafting table I have wanted for several decades. My newfound favorite art supplier, BLICK, had a really nice one for a hundred bucks. I have watched Craigslist and newpaper ads before that, never quite justifying the five hundred or so to get a nice wooden table.

I am particularly pleased that the glass surface and minimalist powdercoated steel frame takes up very little visual space, not to mention it will serve my purposes perfectly.

Even our chickens are getting into the swing of things.
They gave us this still life a couple days ago.