Hot Air (painting hot air balloons with pastel)
Although I enjoy the wine and the food, the real reason I want to go to the Temecula Wine and Balloon Festival every year is to see the balloon glow-- and take pictures of something you don't get to see too often: hot air balloons lit up against the backdrop of night. I've been painting some of these hot air balloons off and on for a few months. I've painted them with acrylic, mixed media, and plain old chalk pastel. It's difficult to strike the balance between the bold lights against the dark night with the soft shapes of the balloons. I found that if using a medium like acrylic, I needed to keep it extremely loose and keep the shapes simple. I need to keep the focus on basic shape, light, and dark, and leave out the details. This makes for some abstract-looking balloons (see below, left). "Night Balloons in Temecula" (left) "The Pechanga Balloon" (Right) On the other hand, having recently grown more comfortable mixing the oil and chalk pastels, I ...