Demo-licious Works

I've painted quite a few demo pieces in the past, but this year they seem to be ill-fated.  At least I got a photo of the finished product below before it disappeared:

"Water Lilies" 9 x 12 Pastel on Canvas
Available only as prints


These water lilies began as a demo piece at the Avocado Festival in April.  I had planned to give the piece away in a drawing after the Oceanside Days of Art event, so I completed it and brought it along to display during the Oceanside art fair.  Unfortunately, it disappeared Sunday Morning as I was setting up my booth for the day.  I backtracked, pulled everything apart, and looked everywhere I had been, but couldn't find it.  Assuming it was stolen, I set about creating a new demo piece for the rest of the Oceanside art fair.


The piece went along fairly well, and I figured I would complete it at home when I had recovered from the weekend-long festival.  Unfortunately, once I had it out again to work on, my son got a hold of it (along with a piece of bright orange pastel):


Luckily, with a little fixative and another layer or two of water and dry pastel, I managed to get the piece completed anyway (with a little more orange in it than originally planned):
"Koi" 6 x 9 Pastel on Paper
Click here to view large or purchase
Shipping is included in list price!

I'll be at the Temecula Art Festival this coming weekend (June 20th-22nd) in Old Town Temecula, so I'll probably be working on a couple more demo pieces-- let's hope they have better luck than the last two.  I did smile when I thought of whoever stole my water lilies running around with chalk-covered hands, since the painting wasn't framed yet and had no cover.

Visit my website to see additional works for sale!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Hot Mess of Water Lilies!

Image
"Balboa Water Lilies" 9 x 12 Chalk Pastel on Paper Click here to view large or purchase So, every time I take great photos to paint later it turns into a learning experience for me. We took a little day trip in September down to Balboa Park in San Diego, California.  There wasn't much left of the water lilies after some recent vandalism (a bunch of geniuses decided to have a water gun fight and ended up destroying the lilypond).  It was a strangely hot day for downtown San Diego-- part of a series of heat waves that dogged me throughout the last months of my pregnancy.  I was thrilled to get some pretty photos while down there, particularly of the lilypads and turtles. I love to paint water, but I forget how time consuming it can be.  There are lots of layers involved, and I ended up using fixative as I layered in the lights and darks in this piece.  I also didn't anticipate how difficult it is to depict those peaceful, floating lilypads.  After a couple of
Read more

Painting Cats

Image
"The Bookeeper" Click here to view auction After many years of painting cats, I've learned a few things.  Every time I start a new cat painting, it follows its own unique path, bringing challenges that I don't seem to face when I paint my more traditional material (landscapes, birds, floral and botanical pieces, etc.) For example, cats don't stay put for too long (unless they're asleep, and even then they'll often stretch and change positions when you're least expecting it).  To combat this challenge, I end up working mostly from photographs.  That means adjusting the proportions, since the camera angle causes some distortion depending on the position and location of the cat. "Eye Contact" Oil Pastel Not for Sale "Side Glance" Oil Pastel Available on Etsy  One of the reasons cats are enjoyable to paint is that they have strong facial expressions.  When I'm painting a cat, I get so focused on rendering the cat
Read more

Inspired by Light (Pastels on Canvas)

Image
"Morning Glow" 12 x 16 Chalk Pastel on Flat Canvas Email nicolehilsabeck@yahoo.com if interested in purchasing Been trying to get back into the daily painting routine, which for me either means a small painting a day, or a larger painting spread over two days.  It's a bit of a challenge with the growing belly and a very inquisitive firstborn, but I was lucky enough to get a little extra inspiration from an odd source: Sunday's eclipse. We have beautiful views of the canyon and hills behind us, and I watched the light change on this hill as the sunlight waned throughout the course of the eclipse.  I noted how the normally stunning lights and shadows on this hill were blunted by the general darkening (as opposed to the usual sunrise or sunset glow).  I thought I would be a little more appreciative of those lights and darks and try a painting of the trees and hills the next morning. I completed this painting in several steps, having struggled a little recentl
Read more