"It Happened One Summer" by Dianne Lorden

I just finished this pastel from a photo I took on the 4th of July. My husband had lined up the slices and it looked so cool, I had to grab a camera. Our actual counter top is - red! But I thought that might be too much, or be distracting. So I used instead the wood on a different counter for the painting. It's done on Sennellier La Carte sanded pastel paper, which I honestly don't care for. It seems really coarse and does not hold my Terry Ludwigs at all. I've read many reviews and other pastelists seem to like it a lot. Very weird. But I have a tablet and will try to use it up. 

I will be taking this to the gallery this weekend: The Drawing Room Gallery, LLC, in Gettysburg. 

My fine art website is www.southmountainsketchbook.weebly.com

"In This Together" by Dianne Lorden

This pastel is done on a textured Tiziano paper; I do prefer the sanded to this, but I used color shapers on a lot of it and the sand wears them down. Based on a photo I took of re-enactors.
My fine art can be viewed at South Mountain Sketchbook

Blue in the Garden

Pastel by Dianne Galanti Lorden
Sold at the Gettysburg Festival plein air Quick Draw

Here is what I did that day, in the rain, having taken shelter on the porch of the Alumni House on the Gettysburg College campus. This garden was so sweet and pretty, it looked "paintable" even under the circumstances and I actually liked the wet look of the stone and the reflections. Also had fun trying to put raindrops in the bird bath! Of course, two hours goes by fast. But the charming lady to whom the garden had been dedicated, Jean LeGros, saw it before it was even done and purchased it on the spot. Fastest sale I've ever made! Thanks to Jean and to Megan Weikel for their support in that event.
View my work at South Mountain Sketchbook

Girl Pulling a Cart

Just completed studio pastel, done on sanded surface. I took this photo last autumn at Mt. Vernon, and changed the background to something more in line with what I was imagining. (The actual background has a lovely view of the river, but I felt that would be distracting and not the feeling I was trying to express.)
This painting will be for sale at The Drawing Room Gallery, Gettysburg, Pa.
My fine art website is: South Mountain Sketchbook.

View from Devil's Den

I finished this pastel over the weekend. It's done on toothed paper, which I'm trying to appreciate as a pastel surface. I like the textured papers much better, but I have a lot of this and would like to find a way to work with it. For this one, I employed the use of color-shapers in some areas. (I took this photo a few years ago on just a perfect day; the painting really doesn't do the view, or the day, justice.)
My fine art website: South Mountain Sketchbook

Triangular Field in Pastel 1 by Dianne Lorden

This Gettysburg National Military Park location holds personal interest for me, so I've photographed it many times, from many angles. It's a large area known as the Triangular Field; here's a view of the entrance from "behind" the Devil's Den upper road. It's done from a photo I took on one of my endless tramps among the park lands.
My fine art website is: South Mountain Sketchbook

Pastel on velour paper

Yikes!! A student of mine gave me a piece of "velour" surfaced paper to try out. She said she didn't like it and wanted my opinion of how it works. It was so different from the sanded surfaces I use, I can't even form an opinion. I found this surface lost more pigment than it retained unless I really rubbed it in hard. Yet, the conventional wisdom on this paper is that the fibers hold a lot of pastel. So, I guess there's a technique out there I need to figure out. My rubbing made for an irritatingly soft treatment, which I could live with as an under-painting, but since I can't add any definition (because the paper doesn't take much pastel) I can't really "finish" it.
Clearly I'm doing something wrong ... anyone with experience on this paper?

Sach's Covered Bridge by Dianne Lorden

Lately I've been trying different supports from my usual choices. This is Gator Board, a very lightweight sanded surface; this one was a sort a brickish-colored brown. There are some areas of this pastel (done from a photo I took while painting en plein air last fall) that I am happy with - like the trees. Odd, as I usually hate the trees. But, here, I'm not happy with the water or the bridge. The wall is so-so.
Honestly, I've pastelled this bridge a have dozen times and I'm always disappointed. Guess I'll keep trying.
My fine art website is: South Mountain Sketchbook

Eagle On Buffalo Hide Drum by Dianne Lorden

Hello Daily Painters - for months, my artistic endeavors have been associated with my shamanic practice and have all been wood-burned gourds made into shaman rattles. So, while this painted drum is still from that part of my life, it is at least a painting, so thought I'd post it. A nice change for me! Acrylics on buffalo hide.
More information can be found at Shamanic Art. My fine art website is South Mountain Sketchbook.

Sunset Beach by Dianne Lorden

Hello everyone! I spent the earlier part of the month visiting family in Florida and did have one chance to do a little beach plein air in pastel - this is Sunset Beach on the Gulf of Mexico, Tarpon Springs. Great way to spend an October afternoon! 
My fine art website is South Mountain Sketchbook

Recent Plein Air outings by Dianne Lorden

These are two plein air pastels from this week; the top one is from Larry Lerew's lovely property and the other, much less complete, is from a cool morning on the GNMP. There, we visited the Slyder Farm; farmhouse was being worked on. But the outbuildings are plentiful and offer many textures and angles. A lovely site, but I think I was too chilled to finish up. The surrounding landscape was beautiful, too, showing autumn in the hills. My website: South Mountain Sketchbook

Peter Frey farm plein air by Dianne Lorden

This pastel is of the Peter Frey farm, along the Taneytown Rd., GNMP. It was the rental home of Basil Biggs during the time of the Battle of Gettysburg. Mr. Biggs, a free black man and borough resident, subcontracted to assist in the job of removing the dead from the battlefield and re-burying them at the new Soldiers National Cemetery. The stone home remains, although with an addition. The barn that was there then is not the barn building that's there today. Enough for history!
I somehow muffed my quick sketch and the buildings are "off" in their perspective. Also, had trouble with the barn reds. It was a beastly hot day -- nothing like the lovely breezy, invigorating days I imagine when, in the dead of winter, I dream of working en plein air. I was wilted and soaking wet. And kinda buggy. Too much info?
My fine art website is South Mountain Sketchbook.

