Sue Flanagan’s Website

Thank goodness that the days are getting longer and the snow is melting! It is time for some plein air painting.

I have started a series of pastel paintings of a nearby field next to a bike path. I took several photos of the process. Since there was a lot of green in this summer scene, I did an underpainting with orange and red gouache. I used U Art paper for my support. You can see quite a bit of the underpainting in the first photo. The next two photos show the progression where I started to build up the soft pastel from the background to the foreground. The underpainting continues to show through even in the final painting. The fourth picture is the final painting which is 12 x 16 inches. Click on the image to enlarge.

The painting was hinged with tape to a backing board. Then it was framed with a gold wood frame using clear spacers between the glass and the painting.

I just finished taking a class in Photoshop Elements at the LaGrange Art League. Sarah Rehmer was the instructor. I took the class so that I could fine tune the photos of my art. However, I have found it to be another creative outlet. It is easy to spend hours playing with this program. It is a lot of fun but the learning curve is high-at least for me. Here are two examples of what I did.

The first piece is the result of creating shapes, filling the shapes and using the other tools to modify on a blank canvas. The second piece is from a photo the instructor gave us. This one included selecting, moving, resizing and then using filters to obtain the final image. It will be in the LaGrange Art League Student show. All of the students were to start with this same photo and create something from it using the skills we learned. I’m sure there will be a quite a variety!

Peace,
Sue Flanagan