Offer is good on my website (not this blog) from now until January 1, 2011. Go to my website at DavidPattersonArtist.com
To get the discount use the code "NGNFHY" at checkout.
Discount includes artwork only. Discounts on my glass sculptures, frames, matting and shipping charges not included.
I offer everything from single prints, greeting cards, framed art, to stretched canvas.
You can even make a print out of one of my original paintings - such as the one below!
Please Note: If you want a print of one of my pastel paintings, the best paper to select as an option is Somerset Velvet. Please be aware that the default paper is Archival Matte. My HDR photography looks best printed on Glossy Photo Paper.
Last weekend I attended a wonderful workshop by PSA artist Marla Baggetta. I started these two paintings in Marla's workshop, completing them today in my studio. The first painting is titled "Palouse Farm", and the second one is titled "Honeycrisp"
Make sure you click on the images for a larger, and more detailed view.
You can see Marla's and her talented husband Mike's paintings on their website at baggettastudio.com
I'm excited to share with you a wonderful new venue for my artwork...it's the Artisans at the Dahmen Barn in Uniontown, Washington. This unique gallery is located in the rich dry-land farming area called the Palouse. It's situated 16 miles south of both Pullman WA and Moscow ID, and 16 miles north of Lewiston ID, and Clarkston, WA - the art center is truly the hub of the Palouse.
The Artisans at the Dahmen Barn - A restored dairy barn
This location will let all my family and friends in the Pullman area view my work in person. I currently have at the gallery - seven glass sculptures, two miniature pastels, and one larger pastel painting. I hopefully will also be able to sell a few of my matted photos depicting the area farms and barns.
The Gallery website is: http://www.artisanbarn.org/
If you can't make it to the gallery, and are interested in one of my pieces, you can contact Julie Hartwig at 509-229-3414. You may also email Julie at jhartwig@clearwire.net
The Pastels, and the glass sculptures below, are a few of the pieces I have at the Dahmen Barn.
"Priest Lake Hay Bales" Soft Pastel Painting - 12"x20"
"Hillside Village, Northern Spain"-11"x20" Pastel-By Desmond O'Hagan
This is a re-post of a wonderful workshop I took in 2007. I'm sure many of my blog readers missed this, and would like to read about it...especially if you want to loosen up with your oil painting or pastels!
I had a fantastic and creative time at Desmond O'Hagan's three day workshop in June of 2007. Desmond paints both in soft pastels and in oils. Most of the participants in this workshop were pastel artists. The workshop was put on by NPS (Northwest Pastel Society). This will be short and sweet, mainly because I took limited photos (no WIP's), and also the fact that Desmond’s technique is a very simple one - work with Shapes, Light and Dark areas, with only ImpliedDetail.
First of all, Desmond is a very good instructor, and very "hands on" with all the students. How many of these busy workshop artists maintain there passion, is beyond me!
If you ever want to "loosen up", participate in one Desmond's workshops. If you are able to get out of your comfort zone, and really tackle his concept, your paintings will begin to be very impressionistic.
He works quite a bit from photos, and emphasized that you do not have to include everything that's in your photo reference. The subjects of market and street scenes can get very busy, so you must be selective with your composition.
Like many artists, he pointed out that the overall concept of your painting should be formulated in your planning stages. Desmond starts out making small thumbnail sketches, and value studies of his subject matter. This challenges you to make choices before committing your concept to the final surface.
He first defines his paintings with a light vine charcoal drawing, making sure all his proportions are correct. After that, he drops in the dark value areas, using black (yes black), dark brown, dark blue and/or dark green pastels – with this method he’s establishing the darkest valued shapes first. He then moves onto the middle values, and last the highlights. Always leave the light areas until last...this takes some discipline. He does a lot of warm over cool layers. He always tries to build the light to have balance in the painting.
Desmond uses varied pressure when applying soft pastel, and many times broke his pastels while attempting to get a heavy application. Letting the paper color peak through is one of the things Desmond says he likes to do with his work. If you go to his website, you’ll see many examples of “paper color peak” in his work. He uses very little layering, and it is amazing to see the results he gets with seemingly little effort. I think I remember him saying he uses the pastel brands Rembrandt, Ludwig, and Sennelier.
This next statement is the most important - 99% of his strokes are with the sides of the pastel sticks.He hardly ever uses the point of the pastel. Most of his pastel sticks were broken in half to achieve a shorter overall stroke. If you see a line in his work, it's done with varied pressure, and with the side of the pastel. Think in terms of "shape" and not "object". His paintings have very little detail. All images are implied, which makes the viewer seem to always discover something different when they come back to his paintings.
Avoid predictable direction in your strokes, even with water. Leave out the ripples...just suggest them.
You will have a lot of lost and found edges with this technique.
As stated on his website: It is important to him that each painting exhibit such artistic fundamentals as sound structure, exciting design, and harmonious color. His unique painting style has been evolving from a very young age and can be described as a style that enlists the viewer in the interpretation of details loosely portrayed. O'Hagan possesses the versatility to paint any subject, and the subjects he enjoys most to paint range widely from figurative and interiors to urban paintings and street scenes.
The following are his 3 workshop demos (Provided by Desmond). The last 2 are my workshop paintings. I used white Museum Grade Wallis. Desmond used various mid to dark colors of Canson. All the paintings posted here, including mine, where about 9"x12". What’s really amazing is that his demos took less then an hour each! Sorry, I don't have the reference photos for Desmond's paintings...the photos were very small…about 3"x4” in size. My reference photos are included to show how one doesn’t have to include everything that’s in the photo – artistic license at its best!
