Art by Niki Hilsabeck

 "Fallbrook Field" 8 x 12 Pastel on Paper Click here to view purchase details This is my 200th post.  I was heartbroken to find out that my absolute favorite art teacher (well, next to my grandma of course), David Musser, passed away in December.  You can see David's art here. I took my first pastel class with David in 2004.  Before then, I didn't even know what soft pastels were, since I'd only used oil pastels.  I struggled at first, and was especially mortified when he pulled a chair up next to mine and said he was going to make me his "special project," and that I'd be able to use pastels with ease in no time.  Fortunately, he was right! I could fill an entire blog with things I learned in David's classes (I continued with pastel, and also took some basic drawing and watercolor classes with him over the years).  He was one of the most entertaining people I've ever met, and he truly enjoyed helping his students create-- he shar...

I hit a wall a few weeks ago, after taking a week off painting. I returned to pastels and plein air, only to feel that I needed to breathe new life into my work. The best way I know to do that: experiment! I've used Canson Canva-paper a few times before. I wanted to see how it held up under some thick paint, and played around with my palette knife and some acrylic paint (applied impasto style). After adding a layer of chalk pastel to each, I ended up with the following two pieces: "Shimmer" 12 x 16 Acrylic and Pastel on Canson Canva-paper Click here to purchase original "Dschungel" 12 x 16 Acrylic and Chalk Pastel on Canson Canva-paper Email nicolehilsabeck@yahoo.com if interested in purchasing ("Dschungel" is German for "Jungle." It's always been one of my favorite German words.) Both of these pieces were based loosely on photographs taken around Southern California (one at a butterfly exhibit, another at a theme park). I ...