Art by Niki Hilsabeck

It's a long haul from that moment of inspiration to a finished work.  I'm constantly snapping pictures for future use, but to find the time to paint the things that inspire me has grown increasingly difficult. It doesn't help that some of the photos I take are so stunning, it's tempting to just enjoy them as pretty photographs.  I credit technology and the beautiful sights of Southern California for this phenomenon--my photography skills are limited to mommy moments and art references! Stage 1: Committing to a subject I've been struggling lately with committing to what I'm actually going to paint.  I have two very vocal children, and by the time I get a few minutes to sit down and start working, I'll catch myself flipping through photo after photo (on my phone or actual printed pictures), unable to decide what to paint.  My main concerns are usually time, energy, and tenacity: will I have time to finish what I started?  Will I have energy to keep work...

After a busy couple of weeks, I'd only worked on a few small pieces-- as usually happens if I haven't painted in a few days, I got the painting bug last night and set up my acrylics. "Fire Flower" 14 x 18 inch acrylic on flat canvas Available on  Vango or email nicolehilsabeck@yahoo.com if interested in purchasing I don't often break out the acrylics and brushes-- usually I paint with acrylic and a knife to create texture for a mixed media pastel painting.  I was lucky enough to get a full painting session in last night, so all I had to do this morning was wake up and add a few finishing touches and sign it. I've painted this flower before with oil pastels and chalk, but I never felt that I captured the vigor of the flower in that painting, so I decided to revisit it with acrylic.  I spent quite a bit of time working the background of the piece, hoping to strike the right balance of color and contrast with the flower.  The colors were created with a...

Been working on a night scene for a while... "Luminous Night" 12 x 16 pastel on paper Click here to view on my website "Luminous Night" is a painting of a night view of the Grand Tradition in Fallbrook, California.  The popular event destination features stunning grounds, complete with a small lake.  The gazebo is a popular spot for dancing, especially at the annual Fourth of July celebration. I painted the piece above using wet pastel sticks on Canson Canva-Paper, layered with dry pastel for a textured, impressionistic effect.  I've often been inspired by Van Gogh's night Cafe scenes, and enjoyed creating the reflected light using abstract shapes and contrasting lights and shadows brightened with color.  I've learned that although light and shadow are important in painting a night scene, it's the color that really brings it to life in a pastel painting. I've also been busy filling my website and Etsy shop with smaller pastel painting...

After a massive heat wave that ended with a fiercely stormy afternoon, we seem to have finally reached fall weather.  Hooray! "Power Pole" Miniature pastel painting on watercolor-toned card Click here to view details "Stormy Dawn" Miniature pastel painting on textured paper Click here to view details The paintings above feature a couple of scenes from my house--having a dog means that I get to go out early and see the beautiful morning skies, so I'll often snap pictures when I do.  "Stormy Dawn" was inspired by some of the storm clouds passing through our area-- it's been an active hurricane season on the Pacific, so the moisture has been traveling up our way and making for some interesting skies. "Power Pole" was painted on one of the hot days-- too hot to go outside, so I sat in the kitchen and painted the view I could see out one of the windows.  In a funny twist, the power actually went out for a couple of hours as I ...

"Autumn Path" 9 x 12 Pastel on Paper Started as a demo piece at the LeucadiART Walk 2014 Click here to view details I had a booth at the 10th annual LeucadiART walk on the 101 Auguast 24th, 2014.  It was a long day, but I learned a few things: 1) Quiche really does taste best from a French Bakery.  My sister brought me quiche and coffee from French Corner on the 101, and this turned out to be the highlight of my day-- actually my week.  It kind of ruined me from quiche from any other place, not that I eat it that often... 2) If you're at a festival featuring a large number of artists (in this case 100 or so), being physically located at the end of the festival makes for a long day. People are either stopping briefly as they begin the long walk, or are tired of looking at artwork by the time they get to your booth.  Being at the complete opposite of the beer garden didn't help-- although it was probably at least quieter. 3)  "Leucadian" is a word, and...

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 ...

"Squirrel Snack" 17 x 20 Pastel on Paper Click here to view details 2014 Entry Although the show ended last month, I thought I would share a few of my Art of the Avocado entries over the last few years. Each year, I try to do something a little different for the Art of the Avocado contest that coincides with the Avocado Festival in Fallbrook, California.  This year, I submitted two entries: the painting featured above, and an acrylic piece on canvas that I framed under glass.  You can see both pieces (along with my photobombing cat) in the photo below: The painting on the right is called "Yin-Yang Yum," and features the way avocados usually look at our house: scraped clean and eaten! The inspiration for "Squirrel Snack" came from a photo I took of a freshly snatched avocado, which appeared to have become the victim of hungry ground squirrels.  Anyone who has an avocado grove probably recognizes this view of an avocado! I always find i...

I've spent the last 9 posts or so covering some of the most lovable things about pastel. My personal favorite: it shows the artist's unique touch. Brushstrokes are beautiful, and also unique to the artist.  Pastel strokes are made directly by hand, with no brush in-between.  To me, this conveys the artist's power directly onto the surface, making a clear connection between the artist's energy and the medium.  My favorite types of pastels to look at are those with obvious pastel strokes, so that the picture almost quivers with life. A quick, textured pastel study holds so much more power to me than a detailed, well-blended painting.  Everyone has their own taste in art; for me, the immediacy of a rough pastel sketch is like getting a quick peek into the artist's mind.  Some think that pastels might be the first type of art medium used (think of cave art, most likely created by sticks of pigment). I can appreciate almost any type of hand-created art, in j...

