Big Sky

This soft meditative landscape sets me to dreaming. It is such a tranquil scene. Heavenly. Wouldn't you love to take the day off and go sit under that tree? Maybe bring your journal along? Or a good book? Or maybe a trashy not-so-good book?

I really enjoyed creating this beautiful place and I am hopeful it will bring soft summer breeze to your home or office.

How Big Sky was created... Oil pastels are a bit tricky to work with. Some colors cover others, some remove the layer below them, and some mix with the colors below. So it takes lots of experience to learn the ins and outs of layering oil pastel colors. As I often do, I laid down a VERY bright underpainting and then used a straight-edged razor blade to strip that off, leaving behind colorful stains on the mat board. Next, I built up layers and layers of colors from darker colors to lighter ones. And I finished with some key highlights and lowlights.

This drawing was created on acid-free mat board. It has been sprayed with fixative, but oil pastels are always a bit soft. You will want to frame Big Sky to protect the relatively fragile surface. It can be framed at a savings if you pick out a frame at your favorite home store and then bring that frame and your new drawing together to the local custom framer and ask them to mat the drawing to fit the frame.