A new passion

 The past few months have been filled with many personal issues but despite that, or perhaps because of that, I have discovered a new passion - pastels.  I have always loved to draw and have always loved color so when a friend let me play a bit with her pastels, I was totally hooked.  I love the feel of the pastel in my hand - it's like an extension of my arm and hand - dancing on the paper - bold strokes, soft strokes, linear strokes, side strokes, blending with my fingers - I feel like a kid again with fingerpaints!

Of course exploring a new type of art involves getting some new supplies - I haunted ebay and was able to get a set of Rembrandt half sticks (like these - good for drawing and backgrounds), a vintage set of Grumbachers (good colors but a bit crumbly), and a full set of Nupastels (hard pastels that work for drawing and underpainting).  I found a few Richeson handmade pasels and some Wallis sanded paper on sale at a local frame shop - they were selling off their art supplies half price) and then finally I bought a set of 60 Great American pastels from Jerry's - major sale + coupon.  I got a few books from the library and was off and running.

I arranged my pastels according to the books by color and value (this is the drawer that fits in my French easel)  Don't you just love the colors!  I am like a kid in a candy store!
If you go back to the first photo, you can see a little bird's nest that I did in pastels on some leftover Bazill textured scrapbooking card stock  - the egg is developing (just like me) and getting ready to hatch and join the world - much like me right now.
thanks for reading and hope your day is filled with color!