On Pastelmat using Pans entirely.
I like the underlying shapes in this one. The mountain and its light are clearly the focal area, enhanced by the the clouds looming over it, softly floating there. I like the color structure, using the cool and warm in the mountain, and especially the sunlit spot on the green above the peaches--very authentic to the day. I think the sky is a little spotty and could use some evening out (though the photo has enhanced it more than in the painting.)
And the LAST one!
15.
On Art Spectrum Colourfix, the burgundy color, using Pans.
This one was fun to play with, since I hadn't worked on this paper with the Pans before. They're a nice combo, I think (although given the choice I'd take the Pastelmat). I rather like the impression of a castle with flags flying, which is so typical of the clouds I saw today. The color of the sky is working. The purple-blues, combined with grays and greens in the shadow areas, gives some nice variety to the cloud shadows. And I think the small land plane gives this giant cloud some real drama. The rain may be a bit hokey in approach--not sure!
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Well, that's 15 paintings in 15 days! I didn't paint one a day, but five a week this time. Somehow that made it easier for me. Five in seven days sounds so much more possible than one a day. On a good day I painted two or three sometimes. All of them are 9x9", all in pastel, some with PanPastels, some with sticks, and some with both, but on different papers (Wallis, Pastelmat, Colourfix). None of them took me over an hour to paint, start to finish, and most were less--some much less. I did as I promised and posted the good, the bad, and the blah. Humbling too, as there were a couple I'd just as soon have not shown at all! I assure you I didn't dump any paintings along the way.
Here they all are, in the order they were painted:
I guess the one thing I can see happening here is that I've recovered that confident stroke I've always enjoyed, which is fun and a relief. This kind of exercise is not entirely foreign to me. I've done things like it before, though not so publicly. Painting fast always helps me to loosen up and play with color. Sometimes I paint even faster--15-20 minutes for a 9x12" image, for instance. Sometimes I go larger than this and limit the time to an hour or less. Part of the reason I decided to do an hour or less at 9x9" was because I haven't experimented that much with a square format. It turned out that I made most of my compositional decisions in the photograph before painting, so I had ample time. I only ran into trouble once or twice, and that was due more to the fact that I didn't compose the photo well, or that I got into trouble with a paper I was unfamiliar with. Forgivable, as well as conquerable. Thanks for staying tuned!
This one is on a piece of mat board that a student of mine coated with pumice. You can see the strokes in the sky. I wiped out a painting, leaving a soft grayed-lavender color behind everything, which I think worked. I like the softness of the shadows. 
