Sue Flanagan’s Website

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers. I have a lot of paintings that I am working on or just completed. This is just a small pastel painting. It shows you how versatile soft pastels can be. Soft pastels can be manipulated with turpenoid, water, alcohol or blended dry. In this painting I put down pastel and sprayed water at it for the background. Then I painted the daisy on top. I added a little pastel to the background to change the value in places. I used Pastelbord for the surface.

I decided to go back to the thermophiles because of their abstract quality but this time I wanted to do it only in pastel. So, here is Thermophile 2, a 12 x 16 in. pastel on Wallis paper.

Thermophiles are found in Yellowstone National Park. The colors come from microorganisms that are heat tolerant. They grow in or near the extremely hot springs. There are also some minerals that add to the texture. Isn’t nature amazing?

Peace to all of you on this beautiful day.
Sue

There is a very nice bike path in Michigan. One day I was impressed by the light coming through the trees. I knew I would paint this. I had to work from a photo because I was not prepared to paint and the moment was fleeting. Thank goodness I had my camera. Here are my first stages of blocking in shapes with pastel on white Pastelbord.

I thought that I would just use a dry underpainting but then changed my mind and distributed the pastel with alcohol using a soft paint brush. Then I started to put down pastel when the alcohol was dry.

I added pastel over the entire surface gradually building up the detail. Here is the final painting of the Kal Haven Bike Path. It is a 16 x 20 in. pastel painting.

I have been busy in the studio when I should have been going outside to paint en plein air. We had a magnificent and early spring.

Take time to be creative every day.
Sue

I tried to do some plein air painting. The weather in our area has reached record warm temperatures and it has been sunny. Every thing bloomed early. So, I headed to the Morton Arboretum. Here is my set up and the scene I wanted to paint. The photos do not show how windy it was. I spent most of the time trying to hold the easel or umbrella and still paint. The top of the easel kept falling down with the painting. I gave it a good try but I do not have a painting worth showing.

This photo shows an area where the ground looked blue because of all of the flowers. So my day wasn’t wasted. I walked the paths, took photos and had a good lunch at the visitor’s center.

Here is a fun painting I did in the studio. The photo I used I took on the grounds of the Bunratty castle in Ireland. The painting is called Struttin My Stuff.

Next month I will have a painting in the Alliance of Fine Art, Best of the Best show. I will also have a couple of landscapes at the McCord Gallery and Cultural Center in Palos Park. I am looking forward to the Great Lakes Pastel convention in May. It will be held in Rapid City, Michigan. Two of my paintings will be shown in the Jack Richeson gallery in Kimberly, Wisconsin from April 16-June 8th.

Peace,
Sue

Several good things have happened. I was juried into the Richeson 75 International Competition of Seascapes, Landscapes and Architecture. The two seascapes in the Nov. 2011 blog were accepted into the online and Kimberly, WI. gallery exhibits. The landscape of the aspens in that blog was considered to be of merit and will be published in the gallery book. I was also juried into the Pastel Society of America as an associate member. Finally, I found out I will be the featured artist at the LaGrange Art League in August, 2013.

Well, I have been busy in the studio. It has been an ugly winter. So, I haven’t done any plein air painting. I continue to experiment with collage and pastel. Here is the result. I call the figure “Innocence.”

I put a pastel ground all over the acrylic paper. Then I sketched the figure and collaged papers around the face. The papers were mostly tissue paper that I stained with acrylic paint. Then I finished the face with pastel. After that painting, I worked on two florals. One is of a Bird of Paradise flower and I was totally free with the color. It was very liberating. Hence, it is called “Surrendered to Color.” The other one is of a Day Lily in partial shade.

I finished a couple of small landscapes and currently have a painting on the easel.
But, more of that later.
Sue

The first painting in my last post, “Pounding Surf of Oahu,” won the January theme award at the LaGrange Art League. It was perfect timing because the theme was “Pounding Surf.” These two pastel paintings were scenes at the same location on Oahu. It was literally at the end of the road. They look very different. I only turned about 90 degrees to the left to see the second image. It is interesting how the clouds can make a difference in the sea.

I continue to alternate between representional pastel painting to abstract collage paintings. This one I did because of family and friends who have gone through cancer treatment. It is called a “Patchwork of Hope.”

The zig zag stitch with some threads show how life can seem to unravel at times. The partial circles on the bottom right represent the cycles of therapy. However, my friend who has undergone breast cancer treatment felt they represented being surrounded by hope, freinds and family. The dove is a symbol of hope. This area of the painting is restful compared to some of the chaos around it. There is scripture about peace and hope imbedded throughout the painting.

With the new year I straightened up the studio, swept, dusted and vacumned. I finally finished a plein air painting that has been on the shelf for over a year. This is very early spring at the Morton Arboretum. It is a pastel painting on Pastelboard.

Well, I hope your year is off to a good start. Let’s hope for many creative days in 2012.
Sue

The beautiful island of Oahu, Hawaii, is my most recent inspiration for painting. I did two pastel paintings of the surf. This is a 16 x 20 in. pastel of waves that were crashing close to the shore. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the sun had a dramatic effect on the waves.

