Author Archives: Sheila

Y’all made my day!

I was so blessed this year to have so many extra swaps in the Liberate Your Art postcard swap. These are the last, from three talented Southern women. Such a treat! Thank you all for sharing your art with me!

Teresa lives in Georgia. She surprised me by including several cool decorative papers for me to have fun with. Yay! Don’t you jut love when the leaves start to change color? On the back of her card was this quote by Albert Camus.

Autumn is a second spring, when every leaf is a flower.

Sweet gum leaves. Teresa Harrington Hazelbaker.

Chandra added color to her card with Washi tape and an owl sticker. I love old worn out, and rusty things. Knowing that they have a history, and wondering what that is, makes them so appealing. Her site is full of great stuff! She has taken part in many art swaps, and shares the work of others on her blog.

Whippoorwill Village, NC. Chandra Tyler Mountain, PhD.

Whippoorwill Village, NC. by Chandra.

Cosmos. Kat Van Rooyen

Kat and I exchanged cards in 2013 and we have kept in touch ever since. Chatting sometimes very late at night, when we should both be in bed. You can see more of Kat’s fabulous nature photos on flickr. She had this quote on her card,

No one sees the world with your eyes, so express what you see!
No one has your voice, so let us hear you through your art. Create!

So let’s go… get busy!

Create something today. Anything… even if it becomes a glorious mess.

Have fun and enjoy!

Pastel Pear

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I am a slacker. Apparently. It has been two weeks since my last post. (Why does that sound as if I am in the confession box?)

As long as I am confessing, I will add my name to the list of artists who feel like they have hit a brick wall. Slight relief to know at least, that I am not alone.

Is there something in the air?

Does pollen make you procrastinate?

I have worked on this pear for several days. Not sure why pastels are drawing me in now. But I do know it has a lot to do with Karen Margulis and her amazing work. She is a daily painter and she is so generous in sharing her insights on her blog. She also has Fabulous lessons for sale in her Etsy shop.

A couple of years ago, I took several free online classes with Johannes Vloothuis. He worked in several mediums, one of them pan pastels. It was love at first sight for me! I never had any interest in pastels before. Much as I did not appreciate Impressionism when I studied art history, I could not find beauty in pastel paintings. They just never captured my eye.

But again, I have done a 180. I think it is due to the fact that so often details are kept to a minimum. I find pastel very, soothing, Pastel landscapes, draw me in, and give me… a peaceful moment. I have yet to try pan pastels (expensive!!) but I my lust for them is like that of a youngin’ counting the days until Christmas, in July.

I just have to give a huge “Thank You!” to all the artists who share their knowledge so freely. What a blessing!

Here is my humble pear study. I’d love to hear what you think.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

A beginning. Pear. 5 x 5 pastel, © Sheila Delgado 2014

A middle. Pear. 5 x 5 pastel, © Sheila Delgado 2014

An end? Pear. 5 x 5 pastel, © Sheila Delgado 2014

A Pastel Floral

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Flowers for Mama. Pastel, 5 x 5. © 2014 Sheila Delgado

I am so happy with how this turned out.

I found these pastels in the clearance aisle. The set is missing six, all warm, and mostly yellows. Explains why I am leaning towards the cool end of the spectrum. I only spent $4 on a set of 36, so I don’t have that feeling that I am wasting expensive art supplies. Freeing, when it comes to learning a new medium. I can play and just have fun.

I started out thinking I would paint Bougainvillea. Maybe close up abstract shapes. Not what this is at all.

I started with some loose pink shapes in watercolor. I worked the entire piece, but left the flowers until the end. I absolutely love the light green in this, light sap green. Using that with light blue, and indigo and seeing how they play off of each other. The darks in this are all indigo, sometimes mixed with green.

My composition could use tweaking. I have an even amount of buds, and they line up a bit more than they should. I could have divided the layout better, had more of the sky, and more of the shadows. Blah-blah-blah. But I did manage to seal this one without destroying it!

Still for all the blatant mistakes. I like it! Maybe I am hallucinating, I think it really looks good on a pillow. And that is what I intended.

What do you think?