Desmond O’Hagan – First Demonstration Painting:
Desmond O’Hagan – Second Demonstration Painting:
Desmond O’Hagan – Third Demonstration Painting:
My First Workshop Painting:
My Photo Reference:
My Second Workshop Painting:
My Photo Reference:
I want to thank the wonderful artist Peggy Braeutigam for contributing to this article.
I hope you took away something helpful from this article.
I was wondering what you thought of a couple of my first real attempts at digital art. This medium is really growing, and artists are selling a lot of prints because of it's popularity. One can create anything from realism, to abstract images. They can be printed on canvas for a very striking display.
These were created using a couple of my HDR photos, and layering a textured image over them. Of course there is a lot more involved then just that...but I didn't want to bore you. :)
For those of you wondering if I'm ever going to do anymore "real" pastel paintings...I will be soon!
Make sure you click on the images so you can see more of the detail of the painting.
I spent the weekend of August 21st traveling Eastern Washington in search of old barns and farmsteads...and I wasn't disappointed! The last image is of the famous Leonard Barn that was listed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1986. It's a unique 12 sided round barn that stands out from the rest. You can order prints of any of these images on my website at DavidPattersonArtist.com.
Hope you enjoy the views I captured. I'd love to know what you think!
I want to also inform all my blog readers that I'm no longer having my website hosted on Artspan. All my work will now be on my Fine Art America website. My domain name "DavidPattersonArtist.com" will still forward people to my Fine Art America site. While it may not be as clean looking as Artspan, it's so much easier for me to use, and for the visitors to navigate. If you check it out, you will see a lot more of my recent photography then is currently on Artspan. It also contains all of my paintings, and some of my glass sculptures.
The 14th Annual Sequim Lavender Festival was the premier celebration of the joys of lavender and the largest lavender festival in North America. Sequim is located on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula, cradled in the “rain shadow” of the Olympic Mountains and Olympic National Park. The Sequim-Dungeness Valley has an ideal microclimate for growing lavender and with less than 20 inches of rain per year; the area is similar to the Provence region of France. Because of the unique conditions and dedicated farmers, Sequim lavender has received world-wide recognition for its superior quality and fragrance. Our farmers have over 200 years of combined experience cultivating lavender, developing the best planting and growing practices, and creating lavender products.
This is a photo I took last summer, and converted it to an HDR (high dynamic range) photo.
If you click on the photo...you can actually smell the wonderful lavender fragrance! :)
Victor and Bobbie Moore once lived in a house constructed from the old floor joists of a grain warehouse on the site of a played out rock quarry. The current owner of the property graciously gave me the opportunity to photograph the Junk Castle and other outbuildings built by Vic's family and friends. The "Junk Castle" was his 1970 MFA thesis assemblage sculpture. Although found pieces and assemblages of various sorts are pleasantly scattered about the property, the hulking mass of the junk castle stands vigil above the rest.
The Junk Castle is constructed from so many different items, including sheet metal, tin, washing machine parts, dryer doors, miscellaneous housings, bedsteads, and even the door from a 1952 Oldsmobile. The castle is featured in several books including "Strange Sites" by Jim Christy, "Fantasy Worlds" by John Maizels, and "Fantastic Architecture" published by Abrams, Inc.
Vic Moore taught art in the Pullman, Washington public schools and mentored thousands of students, including myself.
Victor Moore just published a book he wrote and illustrated titled "Stories From The Methow". It's about his memories of growing up in central Washington State in the 1930's. The book's cover was designed by artist Ann Marra, a former classmate of mine, and student of Victor Moore. Ann also help a great deal in getting the book published. I just finished reading my copy...it's historical, entertaining, and has many bits of Vic's sense of humor scattered throughout the book. If you would like to order a copy, click on the following link: Victor Moore's Book
Make sure you click on the photos for larger views of the inside and outside of this magnificent castle!
Artisans at the Dahmen Barn is located in the rich dryland farming area called the Palouse, in Uniontown WA. Situated 16 miles south of both Pullman, WA and Moscow, ID, - and 16 miles north of Lewiston, ID, and Clarkston, WA, the art center is truly the hub of the Palouse.
The artisan center is adjacent to highway 195, where the big white barn can be seen surrounded by its landmark fence of 1000 iron wheels. Formerly a dilapidated dairy barn which was donated to the community by Steve and Junette Dahmen, the structure has undergone a transformation into a state-of-the-art creativity center.
Artisans at the Dahmen Barn was developed to provide local artists and crafts people working studio space along with the opportunity to showcase their work and selldirectly to the public. There are ten studio spaces at the Barn, where 21 artisans create their work and are happy to talk to visitors about their creative process. The artists have access to their space 24/7, so working hours vary from studio to studio. Some of the resident artisans work full time jobs, so can only be there weekend days. If you visit and see something of interest in a studio where the artist is not working, check with The Shop at the Barn for access and sales information.
You can learn more about this wonderful venue at the following Link: ArtisanBarn.org
Anita Roche' is the featured artist this coming week at the Dahmen Barn. She is a friend and classmate of mine, graduating with honors from Pullman High School in 1970. In 2004, Anita created Textile Arts Studio to meet the needs of quilters who enjoy the piecing of quilts, but then choose to have assistance with the quilting. The company motto is, "Let us help you put the pieces together!" Since 2006, in addition to continuing to provide long-arm quilting services, they have been working on an original line of quilt designs - the PRIME TIME series.
You can visit the Textile Arts Studio website at :Textile Artist Studio