The second painting is entitled, “The End of the Road in Oahu.” We literally came to the end of the road on the south side of the island and this was the scene close to the rocks that we were standing on. There was a crew nearby filming a commercial.

I have also been inspired by another trip that I took. Last fall I went to Estes Park in Colorado. This was one of the scenes we saw while hiking. To be more accurate, this was my impression of what we saw.

The last two paintings were done on a hard board that I prepared using black gesso, pumice and water. I liked the surface.  I am currently trying Colourfix primer on boards and acrylic paper. However, I also like Wallis paper and Pastelboard.

Well, until next time, enjoy your travels and create something beautiful every day.
Sue

My recent inspiration came from sea shells. I could see through parts of the shells when the light hit at a certain angle. There are also many subtle colors and wonderful highlights. I had some sand in the garage so I put the sand on a cookie sheet and arranged the shells with a warm light on an angle to achieve a wonderful translucent effect. Here is a picture of the set up on a table. To the left I have tracing paper with my sketch of the basic shapes. On the right is a sheet of U-Art paper that has a purple gouache underpainting. I chose purple as the complement of essentially dull yellow in the set up. However, it was too purple so I put a paper towel over the wet underpainting and ran my fingers over it to lift up some of the pigment and hopefully cause swirls that you might see in sand on a shore.

Here is a picture of the sketch transferred to the paper when it was dry.

Then I started to apply the pastel working primarily from top to bottom and left to right. I used the tonal changes for the sand ridges.

Here is the final pastel painting. It is an 11 x 14 in. framed with a mat in a 16 x 20 in. natural wood frame.

I have not been plein air painting because of rain and wind with cold temperatures. Fall was far too short.
Peace,
Sue

The Chicago Pastel Painters National Show is currently displayed at the Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oakbrook Illinois. It will go to October 28th. The artist reception was on Thursday, September 22nd. This is a beautiful show and I am so pleased that I have two paintings in it. Here is a photo of part of the exhibit hall  The second photo is of me in the center with Judy Goral to the left and Annette Schaeffer to the right. Annette is one of my students, a very creative and talented lady. I know Judy from many artistic endeavors including the Chicago Plein Air Painters-SW group and the LaGrange Art League.

We are standing by one of my pastel paintings, the Grand Geyser. The other is Stellwagen Farm Winter.

The evening was a lot of fun. I saw some of my plein air painting friends including Rita Rogan who is becoming famous for nocturnes or paintings of night time scenes. There was a great variety in this show which made it very interesting.

Currently in the studio I have finished a couple of collage paintings for an upcoming show of the Midwest Collage Society. I have not quite finished a pastel of birch trees in the fall-more on that later. Here are the 8 x 8 collage paintings on gallery wrapped canvases. They were created on the theme of peace.

The last piece that I have done lately is called “Unity”. It was an experiment trying for a faux encaustic look using acrylic media. ”Unity” is on an 8 x 8 in. panel.

I just love to experiment and there are so many art materials to try! I hope to get outside to enjoy the beautiful fall colors. Peace to all of you.
Sue

I recently finished a mixed media painting that combines what I love to do in art and where I am spiritually. This painting is called Penitent. The physical therapist in me loves how posture and movement can express so much. The figure’s pose speaks volumes. The figure is all pastel but it does have a tissue paper base for the clothing. Acrylic paper was prepared with gesso, acrylic paint and pastels. I also used an image transfer for the scripture and crackle paste with more pastel for the ground. So I combined mixed media with my love for drawing and pastels.

I was recently in Michigan and had an opportunity for plein air painting. The weekend fluctuated from a high of 95 degrees to a high of 68 with rain and wind at times. I discovered Wau-Ke-Na preserves near a small town called Glen. I have to admit that for the first time I got lost in the heat. I went back the next day when it was very pleasant and I was more careful. I did two paintings in two different locations. Here are the photos of the locations and set up and one of the paintings. Click on the photos to make it larger. I will definitely go back to this location. It is beautiful.

Good news. I won the theme award at the LaGrange Art League this month. The painting is the Irish Lighthouse and the theme was Blue Skies. That’s all for now. Do something creative every day!
Sue Flanagan

I received good news yesterday. Two of my paintings were accepted in the Chicago Pastel Painters National show. Look in the Landscape gallery for Stellwagen Farm Winter and Grand Geyser. The show will be at the Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook from September 12th to October 28th. I finally finished up some paintings that have been sitting around. “Ireland Lighthouse” is actually a painting that I started 10 years ago! I put it away and every once in awhile I thought about throwing it out or reworking it. I changed all but the sky. I took a brush and Gamsol to the rest of it and then applied pastel. I tried to simplify. I also took scissors to it to crop it. Here is the result.

The next project was this landscape that I had started but only got as far as the underpainting in watercolor. Here is “Cloudy Oregon Sunset.”

I totally wiped out a painting of a Japanese garden on a pastelboard. Then I did this painting of a different kind of garden.

Finally, I used Colourfix pastel ground, tissue paper and acrylic media on acrylic paper. Pastel is the only pigment in this painting called “Unrestrained Joy.”

Well, until next time, happy painting!
Sue