Art at the Winery I & II by Dianne Lorden

Hello everyone - I've been having the weirdest time trying to post for several weeks now. I'll bet the blogger made techy updates to the platform and my OS is sort of out of date. Hope this looks OK when it goes live! I spent all day Saturday at the Hauser Estate Winery doing plein air (and sampling hard ciders and gadding about in general). I was there as part of an Adams County Arts Council annual event called Art at the Winery. It was hot but a great day. Above are two plein air: the top one, "Feeling Casual," which features my husband reading his newspaper on Hauser's lovely deck, is done on toothed paper (Fabriano Tiziano); and the bottom one, of the familiar view down the hill of the "Historic Round Barn," is done on Colorfix sanded pastel paper. 

My fine art website is South Mountain Sketchbook and my CafePress site is www.cafepress.com/diannelordenfineart 

Lake Mohawk Pastel by Dianne Lorden

Hi folks - I've been working in my home studio, as well as "plein airing" in our area. This is one I prepared for a planned Intro to Soft Pastels class I'll be instruction, upcoming with ACAC. It was done exclusively with mark making; zero blending on the paper. Also, used my new Terry Ludwig plein air set to do it, and it's so funny -- when I first opened that set, I thought: my gosh, where's all the color! (My Sennelier plein air set would knock your socks off, it's so vibrant.) I think I was disappointed, but once I began working with these new pastels, I was impressed with how much more natural they are and how easy it was to select exactly the hue and tone I was looking for. They are pleasantly muted and very, very nice.

My fine art website is: South Mountain Sketchbook. My (in the works) CafePress shop is www.cafepress.com/diannelordenfineart

Back to Nature by Dianne Lorden

I started this plein air of the pond, at the site of the former Gettysburg Country Club’s golf course, two weeks ago. (The title reflects the fact that this was once well manicured and maintained, as a golf course feature, but has acquired a wonderful look of natural abandon. The property is now part of the Gettysburg National Military Park.) It took me several days to be able to go back in the morning, and the light was entirely different that day, anyway, so my efforts weren’t as helpful as I’d hoped for. I was amazed at how changeable the surface of the water was — every time I looked up from my paper it was different! That’s exciting and challenging. The technique I used for the water is one I will be teaching in my September "Intro to Soft Pastels" class at the ACAC. So this is actually one of the pieces I’ll bring with me, as a visual aid, when I tape the Arts Council’s cable access TV show “You Gotta Have Art.” The show promotes upcoming classes and showcases various instructors. I’m taping tomorrow and will let you know when it will air.

View my fine art: South Mountain Sketchbook

egg tempera underpainting

I've been busier at work than my lack of recent posts suggests. But here's what I'm currently experimenting with. I used to work in egg tempera underpaintings (for oils) and just whipped up my first batch in many years, having discovered my old "potters pigments." There are many recipes for egg tempera -- mine consists of egg yolk, damar varnish, refined linseed oil and water. This is mixed with dry color or powdered pigments and is generally used for underpaintings. My training for portraits called for highlights in white and shadows in terre verde. I did find that the titanium white had granulated a bit, which surprised me. I had to re-grind it in a morter and pestle to get result with the same smooth quality I recall (and actually, I think it does need further grinding). The green was fine. So, I'll likely sand the underpainting a tad, when fully dry, to remove some of the granular effect, before applying glazes in oil.
Oh, and this is a picture of my grand-daughter Molly with her American Girl Molly doll. I thought a "double portrait", so to speak, would be a good exercise!
Keep you posted!
My fine art website is South Mountain Sketchbook.

A Get Well Card

A past client of mine, who enjoys ordering Octapus images and for whom I have made a previous original card and a crafted gourd, asked for a get well card that features octapus art on the front. This handsome fellow (gal?) is the result. It's inktense watercolor pencils and prismacolor colored pencil. The inside reads "Somebody needs a hug."
My artwork can be viewed at South Mountain Sketchbook.

The Twin Sycamores by Dianne Lorden

One of the plein air pastels I created during the Gettysburg Festival - not for the paint out, but for a fringe event called Art in the Street - was the historic Twin Sycamores building on the corner of Baltimore and Lefever streets, Gettysburg. Dear friends kindly sponsored us with their front porch/sidewalk area for working, and John Bardi enhanced my space with music. We all had a great time that day -- ending with pizza and friends.
My fine art website is South Mountain Sketchbook

Barn at Farm by the Ford - Dianne Lorden

I have been doing a seriously bad job of photographing my plein air paintings from this week's Gettysburg Festival Paint Out. I've been totally forgetting to take pictures before framing them! Yikes. But here is one that I did photograph - a view of the historic barn at the Farm by the Ford. This is the amazing property of Gabor and Liz Borrit, who were so gracious as to allow the paint-out crew to spend Sunday on their property. I started a watercolor there, as well, but have not finished it. This barn was, naturally, a Civil War field hospital.
My fine art website is South Mountain Sketchbook

Red Brick Walk by Dianne Lorden

I’d posted the unfinished version of this one a few weeks ago. Cecelia said she kinda liked it the way it was, and I did too. So, while I still felt obliged to complete the plan, I was careful not to overdo the rest, hopefully.

I’m so fond of these Old World street scenes: first, they rather transport me. But also, my dad once did an oil painting of something similar — I don’t even know what country it was, but I do recall there was a donkey — and it was something I really liked as a child. So, working on these scenes always remind me of him and his talent. This is a pastel on toothed paper.
View my artwork at South Mountain Sketchbook