a mystery

Well it had to be done. Sorting pencils and finding ones that need replacing is a 'yawn' task if there ever was one, for me anyway. 

I did have two surprises though and one of them is a mystery. First of all, I was quite surprised at the number of pencils I have to purchase! It has been a very long time since I replenished my stash but I hadn't realized just how long.

The second surprise occurred when I checked my bin of neutrals. I discovered short pencils in colours I don't use!!! Honestly, cool grey 70%, 20%, 10%, french grey 30%, 50%, 20%, warm grey 10%  etc. (Prismacolor's Premier line has oodles of greys if you didn't know).I am puzzled! I don't like using grey pencils - I prefer to make my own greys/neutrals by using layers of other colours, like painters do. And just what art have I done in the last year that would have included greyish areas anyway? Humm...none... Soooo, what's up? A colouring intruder? A ghost with a penchant for grey? Weird goings on around here, I say...

Here is a peek at the humpback hosta piece...

work in progress, cps on Colourfix paper, 6.5" x 23"
copyright Teresa Mallen

There is much tweaking to be done, some dark areas to lighten and some modelling to do but it is getting there. In my pencil sort out, I discovered a pencil I didn't know I had. I thought I needed to purchase it in order to work further on the background. So with my new found pencil in hand, I settled in to work on the upper background. The photo is a tad dark and doesn't show the subtle colour changes between the upper and lower areas nor does it show well all of the colours that are in the background. Trust me they are there. :-) I really enjoy using several colours in my backgrounds as I think it gives the work a vibrancy and an energetic quality that increases the closer you move towards the piece.

I like the change of pace backgrounds give. No fussy detail work, just flat out colouring. While one might think a 23" wide piece would require quite a bit of time to lay down several layers of colour, it doesn't. Over the years, hours of practice has earned me the ability to lay down colour in quick even strokes. If you work in cps, you might recall how in the early days you had to concentrate to get a consistent even stroke. As I used to tell my students, it will become automatic one day, just wait and see! Anyway, I dashed this off while listening to Donizetti's opera Maria Stuarda on 'Saturday Afternoon at the Opera' on CBC radio and I was done long before poor Queen Mary of Scotland met her doomed fate with her executioner. Goodness, as the confrontations between the two cousins, Queen Elizabeth I of England and Queen Mary heated up and insults were exchanged (in Italian of course) and as the drama of passion, betrayal, love and death unfolded, my pencils were flying with the excitement. Isn't it funny how we can get all caught up in a story, even when we know the plot and the outcome?

For drama of a quieter sort, I have been taking reference photos for some landscape pieces that I might do some day. So many ideas, but only so many hours...

I live on the Carp Ridge in rural Ottawa (Canada) and just a few minutes from my home there is a huge tract of land (hundreds of acres) that is publicly owned and protected from development. It is a wild rocky place filled with deep ponds, some the size of lakes. Here is a small study I did a couple of years ago, inspired by a fall outing.





And here are a few pictures taken while on a recent hike.

Carp Ridge Cuties, two of them but you can't see my husband... :-)