Art by Niki Hilsabeck

Have you ever wondered whether to call a piece of artwork created with pastels a painting, or a drawing?  Does it even matter what you call it? For starters, pastel paintings are definitely paintings!  A medium doesn't have to come out of a tube or be applied with a brush to be considered eligible to make a true painting.  Despite this common knowledge among those who appreciate pastel works, many art websites and organizations have their own differing criteria for labeling pastel works. So how do you know whether a pastel artwork is a painting, drawing, or sketch?  In this post, I'll share how I define my pastel artworks.  I don't follow any official guidelines, but I do try to stay consistent with how I label my works so that they're easy to identify across my online portfolios. Pastel Sketches: "Raggedy Bird" (Available on Daily Paintworks)  A pastel sketch is something I created in one quick go with dry pastel, using little or no blending. I...

It's been quite a summer! I'm now cataract-free and adjusting to the changes in my vision-- it was only one cataract, which caused a few months of cloudy vision, but it definitely had an effect on my attitude toward life and painting. "His Love Endures Forever" 9 x 12 pastel on paper Click here to view on my website We've had a strange summer this year: extremely hot June, a strong rainstorm in July, and a mild August so far.  Being unable to see meant that I spent a lot of time home, which suited me fine as the traffic here seems to get worse every time I leave the house.  The children were of course bored and bickering much of the time, but they seem to do that whether we're home or not.  The summer definitely had its share of annoying occurrences. As we read Psalm 136 in church last week, I couldn't help thinking of this view of the ocean.  I love being at the beach and seeing when the light peeks through the clouds and glitters on the water.  I...

Having taken up gardening as a bit of a hobby, I've become quite conscious of those elements of nature that cause trouble: weather, animals, and bugs. "Exposed" 16.5 x 20.5 inches Mixed media on paper Click here to view more details With moths, I'm still not sure which ones are harmless and which ones are going to cause me headaches.  The moth in the painting above arrived on a sunny afternoon, and sat perched against the outside of the house, periodically flexing its wings.  I took plenty of close-up pictures, fascinated by the textures and markings on the wings and body. I knew I wanted to paint this creature in a work using sand, so I felt confident enough to use a palette knife to slap down some paint with decorative sand mixed into it.  Of course, that confidence disappeared over the next few weeks, as I realized I had forgotten how difficult it can be to use sand as a texture in a painting.  I grew to dislike "the moth."  My son also seemed t...

I was beginning to suspect that blue was becoming my go-to color in all of my work-- I tend to use a lot of color complements, so if I pick up the blue, that attaches me to orange. It's just that it seems that blue is everywhere I look-- black, gray, even white often looks blue to me. I should have seen this coming; as a child, I colored all of the models' teeth in my mom's magazines blue, because I thought blue teeth looked prettier. I knew there was a problem when I glanced through my Red Bubble favorites a few days ago, and noticed I had selected almost exclusively blue-based pictures. I had also completed a monochromatic painting ("Blue 'Tude") and even joined a Red Bubble group for works strictly done in blue. In the original book The Wizard of Oz , the Emerald City looked green to its inhabitants because everyone had to wear green-tinted glasses. I don't want my choices to to be limited as though I am wearing my own version of tinted glasses. So,...

Although I loved thecolors and the mood of my original sunset painting (left), I knew it had a major problem with composition-- it looked split in half. So, I got up early and made a whole new painting. The second round went much easier, which shows there is something to be said for having a plan in mind. The figures changed a little, but I was much happier with the second painting. "Three for the Sunset" (image on right) 9 x 12 Pastel on Paper ORIGINAL SOLD I have two more features on RedBubble: "Portrait" can be seen on the "All Things Egyptian" page, and "Mission Creek, San Luis Obispo, CA" was just featured on the "California Sound" page. ...