I believe I've made it to number five of my 10 reasons to love pastel: it's a natural choice for impressionists! "Balboa Turtle" 9 x 12 Pastel on Paper Click here to view large or see purchase details  If you're a fan of the Impressionist Movement, chances are you've enjoyed a few pieces created with pastel.  Pastel lends itself naturally to the quick strokes and dappled lights and darks of the impressionist style, and it's relatively easy to use in a plein air (outside) or alla prima (all in one session) painting setting.  The soft, smeary nature of dry pastel also makes it an ideal medium for paintings that focus on overall lights and darks without a lot of hard line and detail.  "Balboa Water Lilies" 9 x 12 Pastel on Paper Click here to view large or see purchase details   I was lucky enough to visit Musee D'Orsay  as a teenager (thanks to my generous host parents when I was an exchange student), and I couldn't w...

"Sierra Slopes" 8 x 10 inch Chalk and Oil Pastel on Flat Canvas Click here to view prints I learned a few things on a recent trip up highway 395. Babies can only handle so much time in a carseat (especially on the way home.  It's like they know ). My phone can take focused pictures through glass at high rates of speed (not above the speed limit, of course).  There might be some reflections on the photo, but I can edit those out as needed. A long car trip is much more tolerable if you look at the scenery as potential paintings. Not all McDonald's bathrooms are created equal. Once I got home, I flipped through my photo gallery on my phone and was pretty excited about what I had.  As I worked on this painting, I did a little thinking about the benefits of using flat canvas for pastels: Less prep work: no paper, board, tape required! Nice toothy, textured surface (not great if you like that velvety smooth look, though) Lightweight, easy to handle ...

"Venetian Duck" 12 x 16 Chalk pastel on flat canvas Click here to view large or purchase Water is one of my favorite subjects to paint.  It's also one of the most difficult subjects to paint (for me, anyway).  I took the photo for the above painting in Venice, California.  We took a walk along the canals and happened upon a duck (apparently the locals nicknamed her "Daisy.")  I took the photo because of the reflections in the water, knowing I would like to try to turn it into a painting. I tried it out on textured paper with dry pastel, but I kept losing my darks.  It came out much better on the second try, when I pressed wet chalk pastels directly onto flat canvas to get those nice dark shapes.  It took many layers of wet chalk, fixative, and dry chalk to get the final result. It you're going to paint water, it helps to remember a few things: *Water is always horizontally straight to the eye.  That means any horizontal lines you make ...

"Down the Hill" 9 x 12 Chalk pastel on flat canvas Click here to view large or purchase    I'm not a superstitious person, although I was as a child.  In fact, I probably would have been considered an obsessive-compulsive, as I believed that if I wore certain things, or lined my dolls up a certain way, good or bad things might happen.  Thankfully, I've grown out of that stuff. We live in a rural area, although we are close to civilization.  This means that once the freeway sounds die down at night, we get to hear an abundance of owls.  My mom once informed me that hearing an owl means that someone is going to die.  I explained to her that we hear them every night, and we were still here.  If anything, the owls were a blessing because they helped keep the mouse population down, and less mice hopefully means less rattlesnakes.  This is typically my reaction to such beliefs. I'm not above the occasional attack of foreboding, ...

"Afternoon in the Park" 9 x 12 Chalk pastel on flat canvas Click here to view large/purchase   I'm looking for new homes for some daily paintings, so I can make room for new ones!  Stop in and view my ebay listings.   I've been reading a lot of blog posts on marketing, and there seems to be a constant tension for artists between staying within a defined style and experimenting.  I agree that it's important to find your own voice as an artist, and that your collectors will appreciate  your recognizable style.  That said, the thing I enjoy most about painting is trying new things, so it's hard for me to personally stick with one style, technique, or subject matter for too long. The painting above was created in a day, and was an experiment with chalk pastels and water on flat canvas.  If I'm going to mix chalk and water, I usually block in my drawings with pastel first and then begin working in the water to blend the...

"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.  Af...

"Herbst" 9 x 12 Chalk Pastel on Paper Click here to view large or purchase original "Herbst" is the German word for fall.  It seemed to fit this picture better than the English word for some reason. The bird is a bit large for a dove, but it was a dove that inspired this painting.  I took a quick photo of this bird relaxing in my driveway as the sun was heading for the horizon a few weeks ago, on a rare day where it had cooled off somewhat. Fall is usually my favorite season. The days have been so hot these last two months, it's been difficult to remember that summer's been over for a while.  The best part of the day for me this year is when the brutal sun sets, and the air takes on a mild chill.  We have a variety of birds who visit our property and seem to enjoy the evening cooling as well. It was nice to sit down and make a spontaneous painting that didn't turn into hours of hesitating and overthinking e...

"How 'bout a Hug" 9 x 12 Chalk pastel on paper Click here to purchase Caught these two turtles in a cute moment at the duck pond in Temecula... Not feeling well really puts a damper on the creative process!  I painted this piece mostly in one session, then had a rough few days where I didn't feel well enough to finish it up.  It's easy to start panicking when periods of time like that set in, but I've learned a trick as I've gotten older and more patient: even baby steps will eventually get you where you need to go. If I felt good enough to sit up and work, I added a little touch here and there to get the piece done: a bit of shading on the shell, more depth in the water, or light smears on the rock.  Having been used to completing five or more paintings a week, finishing just one doesn't sound like much.  It's better than not painting at all, or trying to push out a lot of paintings that end up in the failure pile.  I try to remember th...